Naughty boy! Kicking Dennis Wise in the chest.

Posted on November 17th, 2009 | 49 Comments |

Modest Dave.
Modest Dave.
Well after Worky posting that wonderful photo of one of my all time favourite players, I felt we couldn’t leave it at that. So, being a little indulgent, I wanted to share with you my reminiscences of a great Newcastle United footballer (and gorgeous guy), one of the best exports to make it out of France: David Ginola.

David joined Newcastle in 1995 in a £2.5 million move from Paris St Germain. He had been voted the French Player of the Year, and the French Players, Player of the year in 1994 (probably before they were booted out of the World Cup). By all accounts, he must have been happy to arrive in old Angleterre after being made a scapegoat for the French team missing out on a place in that year’s World Cup Finals. With France carefully playing out a 1-1 draw against Bulgaria, knowing they only needed a point to take them to the finals, they brought on Daveed as a late substitute, and yes, you guessed it, he tried an overly flamboyant pass to Cantona, which was intercepted, Bulgaria scored, and Les Bleus were going no where. National outrage followed and David decided in the circumstances he would scarper overseas.

His instant charm, good looks (I do sound superficial I know), and fabulous skills meant he was a big hit right away with the Geordie public. Well we know a good footballer when we see one and he was it. A skilful winger who joined Kevin Keegan’s Entertainers and brought some further panache to the swash buckling team. Who can forget his goal against Manure in the 5-0 drubbing they received?

Despite the adultaion, playing in the most exciting team in the premiership and winning the ‘Haircut of the Year’ award (I kid you not), he took one look at the dour Dalglish who made it plain he was not his kind of player, and followed Keegan out the door. So after 75 league and cup appearances and 7 goals, his path took him down the M1 with Sir Les Ferdinand, where he joined Spurs in a £2million deal. Meanwhile, the famous hair was to gain more attention with a contract for L’Oreal (because I’m worth it), and he frequently appeared on screens up and down the country.

After initially excelling at Spurs, his future was put in doubt when George ‘no nonsense’ Graham took over and it was clear that George Graham’s obsession with industry and endeavour, while Ginola’s focus on flair, where never going to be happy bed partners. After winning both the PFA and Football Writers award, poor old Daveed failed to win a place in the French World Cup squad in ’98, and, despite receiving Johan Cruyff’s endorsement that he thought Ginola was the best player in the world at the time he found himself being sold for £3 million to Villa in July 2000.

Ginola was not a happy bunny and blamed Graham in the press for selling him. His time at Villa seemed to be very hit and miss as he was upset at lack of first team action, being played out of position, and to top it all devastated to the point of taking legal action against comments made about his physique by then manager, John Gregory (who was probably jealous!).

Cherie Blair was ready to represent him, allegedly, and the PFA gave him their backing. Well, they cleared the air, but in December he was sent off for kicking Dennis Wise in the chest (good judge of character). Early the following year he left Villa and joined the Toffees at Everton just before boss Walter Smith left. However his tenure was short as he made only one appearance for David Moyes and Ginola decided to take off his footballing boots for good and retire.

Since then he has appeared on the big and little screen in various acting roles, and won a medal for a rose wine produced in his vineyard in the South of France. He was also appointed to take up the work that Diana, Princess of Wales had started with the Red Cross landmine campaign.

He often still pops up in the media and was said to be very upset that Newcastle had been relegated and even offered his services to come back and help bring the team back to the premiership.

A great player and what we would give to have someone of his calibre playing for us today.

NUFCBlog Author: geordie deb geordie deb has written 38 articles on this blog.

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49 Responses

  1. Deb,
    An oustanding player.
    Who can ever forget the night we beat the “Smoggies” 1 – 0 in 1995 when Daveed turned Neil Cox blood…………..topped off with a great cross that Sir Les buried with his napper.
    I am often asked “Who is the best footballer you have seen in a black n white shirt” ?
    1) For consistency Pedro
    2) For pure skill Daveed
    Both of which are true greats, the likes of which I fear we will not see for a very long time.

  2. this site is becoming a joke,to many cooks springs to mind,if this site is ya flavour,well enjoy.

  3. hitman

    ‘this site is becoming a joke,to many cooks springs to mind,if this site is ya flavour,well enjoy.’

    Please elaborate further

  4. It’s just been the international break and NUFC are doing nothing you miserable bugger. It’s good (and all we can do sometimes) to look back on former glories. It still amazes me it was only 5-6 seasons ago we were third in the Premiership…

  5. andy each to there own,deb didnt put this thread up to give us the low down on ginola,she just wanted the pic up.we all know the ginola story dont we.

  6. Hitman

    No, I didn’t pick the photo, Worky or Bowburn did. I just wrote the text. Bah humbug.

    Ventura and Andy NUFC as we haven’t got anyone, or are likely to attract anyone with a modicom of the skills of some of our former players, I agree it is good to look back on former glories.

  7. Hitman
    As much as I like looking at photos of Ginola, he is really one of my favourite players so I wrote about him, like Supermac was another favourite so I wrote about him also, not that I like looking at his mugshot.

  8. great player i only wish i could remember him and the likes off asprilla,albert, beresford, lee, and ferdinand better aswell as appreciated it more at the time

  9. bbm couldnt of picked the pic coz hes at the ressies match,so that only leaves worky,aaaaaaahhhhhhh.

