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  • 12/06/2025
McManus and Given on Celtic - Newcastle pre season friendly

12/06/2025

Celtic Park, Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Transcript
00:01How special will this friendly be for both the clubs and the fans?
00:06Well, it's very exciting, I think, from a Newcastle point of view.
00:09Obviously, they've sold out their full allocation already.
00:11They're, as you know, football crazy, aren't they, in the north-east of England
00:16and it's not too far to get up to Glasgow for a big game like this.
00:19So any pre-season game of this magnitude for me is great
00:24because you obviously look at the players have signed as well over the window,
00:27both for Newcastle and Celtic.
00:28I think, you know, the fans want to come along and see new signings
00:32and see how the team are shaping up for the new season.
00:35But it's been a while.
00:36Actually, we're just looking at it before.
00:38It's 2007 since the last time you thought there'd be more games since then.
00:41But yes, it's fantastic that they're going to play in July 19th.
00:472007, what are your memories from back then?
00:51Believe it or not, we were actually talking about it beforehand
00:54and I remember the game quite clearly.
00:57It was the atmosphere of the fans that I remember for it being a pre-season game.
01:02I think we'd played in Alan Shearer's testimonial before that as well.
01:05And the atmosphere within the stadium was terrific.
01:08So certainly for our club, you want to play against top-quality opposition
01:11as early as you possibly can in pre-season.
01:14For our players, it gets you up to speed very quickly.
01:17And there's not going to be a better game to play against Newcastle.
01:21So it's a real good test for our boys.
01:23What are your memories, Shane?
01:24Yeah, probably Alan Shearer's testimonial sticks out.
01:27Obviously, being great from Newcastle and being a local lad and stuff,
01:30the atmosphere was phenomenal.
01:32And I think it was a good choice by Alan to pick Celtic because, again,
01:36the Celtic fans travel down in their huge numbers, of course, to support him as well.
01:41And, yeah, it was just a special night for Alan and his family, you know.
01:44But I think both sets of fans made it special, didn't they?
01:46The atmosphere they created.
01:48And for us as players, it was nice, obviously, to be on the pitch
01:51and play in such a sort of historic game for someone who was a great at the football club.
01:55And, yeah, it was a pretty special game, yeah.
01:58How important are these types of games against this level of opponent ahead of the new season?
02:03Again, we touched on it earlier, but certainly for our club,
02:06you want to make sure that you're going to test yourself as quickly as you possibly can
02:10against a very good opposition.
02:12Because, again, the quicker you can get that feeling of the opposition that you're playing against,
02:15the better it is for the start of the campaign.
02:18As a player, pre-season games are always the hardest games to play in
02:21because you're trying to find that rhythm as quickly as you possibly can.
02:24Now, when you look at the quality of the opposition,
02:27that both sides are playing throughout pre-season,
02:30they're real good quality games.
02:32So, like I said, the players will look forward to it and they'll relish the game.
02:38Yeah, I think it's important for the players as much as anything.
02:41They want to play in the first game of the season, don't they?
02:43And every single pre-season game is hugely important.
02:45And when you've got strong opposition like Celtic,
02:48for a Newcastle point of view, it's a brilliant game with a huge support behind them as well.
02:53Both away fans and Newcastle fans.
02:56Of course, the Celtic home fans will let them know they're in for a game.
02:59So, it sets up for a great game.
03:02Season, guys.
03:04Obviously, two League Cup winners.
03:06How special a season was it for both Brendan Rodgers and Eddie?
03:09How do you expect them?
03:10Yeah, certainly for us.
03:11Again, I'm only going to speak about Celtic, you know,
03:15because that's what your kind of bread and butter is.
03:17So, listen, for us it was another hugely successful season.
03:21I think the biggest positive that we could take was the progression within the Champions League.
03:25That was massive for our club.
03:27It's something that we've been looking to improve.
03:29The squad's in a really good place at the minute.
03:32You've seen that with winning the two trophies last year.
03:35So, we're really looking forward to going back into this season.
