Big Jack is still in love with the Toon.

Byline: By John Gibson 

Big Jack smiled broadly and lolled back in his chair fiddling with his mug of coffee. We were sitting in the kitchen at Cairn Lodge, where he lives in a countryside he adores, and he was in good fettle.

"You know," he said looking up, "you could have the best 11 players in the world and the best manager but every Newcastle United fan would find at least one person they really disliked."

Jack Charlton, a man who knows his own area, nods again. "Yeah," he said. "That's the way it is at the park."

I'd gone to see Jack to talk about next season when all three North East clubs are in the Premiership. He managed two of them ( Newcastle and Middlesbrough ( and his old Republic of Ireland skipper Mick McCarthy runs the third Sunderland.

So it seemed obvious to seek the views of a man who not only won the World Cup on behalf of his country but the adulation of southern Irishmen everywhere, a blunt Northumbrian whose frankness often could be withering to an unsuspecting listener.

Throughout our conversation he refers to United as "we" and feels as a fan himself he can talk candidly about the crowd, one which back in the '80s after only a year as Toon boss vented enough criticism to trigger an immediate resignation from an angry Charlton.

"I say `we' because I've always been a Newcastle supporter wherever I've gone and whoever I've managed or played for," explained Jack. "Me and wor kid used to go to St James' Park and get passed over the head of supporters on the popular side. We went to watch Wor Jackie. It was family business.

"And just because I resigned doesn't mean I no longer love the club. They are the only team I ever watch when I end up on my feet yelling. With literally everyone else I sit and enjoy the game."

That out of the way as a means of explanation, Charlton turned to the current United and their new manager Graeme Souness. It was Big Jack who nurtured a budding playing talent at Boro and turned Souness into the country's foremost holding midfielder who went on to win the European Cup at Liverpool.

"Of course Newcastle's a tough job," insisted Charlton. "You have 50,000 Geordies packing the ground every home game and they are jumpy because a trophy hasn't been won for donkey's years. They become worried and angry and they can let you know it.

"They have their strong opinions and voice them. But the fact of the matter is that they've got to get off the manager's back and support him if anything is ever going to be won. It's the only way.

"Souness took over last season four games in and couldn't manufacture his own side. He had to operate by getting the best out of what he had. Football has letterboxs now ( transfer windows ( and the only one long enough to buy and sell is this summer. Graeme has to do that now, create his own team, and take it into a new campaign. The time to judge him is the end of the coming season. That's when he should live or die.

"Newcastle have had their family troubles ( players not behaving and the like ( and everyone has got restless. The fans want to see a stable team in which there are 10 players they like and the obligatory one they don't but at the moment they probably have only six who are accepted.

"As for players getting into trouble, it must be remembered that these are young men. Yes, they are extremely well paid but everyone should cast their minds back to when they were in their 20s. Didn't they like a drink with their mates? I know I did at Leeds.

"The trouble is that now footballers live in a goldfish bowl. I'll guarantee that every pub and club on the Quayside has at least one person working for them who gives the nationals a ring every time a celebrity walks in. That's not fair to the players nor the public who are stoked up by the stories.

"Nevertheless, I smile when I hear that a Newcastle player has flown to London to go to a club and is back up here for training the next day. I never ever thought of doing that.

"Yet I considered myself well paid. My wage jumped from 20 quid to 60 quid at Leeds and then by the time I finished I was on pounds 350 a week. However, I could get a house built from scratch for five grand and I did."

What of Souness the man? He has a reputation for toughness, which was a characteristic of Big Jack on his managerial sojourns, but can he see a way through the blinding spotlight to achieve what United fans want but don't believe they are about to get? Jack nods his understanding.

"Aye, finishing 14th was a huge disappointment, I know, but I expect that to be improved upon. What is critical is by how many places.

"I got to know Graeme very well at Boro. We spoke a lot about football, about what I wanted him to do and why. He was a left-back when I first saw him but he wasn't quick enough to run the flanks. What I needed was a central holding midfield player alongside Alan Foggon and Souness filled that space. He was very solid, a tackler, and a good passer.

