'A proper player' - Barton on Trippier arrival

England international Trippier became Newcastle’s first signing since Eddie Howe’s appointment as boss – and the club’s change of ownership in October – after joining up from Atlético Madrid last week.

He made his debut in the Magpies’ surprise defeat to Cambridge United in the FA Cup on Saturday – a game at which Barton, having jetted in from the US, was present.

Barton, now 52, also represented England during his playing career, and linked up with United from Wimbledon in June 1995 – becoming the most expensive defender in the country at the time.

His capture set the tone for an exciting summer in the transfer market where the Magpies were concerned, with Les Ferdinand, David Ginola and Shaka Hislop – all key cogs in Keegan’s machine over the season which followed – following in his footsteps over the subsequent days and weeks.

Now, more than 25 years on, Barton is hopeful that Trippier’s signing will kick-start a similar trend.

“I go back to when I signed, and Les signed two days later, David about ten days later, and then Shaka,” Barton recalled, chatting to nufc.co.uk in the hours leading up to Trippier’s Magpies bow. “And then Tino Asprilla and David Batty signed not long after that. There was a knock-on effect, and with Kieran coming, there’s a little bit of ‘I want to be a part of that’ (among other players).

“Everybody wants the strikers and those sorts of players, but Kieran Trippier is a proper player. He’s a really good player. He’s an England international, he’s very versatile, he can play in a four at the back or he can play in a three. He’s in his prime, he looks very fit, and he wants to be in (this year’s) World Cup squad. He wants to play and he’s great with set-pieces.

“He’s one of the only players from Britain who’s gone across to Europe and been successful. He won La Liga with Atlético, which is a league normally dominated by Real Madrid and Barcelona. Atlético have gone and broken that up.

“He’s played under Diego Simeone, who’s so astute tactically – probably one of the most astute coaches in the world. He’s learnt from him, and now he’s come back to a club who are struggling, but he wants to be a part of it going forward. People might talk about the wages, but when people like Sergio Agüero, Yaya Touré and David Silva went to Manchester City, they went there for the project. That’s the game we’re in now.”

Barton came agonisingly close to winning the Premier League title during his first campaign at St. James’, with Keegan’s charges leading the way for the bulk of the year, only to fall away in the last two or three months.

For the time being, though, United’s ambitions aren’t anywhere near as lofty as challenging for top honours; already out of both cup competitions and second from bottom of the table, Howe’s side’s only aim for the remainder of the 2021/22 campaign is to preserve their Premier League status.

They’ll be helped on their way towards doing that, Barton believes, by a sense of togetherness at the football club, something the current FOX Sports pundit – now living in San Diego, California – has picked up on from more than 5,000 miles away.

“Even from afar, you can feel that excitement,” he said. “First of all, I think everybody felt a sense of relief (after the takeover was completed). It wasn’t nice, the atmosphere or the situation for anybody – the old owner, the old head coach, the fans. It just wasn’t pulling in the same direction.

“The small things make the big things happen – cleaning the windows, getting the fans engaged… I always think – ingrained into me from people like Kevin Keegan and Sir Bobby Robson – that the heartbeat of this city is the football club and the heartbeat of the football club is the fans. And it wasn’t there. So to see that feel-good factor and that positivity is wonderful. It just feels like the first time in a long time that everybody is trying to pull in the same direction and that’s such an important thing for a football club to be successful. And although we didn’t win anything in the seven or eight years I was here, we had a bloody good go.

“We hope Kieran’s signing will be the first of many. Even across the Pond, there’s such a lot of interest in what’s going on. It’s great for me – I have people in San Diego or Los Angeles coming up to me and asking what Newcastle are going to do. Whereas before, they just walked past me, because Newcastle weren’t relevant, really – they were just another Premier League club. Now there’s a lot of interest and that’s how it should be – we’re a big club.”