03:39And again, the manager, the staff, the players,
03:42they'll be willing to go after an enjoyable break.
03:46Stephen, for yourself, Celtic fans are obviously craving the next key in Tierney.
03:50Yeah.
03:51James Forrest, how good a position is it that young players are in
03:55to maybe get an opportunity in this kind of next year?
03:57Yeah.
03:58Listen, that's what we looked at towards the end of the season.
04:01You've seen Sean McArdle broke through and make his debut.
04:03Jude Boner made his debut last year.
04:05Francis Turley made his debut last year as well.
04:07So, for us as a club at B-team level, it was great.
04:11Have you got a pay rise or anything?
04:12Not quite.
04:13But you could certainly, if you want to speak to Michael,
04:16sure, that'd be great.
04:17No, but, listen, for the job that we do,
04:20the most important thing is trying to get players into the first team.
04:24We know how difficult it is.
04:25Celtic supporters, they love nothing better than seeing one of their own coming through.
04:29Our job as the coaches at B-team level is to try and produce young players
04:33that are capable of playing the first team.
04:34We know how hard the job is because of how strong our first team squad is.
04:37But when you see guys like Ciaran Tierney coming back,
04:39you've still got Callum, you've still got James.
04:42My personal belief is you need people that have been through the club,
04:46that have seen the full journey because it's a special club to be a part of.
04:50So, all we do is try and help the next batch that can hopefully come through.
04:54And Shea, obviously, Eddie Howe has huge admirers within the Celtic boardroom at your market.
05:00How fantastic a job has you done at Newcastle?
05:02Yeah, amazing.
05:03I mean, it's been a tough period.
05:06I think 70 years of domestic, or I don't know,
05:08Stevens Parade in the Celtic Trophy.
05:10It's been a while since us as Newcastle fans can get our hands on a trophy.
05:13So, I said to Andrew yesterday, make sure you bring the trophy with us
05:16because it's important that we show it off now,
05:19that we've actually got our hands on one after so long.
05:22I was there for 12 years, obviously tried and failed.
05:25And this group of players and this management team have got the job done finally.
05:29And it kind of feels like a bit of a burden or a bit of a weight has been lifted
05:32in the sense of the whole football club.
05:34You've seen the celebrations.
05:36Over 300,000 fans started at Newcastle to welcome the lads home.
05:40And it was just a very special season.
05:42And then I suppose to top it off with Champions League qualifications,
05:45was massive as well.
05:46And it was a scary last day of the season,
05:48because I was covering for Premier League TV in London.
05:50And, of course, Everton scoring wasn't the script that we were looking for.
05:53But, excuse me, I think over the course of 38 games,
05:57I think it's what you do over the course of the season,
05:59not just one game.
06:00And it was the cherry on top of a brilliant season for Newcastle
06:03to get Champions League qualification.
06:05You know, we were there two years ago.
06:07Some great memories, Paris Saint-Germain coming
06:09and got blown off the pitches in James' Park.
06:11You know, it's where you want to play,
06:13where the players want to be
06:14and where this football club wants to be.
06:16You know, Celtic are there on a regular basis.
06:18And I think Newcastle want to be the same.
06:20They want to be every single season qualifying for Champions League.
06:23And not just qualifying, but competing.
06:25I think that's the ownership model is to compete at the very top,
06:28both in the Premier League,
06:29but in the top in the Champions League as well.
06:31And, yeah, it's been a great season.
06:33And Eddie Howe deserves huge credit for that.
06:35He's from day one.
06:36He's always had the right message.
06:38He said the right things.
06:39Never stop the fans believing or dreaming that, you know,
06:42big things can happen for the football club.
06:44And it feels like big things are going to happen in the future as well.
06:50Hi, guys.
06:51Shea, you spoke there about, you know,
06:54the more recent succession Newcastle has had,
06:56hopefully a catalyst for going forward,
06:58Champions League qualification.
07:00For our club, you know,
07:02we made some real substantial progress in the Champions League this year,
07:05something we've really been looking for.
07:06How good is this match that's coming up in July 19th
07:10to test the waters a little bit?
