Philippe Albert has detailed how players would party until 2am before training at 10am the following day.
Albert spent five years at Newcastle United after arriving from RSC Anderlecht in August 1994, going on to make 137 appearances for the club, the most he managed for any club in his career.
He was a key member of Kevin Keegan’s famous entertainer’s side that thrilled St James Park during his three years in charge of Newcastle, finishing third, sixth and second under his leadership.
The most famous of those seasons was the 1995/96 campaign in which they competed with Manchester United for the title in a classic Premier League season.
That Newcastle side remains one the fans remember fondly thanks to their superb attacking football and exciting performances
All of this was engineered by Keegan, who worked hard to engineer a team spirit that carried his side to their title challenge.
Albert has now detailed how he went about that and encouraged his side to socialise away from the pitch.
“Keegan wanted to have this conviviality in the club and in the core,” he told Sport Magazine.
“Keegan believed that if you wanted to create something on the pitch, you had to create something off it.
“That’s why he initiated weekends abroad. We had a great time. On Mondays, when there was no game during the week, we went to the restaurant. We would meet at 6.30-7pm, and we had to go home at 2am because the restaurant was closed.
“The next day, we were on the field at 10am for a double session. It was more than a custom; it was the norm.
“All the clubs were doing it at that time. That changed with the arrival of foreign coaches, who had a different vision of things.”
