Carver challenges Newcastle player to silence Alan Shearer

Club legend Shearer laid into Carver’s players after they slipped to a seventh successive defeat.

The 3-2 home loss to Swansea City last weekend left Newcastle deep in relegation trouble near the foot of the Premier League.

Shearer said: “The fact that Newcastle find themselves part of it (the relegation battle) is a terrible indictment of the players.

“They don’t seem to have an ounce of pride in wearing the famous black and white shirt. Shame on them. The players simply don’t look like they care.”

Carver insists his players are “hurting”, though he admitted, at every club, there are players who do NOT care as much as some of their team-mates or the fans.

Asked about Shearer’s comments, Carver said: “Alan loved the club when he was here. He’s from here, so I can understand why he’s saying that.

“But you’d be surprised how there’s a lot of people in the dressing room hurting. In football, there’s always people who don’t care, and it’s usually the ones who won’t have a future at that football club.

“They’ll move to another football club and be nice and bright until they’re out of the mix. But I think there are people who care.

“I can’t even go into detail of who doesn’t care, because they all have their own mind, but the only way they can show that, and stop Alan from saying that, is by doing it on the pitch.”

Carver says he does not pin offending stories and columns up on the dressing room wall for extra motivation, though he has flagged some things up with his players, like Phil Neville’s claim that the team had their “flip-flips” ahead of the summer.

The 50-year-old also revealed he brought in Fab Flournoy, coach of the hugely-successful Newcastle Eagles basketball team, to do a motivational talk.

Carver said: “We don’t pin it up in the dressing room, but we have used things in team meetings. It works for some people and not others.

“Before the Sunderland game we brought in the Fab to talk about his life.

“At the end of the day, you are going into a game as big as this weekend (against Leicester City this afternoon), and if you are not mentally strong (enough) to deal with the situation, then that’s a problem, no matter what Alan Shearer is saying, or Mick Quinn.”

– MILES STARFORTH