07:12Because for both teams, this is a kind of level of position
07:14that we want to be prepared for.
07:16So how much are you looking forward to the match?
07:18Yeah, great.
07:19I mean, the new format, I think, for the Champions League
07:21has helped, you know, Celtic last year as well.
07:23I think I covered a lot of their games and, you know,
07:26in previous things, there's four teams, two really strong teams.
07:28And then, you know, it felt like after maybe a game or two,
07:30it was a very difficult group to get out.
07:32I think the whole way it's been revamped,
07:33because we were all questioning how the new Champions League
07:35was going to sort of pan out.
07:37And I think it's been really exciting, actually,
07:39even right up to the final.
07:40So the new format, the league form and all that,
07:42I think it's been brilliant.
07:43It's something the Newcastle are not used to either,
07:45because two years ago it was the league form for them.
07:47So, again, you hope to get good draws,
07:50especially with the home games, you know, here at Parkhead.
07:52And, of course, you know, in Newcastle, home fixtures are key.
07:56And I think that proved this year for Celtic
07:58how important them home games were.
07:59So this game on the 19th, of course,
08:02is two Champions League teams coming head to head,
08:04you know, not long before a season's about to start.
08:06And I know there'll be preliminary rounds for some of the teams,
08:08but for these two clubs, they're going straight in.
08:11And it's a great sort of, I don't know, warm-up game,
08:13or call it what you want for what's to come in the Champions League.
08:16You know, for the Newcastle players, for example,
08:18away from home, this atmosphere will be pretty special.
08:21And it's just a test for the players and for the manager as well.
08:26And, Stephen, you mentioned earlier about KT coming back,
08:29obviously a player you've worked with,
08:30you're now very much involved with the youth set-up.
08:33How good an example is Kieran Tierney?
08:35A player who's, you know, left the club, has progressed his career,
08:38but has come back and is looking to continue his career with his peak years.
08:41How much of an example is that for the young fellas?
08:43Yeah, I touched on it. It's massive.
08:45It's massive because you've, we want, young players want to feel
08:49as if they've got somebody they can look up to.
08:51They've got that, but they need to see that
08:53and they need to feel that for themselves with,
08:55you've got it with Callum, you've got it with James.
08:57So now with KT coming back, it gives us an extra top player, if you like.
09:02But the fact that he's coming back, he's full career ahead of him
09:05after the experiences he's had put down in England at a top club at Arsenal
09:09is going to be invaluable, not just for himself, for the younger players,
09:13but for everybody throughout the football club.
09:16It's, when somebody as good as that leaves,
09:19you want to make sure that, one, that you're financially getting rewarded
09:22for the success that he's brought.
09:25But you also don't want somebody then coming back
09:27with two years to go within their career
09:29and they're obviously winding it down.
09:31I think that's really important.
09:33And Kieran's coming back at the age that he's at.
09:35He's, like I say, he's full careers ahead of him.
09:37For the national team, for us as a club, it's tremendous.
09:41So it's given us a real boost.
09:44And for the younger lads, it's another role model
09:47that they've got to look up to.
09:49And Shay, last question for me.
09:51But you obviously were part of the club many years ago.
09:54You moved on, had a fantastic career.
09:56I don't think anyone would put that in doubt.
09:58But when you get the chance to come back up to Celtic Park
10:00and obviously the fixture coming up,
10:02is there ever a little hint of the what if in your mindset
10:04and wonder about what it would have been like?
10:06Yeah.
10:07Yeah, there is.
10:08I mean, I was on the bench once for an old firm game when I was 17,
10:11praying to God that Paki Bunner wasn't going to get injured
10:13because I was going to have to come off the bench at 17.
10:15So I would have been a nervous wreck if I'm being brutally honest.
10:18Ski's boots on the cattle, by the way.
10:19No.
10:20But even just driving up the road there, you know, past Barrafield, you know.
10:24I remember getting, we had to change here at the stadium
10:26and have to run down the road as an apprentice and train, you know.
10:30And the first team lads driving past you blowing the horn and stuff.
