Les Ferdinand- NUFC hero | Eisha Acton
The David Ginola article went down really well and it felt natural to write my next story on Les Ferdinand. As a Newcastle United fan I regard Sir Les as a truly memorable player during the Kevin Keegan era at the Toon. It’s hard to believe he only spent two years on Tyneside considering the impact he made. He really did have a special connection with us Newcastle fans with his commitment and love for the club. For those of you who don’t know, Les Ferdinand is a British footballer from London who earned 17 caps for England and is a Premier League hero- he’s the eighth highest scorer in the League with 149 goals. So, in this video I’m going to talk about why Sir Les’s time at Newcastle was so special to us fans in the mid nineties…
The Entertainers!
Sir Les arrived at an incredibly exciting time for the club. The 1994/95 Premier League season saw the Magpies finish in sixth place. Andy Cole had departed in Jan ‘95 so, Kevin Keegan used the summer of ‘95 to hunt for his new number 9 to strengthen the squad in preparation for an explosive ‘95/96 PL campaign.
Kimg Kev was building a formidable side… investing heavily in players from across the globe from Warren Barton, David Ginola, Shaka Hislop and Les Ferdinand (who was Newcastle’s biggest signing at £6 million from QPR). Sir Les went on to show he was worth every single penny in his first season at the Toon. He had inherited the number 9 shirt from Andy Cole so, Sir Les had BIG football boots to fill! In his time on Tyneside, Andy Cole had broken the club’s goalscoring record and his heroics had earned him PFA Young Player of the Year. Well, Sir Les took the number 9 role like a duck to water. He was an instant hero! He scored a staggering 29 goals in his first season, and played a huge role in the Entertainers. Newcastle took the English football world by storm with their most competitive league performance- second place was their highest finish for decades. Despite not coming away as a title-winner, Sir Les had earned a memorable personal achievement as Pele presented him with the PFA player of the year award for the 95/96 season.
Les Ferdinand x Alan Shearer
The 1996/97 season was the most memorable one for me as Newcastle fan. My first game was in Sept ’95. Although I was young, I could recognise how the mid nineties were a defining era for the Club. I saw what it meant to life long Newcastle fans like my Dad and the love we had for Kevin Keegan; how he had gone on to transform the team from Division One relegation candidates to Premier League title contenders in just four years. In ‘96, the record-breaking signing of local hero Alan Shearer coudn’t have come at a better time! The Entertainers had just got PAINFULLY close to clenching the league title just to have Man United come out on top with a four point difference. Kevin Keegan had anticipated the Alan Shearer/Les Ferdinand partnership could work for the Magpies and what a dream duo they were. They scored 49 goals between them in 1996-97, which is pretty remarkable considering Alan missed three months of the season due to injury and Les Ferdinand missed two. Over the years, Sir Les has undoubtedbly formed a number of solid strike partnerships but even non-newcastle fans can recognise the Ferdinand x Shearer duo really was something special. Sir Les told the Beautiful game podcast: “I wasn’t saying that it clicked straight away, we had to learn about eachother and we did. I used to stand in the centre circle before kick off and say to him- shall we terrorise these today? That was the mentality and he would just go ‘yeah!’ We would just go about our business”.
Sir Les’s love for The Toon…
Les Ferdinand has never shyed away from showing his love and affection for Newcastle United. His time on Tyneside came to an abrupt end in ‘97 after Kenny Dalglish came on board after Kevin Keegan’s departure. Dalglish essentially secured a deal for Ferdinand with Spurs in order to free up funds. Although Spurs was the club he had supported as boy, Sir Les has always expressed his regret at the move. Last year on the Sky Sports Transfer Talk podcast he said: “I didn’t want to leave Newcastle United, I was there for two years and I would have spent the rest of my career there. I thought it was a great club and thought we were on the cusp of winning something. People go through their careers and say they don’t have regrets, but from a football perspective that was probably the worst decision I made”.
Newcastle fans will remember the emotional occasion when Sir Les returned to St James’s Park for the first time as a Spurs player; he received a standing ovation and was clearly overwhelmed at the heartfelt reception as he struggled to complete a lap of honour.
Although things ended sourly, Newcastle fans will always regard Sir Les as a hero of the nineties. He continues to voice his affections for the Magpies in sports media and in 2017 he was inducted into the Newcastle United Foundation Hall of Fame.
Sir Les’s contributions in a black and white shirt will always have a special place in my early memories as a young Newcastle fan. Newcastle fans- what are your favourite memories of Sir Les? Comment below! I hope you enjoyed reading this article dedicated to Sir Les. Do follow for more NUFC Nostalgia.