Former Newcastle boss Alan Shearer has hailed the attitude of Mark Viduka during their relegation season.
Shearer says Viduka “worked his socks off” to get fit to try and keep the Magpies up.
Speaking to Match of The Day: Top 10: “I’ll just say about his attitude, I don’t know if I’ve said it before – brilliant – when I went there he was just forgotten about. Newcastle – gone – eight games left they were paying his wages and they weren’t even getting him out to train.
“I just said to him ‘What do you want to do? You can either sit here, pick your money up and do nothing or, at least take you two or three weeks to get fit, do you want to [get fit]?’
“He said ‘I want to get fit, at least I’ll try.’ He worked his socks off, he was on time every day and he came in for the last four games of the season. He didn’t score any put he worked hard and he tried.”
When asked if he had a bit of a reputation of being difficult, Shearer said: “Not that I’m aware of. At Middlesbrough, Leeds and Newcastle, he was very good.
“He had one of these body languages where people thought he was lazy, but his touch and technique was fantastic.”
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