10:33Like, you know, it's just all the sort of memories come flooding back.
10:36But yeah, some great memories.
10:38I mean, the club has changed so much since I was here at 16 till 18.
10:42And, you know, even the stadium, look around the stadium now.
10:44It's just phenomenal.
10:45I was here in the old jungle was there across from the dugout.
10:48You know, it's, you know, the way the club has moved forward and moved on.
10:52It's a phenomenal club now.
10:54It's totally different animals as such, you know.
10:56But it's great to see how the club has progressed.
10:59But yeah, it always brings back a special, you know,
11:01a special feeling coming back here, definitely.
11:03Shay, you've been a part of some massive clubs in England as well.
11:06Do you feel that Celtic gets the respect it deserves sometimes down south?
11:10Yeah, that's a good question.
11:12I think it does.
11:13I think obviously Celtic and our characters across the city,
11:16they're huge clubs, aren't they?
11:18I think, you know, even like, you know,
11:21Steve mentioned about the success they had this year in the Champions League.
11:23I think the more successful they can be in Champions League football
11:26and the more bigger results they get in that.
11:28I think then people go, do you know what I mean?
11:30It is a club that needs to be respected and a league, I suppose.
11:33I think the club's always been respected,
11:34but some people maybe would, you know, have a go at the league perhaps.
11:37And it's not as good as the Premier League and all that kind of stuff, you know.
11:40But I think you're tested in the Champions League probably more so than maybe sometimes in the league.
11:45And that's no disrespect to some of the lesser teams.
11:47But I think there were some big performances last season and in the Champions League especially.
11:51They were brilliant Celtic, you know.
11:53So I think that you gain respect off the back of that as well.
11:56Well, Stephen, what are your hopes and ambitions going into this season with Celtic being?
12:01It always remains the same.
12:03Our job is to try and develop young players to get them into our first team.
12:08It never changes.
12:10For us, results aren't paramount.
12:14They're not the most important thing.
12:16That's what the manager and the first team staff is.
12:18Our job is to develop young players to try and then get them ready for first team football.
12:23Hopefully it's in our first team or it's somebody else's first team.
12:26And that's what we try and do.
12:28We try and bridge the gap.
12:29The biggest jump at our football club is between the first team and the B team.
12:33There's absolutely no doubt.
12:34So our job is to try and develop the players.
12:36And again, we trust the experiences that we've had.
12:39The benefit for us that we've been that young player.
12:42And as Shea touched on it there, your experiences that you gain from the ages of 16 to 18, 18 to 20,
12:49that's going to determine where your career's going to go.
12:51So for us, it's about educating the boys.
12:53It's about making sure they get into the right habits,
12:55to do the right things on the pitch, off the pitch.
12:57When your career comes and goes, like both myself and Shea's career comes and goes,
13:02you get out of it what you put in and that's what we try and say to the players.
13:07It's not rocket science.
13:08It's you give yourself the best possible chance.
13:10You work as hard as you possibly can and you get your rewards by playing out there.
13:14And once you play out there, there's not a better place to be,
13:17especially if you've grown up in a Celtic environment and you know what it means to be part of the football club
13:23and again going back to bringing Cairn Tierney back into the club.
13:26It's massive and people don't underestimate just how important it's going to be for the club moving forward.
13:32How do you assess where both clubs are from that game in 2007?
13:36How much do you feel they've moved on since then?
13:40Well, yeah, Newcastle I think is a different animal at the minute.
13:43I think it really is and not in a bad way, in a really exciting way.
13:46As I said already, the ownership, you know, they want to move the club to the very top of football
13:50and that means winning the Premier League and winning Champions League.
13:53And that's, I think that's where the ownership model sees itself.
13:57You know, it doesn't see itself as just competing.
13:59And I think Eddie Howe said that himself.
14:01But as you know yourself in football, that will take some time.
14:03There's huge clubs in the Premier League that are obviously trying to stop that.
14:07They've also got the effects of PSR and financial fair play that always seems to get mentioned
14:12when you're talking about Newcastle.
