Carving Out A New Role

On Tuesday morning, John Carver was unveiled as the new assistant manager of Newcastle United. He's not new to the club - he's been a fan, a youth team player, a coach and manager at various age groups, Academy Director, First-Team Coach, assistant manager under Sir Bobby Robson and even caretaker for one game, a 3-0 win over Blackburn in 2004. But it's a new start for the Geordie, who celebrated his 46th birthday on Sunday.

Since leaving St. James' nearly seven years ago, 'JC' has been at Leeds United, Toronto FC in the MLS, Plymouth Argyle and most recently, Sheffield United, where he worked alongside former Magpies midfielder Gary Speed. When Speed took the Wales job last month, he took temporary charge of The Blades, but left the club following the appointment of Micky Adams.

So the opportunity to become number two with his beloved black and whites was one he jumped at, as he told Dan King in his first interview since his appointment on an initial contract until the end of the season.

You've just had your first training session with the team this morning - how did it go?
It was good; I wanted to get stuck into things straight away. It's a little bit difficult because there's that many things going on first thing in the morning on your first day.
But I wanted to get my hands dirty, get out there and get in amongst the lads and for them to get to know me and for me to get to know them. And I think it worked. I really enjoyed it and I think they did too.

It must have been a whirlwind few hours for you. Yesterday evening you were driving up from Sheffield, this morning you were out on the training pitch with the players...
I can't remember the last time I had so much to do in such a short space of time - sorting out contracts with Sheffield United, sorting out the contract here, and the biggest thing was packing. I've never packed so much in all my life as I have over the last 18 months.
Hopefully it'll settle down a little bit now. It's been fast and furious, but you have to just deal with it.
And I must say Sheffield United have been absolutely fantastic. The whole football club from Mr (Kevin) McCabe, the chairman, to the chief executive, Trevor Birch, were brilliant in everything. They didn't make it difficult for me.
I have to say I was very, very disappointed to have to leave the club because they were great to me, the fans were fantastic as was everybody behind the scenes. We had a great staff, everything was right about it.
But when a new manager comes in, sometimes you can work with them and sometimes you can't. I went there for Gary Speed and I didn't go there for Micky Adams. So it was right that I walked away from the situation and it's funny how things have worked out.

And it has worked out rather well for you, hasn't it?
It's been amazing. To be honest, I didn't even know anything about this. I knew there was a job available, but there was no contact made between the two clubs so it wasn't as if I was walking away from one situation to get a job at another club.
That wasn't the case. I was walking away from Sheffield United because I wanted to work with Gary Speed - and I was going to work with Gary Speed with the Welsh team - but I didn't want to be part of the new regime coming in.

So what does it mean to you to be back at Newcastle, a club you've already served so well and grew up supporting?
It's an amazing feeling and it's quite hard to put into words. Driving though the main entrance this morning was one of the nicest feelings ever because when I left here, it was really disappointing.
It was the most disappointing thing I've experienced, even more so than having to finish playing with an early injury. That was disappointing but leaving the football club in the position we were in at the time we left was the most disappointing feeling I've ever known.
But having said that, it's reversed it now because I've came through the gates again as Assistant Manager and I'm looking forward to this huge challenge.

Is there a sense of unfinished business, given that you've been here before as assistant manager and as a young player?
Not really, I've got to be honest. It's a new start, a fresh start. There's new people in charge and a new manager.
There are a lot of old staff who were here when I was at the club previously who are all good lads, and a great atmosphere, with one or two new faces, and we're looking to take this club in the right direction.
As a 14-year-old, I signed as a schoolboy but got a serious injury when I was 17 which virtually ended my career even though I went on to play a few games after that and went to Cardiff. I finished at Cardiff with the same injury and that's why I got into coaching at such a young age.

You held a number of positions at Newcastle in your previous spell, including Academy Director. Your job then was to help young players progress into the first-team - do you still have the same aim in your new role?
Absolutely. When I finish at the training ground today, I'll go down and see everybody at the Academy because I've got a huge interest in it. Even when I was assistant here the last time, I used to go and watch the kids on a Sunday or on a Saturday if we didn't have a game.
I take a huge interest in it because local kids, as everybody at this football club knows, are very important and you get the most pleasure out of seeing a young kid come through the system and being given a chance. So we'll certainly be keeping a close eye on that.

You haven't worked alongside Alan Pardew before - are you looking forward to that?
Absolutely. From the conversations I've had he's very honest and straight, very well-organised which is what I like, and leaves no grey areas, so that's great. I hope we can work really well together.