OPINION
By this point Newcastle United captain Jamaal Lascelles has been firmly entrenched as not only one of the most passionate individuals at his own football club, but possibly in the entire Premier League.
The 6’1″ (source: Transfermarkt) former Nottingham Forest man is known for having leadership skills far beyond his 24 years of age – however, he also has a tendency to lose control sometimes.
There have been two instances in the past week, for example, of Lascelles reportedly losing his rag with his fellow Magpies employees. Firstly, there was the reported bust-up with manager Rafael Benitez ahead of last weekend’s defeat to Chelsea.
Then there was an alleged altercation with team mate Matt Ritchie prior to that Chelsea game, which reportedly got rather physical.
Now, everybody likes to see a bit of passion and fire from their players; they want to know that the men representing their club care about the badge they’re playing for, but sometimes things can go too far.
We all remember the famous on-field tussle between Magpies team mates Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer; nobody was praising their passion there because they were harming their team. A lack of self control can have a detrimental effort on everyone around you.
Benitez did, however, claim recently that Lascelles was having a good influence at St James’ Park: “He has been training in the last two days and he has been very positive,” he told the Chronicle.
“He is trying to be an example to everyone in the way that he trains and the way he does everything. I think he has been quite positive after the injury problem and all of the things that other people wanted to talk about this week.”
No one’s saying that Lascelles has an anger problem, but he does need to keep his temper in check to avoid causing disharmony in the dressing room.
Passion in and of itself is all well and good, but training ground bust-up’s help nobody. Questioning your manager’s tactics helps nobody.
There’s no smoke without fire, and both of these stories were reported by the Daily Mail’s Craig Hope, a journalist with well known Newcastle connections. There’s no reason to disbelieve these stories.
Lascelles is a fine player, one of the best Newcastle have, but he needs to focus more on being a captain and less on being the training ground rabble-rouser.