Hibs skipper reveals softer side to gaffer - and a call that demonstrated Gray's high emotional IQ
Newell opens up on prospect of seeing out his career in Edinburgh
The morning after the day before, Joe Newell was feeling as low as he’d ever felt in five years at Hibs. And then the phone rang.
In the aftermath of losing the opening game of the league season, suffering a horrible and partly self-inflicted 3-0 defeat to St Mirren in Paisley, rookie head coach David Gray must have been enduring his own suffering. But the former Hibs skipper understood that his new club captain would be going through a new and unpleasant experience. So he reached out.
Newell, asked if felt more responsibility for poor performances and defeats since officially taking over captaincy in the close season, admitted: “Yeah, I do, I'll be honest. And I had a good discussion with the gaffer about that after the first game, the St Mirren one.
“Because no one likes losing. Whether that be big games, average games, whatever, training, like every, well, 90% of players I've played with hate losing. But yeah, the St Mirren first game of the season, the way it happened and stuff, I remember feeling really, really down and kind of hit me a little bit more to be honest.
“And the gaffer rang me. It was as if he knew how I was going to be feeling.
“He was like: ‘I’m just giving you a little call, just see how you're feeling because you're going to feel it a bit more.’ I said: ‘Well, it’s funny you say that because I have done, yeah …
“He told me: “I’ve been there, I've been where you are now, mate so I know how you're going to feel, you’ll have ups, you're going to have some amazing moments, you're going to have some low moments. But as a captain, you probably will feel it a little bit more.’
“So, it was obviously a good touch. It shows he’s got emotional intelligence and is a good human being to kind of notice that.”
Gray is trying to strike the right balance between setting demanding standards and creating a supportive environment. Key to everything he’s trying to build is maintaining a sort of emotional equilibrium.
Newell, explaining the manager’s approach, said: “You can't be too high, and you can't be too low. It's a message that gaffer's big on as well in our meetings when we sit in here.
“We'll have stages throughout the season where we go on good runs and we're all in a good place and stuff. And that'll be the same message as what's probably been over the last couple of first weeks.
“It's obviously a bit trickier. Don't be too down. You can't be too down because there's going to be a game coming up in four or five days, and then don't be too high because as soon as you get too high, you're going to get slapped back down again.
“So, yeah, it's something that obviously, whether you're a captain or not, or whether you're a manager or not if you're a football player - you can't get carried away with a roller coaster. You've just got to try and stay on the level.”
Newell, whose own Hibs career has been an example of enduring the bad times while proving his worth to an ever-changing cast of managers, gaffers and bosses, has just signed a contract tying him to the club until 2027. In those first few months after his arrival in the summer of 2019, few predicted he’d enjoy this sort of longevity.
And now the 31-year-old is looking beyond even the new deal, the Midlands boy admitting that he’d love to see out his career in Scotland’s capital city, revealing: “Yes, I'd say the contract I've just signed is probably the one that I think I'm probably going to be settled in now. I'd love to be here for, well, I might play until I'm 40 and Barcelona come calling still - maybe one day! But, yeah, I think for me now, and like I say with the leadership role I've got and stuff, I'm settled.
“It's probably a bit of a funny one because maybe early on in your career … I’ve always wanted to do well for whatever club I play for, obviously, and that's the main thing, but every football player is going to want to do well for themselves. You're playing for your career, for your family, for your financial security or whatever it might be, whatever your motivation is.
“Whereas now it's kind of like, I'm at an age and I've got the captaincy, so the club probably comes before me as the individual now for the first time. So, yes, I'd probably say it would be I'd like to see myself here long-term. Or as long as they'll have me!”