"Foggon couldn't tackle a paper bag but as our midfield runner the whole team functioned around him. The pair welded beautifully and we won the Second Division championship by a country mile.

"Graeme has always been a bright lad, a thinker. He wasn't afraid to make a comment and if what you told him didn't suit you'd know it by the look on his face. His eyes would roll up to the sky.

"I honestly can't recall having a row with Souness. We didn't always agree but we got on.

"However, I won't compare him and myself as managers, tough or not. We both have our own ways and it's up to him to get what he wants at Newcastle. He's paid to do that."

Charlton admits that his world and the one in which Souness now resides and operates are two very differing places.

"Football has changed enormously since my day," admitted Jack. "Both financially and playing-wise. It's gone crackers.

"Where once the success of a club depended on how shrewd the manager was tactically and wheeling and dealing in the transfer market, now cash decides who has a chance of winning the championship. Only Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United have at present. Newcastle haven't a prayer despite pulling in full houses and neither have the rest. They are playing for the minor European positions.

"Roman Abramovich has changed the face of the game. And a Yank, Malcolm Glazer, might do something similar at Man U.

"Newcastle have a fairly large overdraft and are still on a different financial planet to the really big boys. Mind you, I'd be frightened to death if I had a player on pounds 67,000 a week like Patrick Kluivert and he only played part-time!

"My one season at St James' Park must have been Newcastle's best ever financial year because I spent next to nowt. I was told I couldn't have any money, only what I generated myself. It isn't like that for Souness and for those who went before him, despite the fact that United aren't a Chelsea.

"The trouble is that cash has decided the pecking order. We could all sit down now, pick the top three, name those chasing the last Champions League and UEFA Cup places, name the middle of the road teams, those who will flirt with relegation, and those who will go down. And we wouldn't be far wrong at the season's end. Things are now predictable whereas when I played several teams were capable of winning the championship.

"Unless Newcastle find a billionaire ex-miner lurking in deepest Northumberland they will be unable to break into the top three again!

"It would be nice to think that one club will put together a team without huge money and weld it into a successful fighting force but we know it won't happen."

Turning to the changes on the field of play, Big Jack insisted: "It's all different. Now Newcastle, like others, are an obsessive passing team. How often is the ball passed along the back four, then into midfield where the players are facing their own goal, and back again? It's as though everyone is afraid to be the one who gives the ball away.

"Over-elaborate passing isn't geared to get the best out of Alan Shearer. He likes to run the channels, have the ball played up to him, knock it back into midfield for it to go wide. When it's whipped over into the box he's on the end of it finishing. Shearer has made a career out of doing that extremely effectively. Having to adjust and readjust his position with the ball never coming negates his biggest strength.

"I think it's the influx of foreign players that has led to the English game changing because our strengths have been lost.

"When I played, the priority of the two centre-backs was to defend. If there was danger, get rid. But now central defenders want to play ( and play in dangerous areas.

"Look at Andy O'Brien. He was a decent enough defender for Newcastle and the Republic when he did his job nice and simple. But he, too, was tempted to play and couldn't. I remember watching him last season when he tried to play the ball, it bounced off his foot, and a forward latched on to it to score. The fans never forgave him for that and he's had to be sold to Portsmouth.

"Titus Bramble is another who wants to play on the edge of his own box. That's criminal. Defending is the priority but the number of times Newcastle conceded goals from crosses last season as well as straightforward mistakes was amazing.

"United are always capable of beating anyone, including Chelsea and Arsenal, on their day at home but the inability to defend properly ( to close out a game ( resulted in only two away victories in the league last season. That isn't good enough and must be improved."

Jack had long since left his armchair and organised tactics with the help of our coffee cups on the table. He still smells the game and adores it, whatever has happened. And his love of Newcastle shines through as totally genuine even if he once chucked his ultimate job because terrace voices challenged his authority.

He sees me out to my car as I depart, armed with a large trout that Jack had cleaned just that morning. He regularly gives away those surplus to requirements in the Charlton household.

If fishing, always a recognised love, dominates in retirement then football remains coursing through the blood. It only takes an enquiring voice to unleash a wealth of experience.