Jose Enrique loving life on Tyneside.
Posted on March 19th, 2010 | 84 Comments |
Looking back at the summer it would have been quite easy for Enrique to slope off back to Spain. He didn’t, and now Newcastle United are reaping the benefit of the Spaniard’s pace and link up play on the left side of the pitch. Enrique is only 24 years old still and somethimes that fact can be overlooked. Yes, he is good now but he still has time on his side and can get better still, and it appears Enrique feels so at home in Newcastle that he will be looking to stay for a long time.
“I’m so happy I decided to stay at Newcastle in the summer” Enrique said.
“I know we are only in the Championship, but I love the city and the club. All the foreign players hate the weather here, but it’s not just Newcastle, it’s England. I’m really settled here and I have no desire to go back to Spain. I’m happy at Newcastle, in England and in this team.”
It’s remakable how someone can feel so settled in such a short length of time. The three years he has been here could be described as ‘not the smoothest’ and you could easily understand if the former Villareal player decided to upsticks and move away, especially after seeing some of the protests, the ill-feeling, the relegation, and also having worked under no less than five different managers. Not bad in three years!
Relegation is something Jose is keen to put right, with our squad last season being arguably the most talented squad to ever drop out of the Premier League. The team have turned it around this season and now look odds on for promotion straight back to the big time after lot’s of hard-work and grit this time around, something Enrique admits he is scared of giving up:
“We do think about next season and being back up there, but you never know what will happen in football. It is still very difficult for us, there are a lot of games still to play.”
“We are driven on by the fear of messing things up. We don’t want to do that, it would be very hard to miss out on promotion now.”
It’s hard to imagine us missing out on promotion now although nothing is over until it’s mathematically certain. It also seems again that man at the helm, Chris Hughton, has turned a poisoned dressing room around into one that acts like a team, plays like a team and, most importantly, get on with each other.
Keep it up Jose!
Well done, Toonsy! You definately seem to be getting the hang of things now.