  10. summer of 69
    They were great weren’t they? I love getting the old videos and DVDs out and watching them. What we would give to have one or two of them in our team at the minute. Remember Asprilla and the hat trick against Barcelona and his rubbery legs? Completely unique but keegan got quite a bit of stick from various people for signing him.

  11. Warwick- The ressies won 3-2. Trialist Pancrate got an assist. The few times he’s mentioned in the highlights it sounds like he had a pretty decent game. However, the highlights are coming from .co.uk…and i dont think they’ll come out and claim he was crap,lol

  12. was at the res match, left at half time like, was nowt special and had enough of the pubescent screeching from the little plebs all around me!! (love kids really ohh errr)
    the half its self was ok, was 1-1 at half time, an own goal and lovenkrands equaliser, the lad on trial was again, ok, pacey, direct, came inside a couple of times and had a couple of shots, but its hard to tell with so little time!! but overall, i didnt see nothing to special there, but what do i know! Donaldson and lua lua looked very assured on the ball but everyone else there wasn’t much to write home about!

  13. ummer of 69
    They were great weren’t they? I love getting the old videos and DVDs out and watching them. What we would give to have one or two of them in our team at the minute. Remember Asprilla and the hat trick against Barcelona and his rubbery legs? Completely unique but keegan got quite a bit of stick from various people for signing him

    yeah i was quite young at the time so i dont remember and probably wasnt asware about the stick he got for it but i love watching espn when we are on just so i can get a flavour of what it was like how can i forget tino i think he was brilliant looking back at the old vids and would definately get in the current team with ease ………………if only we could have that now  

  14. anyway im actually quite dissapointed in myself as i was reading andy dunns article in notw who had a bit of a pop at us for being nostalgic i swore to myself i wouldnt do it but i just have d’oh

  15. Summer of 69

    Like Liverpool, Leeds etc don’t reminisce about their past glories, yet we always get the stick LOl

  16. this site is becoming a proper joke like. last time i checked it wasnt nufcblogforgirlsandqueers.org.  get rid of the smut lads its looking more like a gay porn site at the moment.

  17. nice bit of nostalgia deb, good follow on to the mention in yesterdays thread, for all the whining, we got 2 weeks with little happening so why not share some fond memories, if it’s not for you don’t read it
    for all he did for us (in the short time he was here – didn’t realise he only played 75 league games in black & white!) thers always time for Ginola!!
    8)

  18. Like Liverpool, Leeds etc don’t reminisce about their past glories, yet we always get the stick LOl yeah but what got me was that there was no need for it he was alos quite stupid in what he said aswell
    THE continuing outrage over David Ngog’s dive last Monday leaves me cold.
     
    Football is full to bursting with cheats. Who cares about another one?
     
    Cheating has become as integral a part of football as the offside law, a pre-match pie and a pint, an England penalty shoot-out defeat, a Fergie rant, a gimmicky new strip, a nostalgic Newcastle fan (although not sure what there is to be nostalgic about)

    what do you mean your not sure we have anything to be nostalgic about a few years ago we were in the champions league now were in the championship

  19. I am often asked “Who is the best footballer you have seen in a black n white shirt” ?
    1) For consistency Pedro
    2) For pure skill Daveed….

    Rather than Daveed, does Tony Green not spring to mind?  A winger of silky skills who’s Newcastle career was cruelly curtailed by a serious knee injury.

  20. To all the people moaning about the site, you are free to leave at any point. I’ll personally refund your membership fees. Let me know where to send it.

  21. lesh – I did an article on Tony Green for the Blackpool game. My dad’s all-time favourite, just pipping SuperMac and Wyn Davies.

    hitman – I think we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that some of the younger fans don’t always know the history through anecdotes and just see facts and figures. And irrespective of that, I think it’s canny sometimes to look back and reminisce? That’s what we always aimed for here, not just regurgitating rumours and speculation for us to comment on, or topical subjects. We wanted a mixed bag.

    We maybe need a quota on the number of naked gadgies that appear though? I have no issue with it generally, but like that lass once sang, “We don’t have to take our clothes off, to have a good time”.

  22. hitman & lauren32  , wind your necks in !! – deb , a nice piece on wor davey boy. though i could imagine your nickers were drenched whilst writing it ! why not try beardsley next time it’ll save you a lot of hassle.x

  23. Danny Boy

    Sounds like someone putting 2+2 together and coming up with 30 regarding Souness buying a club. Absolute non starter

  24. Yes was just about to comment he has such a way with words LOL.
    Does Roy become a cropper tonight

  25. he went in on monday but tony saves him and hands himself into the police after soz for spoiling it for any 1 :lol:

  26. BBM… thanks for the Tony Green link.

    If memory serves correctly, this was typical Joe Harvey theatre…. Tony Green and Malcolm Macdonald signed same day or within days at £140k and £180k each.

    Oh happy days… mmmmmm

  27. Deb
    Re 31#
    Was that meant to be complimentary ?
    Yeah, you got it right, he sure does have a way with words.

  28. Chuck
    I’m not sure it was supposed to be, but I tend to ignore those sort of comments anyway

  29. geordie deb – it’s a compliment , like i stated your article is a nice piece.

    yours sincerely

    royston

    Ta – Ra chuck