14:14But again, it's something they have to sort of judge their way around
14:17or move their way around by, you know, by again.
14:20I mean, but if you look at the investment in the last two seasons,
14:22they haven't bought a player, a first team player in two years.
14:24So I expect a big summer coming up for Newcastle.
14:26I hope they can add to the squad and as important as adding to the squad is
14:30keeping some of the best players as well.
14:32Because I think they've got some brilliant players.
14:34And I think that's important as much as adding,
14:36is to keep the best ones at the football club.
14:38But I think you have to keep adding when you're, you know,
14:41qualification for Champions League again is important
14:43because people want to join clubs that are in the Champions League.
14:46So that helps Newcastle to bring the players to the club.
14:49And hopefully, and I'm not putting any pressure on here, Andrew,
14:52but I hope we can get a few players in the window before this game
14:55and, you know, at Parkhead.
14:57And, you know, the fans will see them, you know, pulling on the jersey.
15:02I've done a few more transfer questions.
15:04You were mentioning there about having some more players in.
15:07James Trafford, goalkeeper, Newcastle United.
15:09You've talked with Burnley over him.
15:11Do you think he'd be a good sign-in?
15:13That's a good question.
15:15Well, obviously, I know goalkeeping department,
15:17but I do believe that the goalkeeping department is really strong
15:19with Newcastle.
15:20Of course, with Nick Pope and Dubravka.
15:22Mark Gillespie signed a new contract as well.
15:25Look, I think Eddie's looking to strengthen every position.
15:28I think Trafford's a brilliant young goalkeeper.
15:30He really is.
15:31And I think there's a few clubs looking at him.
15:33I don't know if the goalkeeper's a priority for Newcastle
15:35because, again, the restraints of the financial side of things is important.
15:39But I think Trafford's had a brilliant career, a brilliant season, sorry,
15:43at Burnley and broke lots of records, clean sheet records
15:47and goals not conceded or whatever.
15:49So he'd be a great addition, I think, to any team in the Premier League.
15:52It's a good politician to answer that one.
15:54It's a political answer, that one, eh?
15:56Yeah, it was.
15:57Can we also touch on Alexander Isak?
15:59There always seems to be talk about him.
16:00Do you think he'll be a Newcastle player by now?
16:03I think he will, yeah.
16:04I think they talk about him because he's so good.
16:06And I think a lot of clubs in the Premier League
16:08would love to have Alexander Isak.
16:10But we want to keep him as well.
16:12I think that's a big message, I think.
16:14And as I said to the guys, I think it's as important to keep your best players
16:17as to add to them as well.
16:19I think, obviously, qualification for Champions League
16:22is a big thing as well for Alexander and the rest of the team.
16:25And I think that'll be key to keeping him on board.
16:28I'm not the powers that be at Newcastle,
16:30but for me it'd be more tying Alexander down to a longer contract
16:33and building your team around him
16:35and really send the message out to the rest that, you know,
16:38we are here to compete
16:39and we are here to sort of upset a few people at the very top.
16:43And Stephen, you talked about Kieran Tooney.
16:45What other areas do you think need to be strengthened?
16:48I think the manager and the first team staff, they'll look to strengthen
16:51as widely throughout the squad as they possibly can.
16:55Well, the squad's in a really good place just now.
16:57You can see with the way that the business model for the club's been over the last few years,
17:01you know, it's important for us that you bring in kind of younger players
17:05so that you can, again, you can then serve them on.
17:07The club have done that brilliantly.
17:08So I don't see there been much change through this season.
17:12What I do know is that the manager and the staff just now will be enjoying their break.
17:16They'll be keeping an eye on what's going on
17:18because when the pre-season starts, again, she'll tell you you're full on.
17:23For 10 months, 11 months, you are full on.
17:26So the manager and the staff, they'll be working behind the scenes,
17:30but they'll also be enjoying a wee bit of downtime just now.
17:33They'll know exactly where the areas of the squad are looking to strengthen
17:36and I've no doubt they will strengthen the areas in due time.

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