Paul Heckingbottom has been looking ahead to Sunday’s Premier League showdown with Newcastle at this afternoon’s pre-match press conference from the club’s Shirecliffe training base.
Newcastle United preview
Paul Heckingbottom said “We’re just looking forward to it because it’s a home game. A home game in front of the cameras, we’ve had another week’s training which is good for us. Obviously, we’re preparing for Newcastle, all our work’s been on Newcastle and all our work has been on how they attack, how they defend. But we’d just be ready and excited about whoever, it’s another game for us, it’s another week we’ve been working hard every day and we just want to keep improving. It’s a great game for us.”
Job speculation after Spurs, did it disappoint you?
Paul Heckingbottom “No, not at all. You’re asking the wrong person. You can ask me about a player, is he going to play? What does he need to do? But you can’t ask me about me. You need to speak to other people about stuff like that.”
What’s your reaction
Paul Heckingbottom said “Zero. The amount of things I see and get asked questions on that are rubbish. I know there is no smoke without fire, I get that but the number of things that get into the media that are total rubbish I get asked about them all the time, so am I worried about them? No. If there was truth in it would I be worried about it? No, because it doesn’t affect me one little be.”
Did you speak to the board about it?
Yeah, I spoke to Stephen and he said ‘nonsense, carry on’ and he just wanted to make me aware of that.
Any contact from the head of officials following Spurs comments?
Paul Heckingbottom said “Yeah, I have just come out [of a meeting] with Howard [Webb] and Jon Moss. They have both been in today, so it’s been good. I’m grateful that they’ve come in and we’ve had discussions about it, about the game, about what I thought, about what they thought and how things unfolded. We’ve been discussing and the biggest thing for me is how we take it forward. I am really grateful they came in.”
Do you see results from those talks?
Paul Heckingbottom said “Yeah, hope so. We know how we want to take it forward. There are always two perspectives. There are two big things for me and why I won’t change my approach. I have to defend us. If it’s something that is not right for us and we are not getting treated fairly, I have to stick up for us. That was happening. Then there is the game. We want it to be better, we want to get rid of time-wasting of course we do. I have no issue with the time added on. My point is to add 30 minutes on if you want, but we play it how we want to play it. My big issue is with the goal-kicks. I have just shown them in there. In the first half, we were averaging 18.5 seconds a goal-kick. Man United were 2-0 down against Spurs and taking 20 seconds a goal-kick. Brentford played them the week before and were taking 29 seconds a goal kick. And we were getting threatened with a booking. That’s what I can’t have and that’s what I wanted to get across. That’s why I am grateful they came in. We don’t want that. They don’t want me saying what I said and I don’t want to have to.”
On racial abuse to Wes Foderingham
Paul Heckingbottom said “Everyone on social media can say what they want, so get rid of that but it’s obviously in people for them to spill it out on social media so you are not getting rid of it by getting rid of social media. It’s deeper than that. It’s sad and I think we are the worst sport for it, maybe the profile of it I don’t know, but we seem to be the ones who get it the most. There have been big improvements, we know that and in society there have. We just have to continue being harder and stronger. Every time we do get a prosecution let’s make those punishments harder and higher. It’s not Spurs, it’s not Spurs’ problem because it was directed at Wes but how can a game of football make it alright for people to speak like that.”
How’s Wes?
Paul Heckingbottom said “We’ve spoken and we have been through the correct channels. We’ve had the police in for him to speak to. It’s sad. When I speak to any of the boys, Rhian I have spoken to a couple of times and it’s ‘yeah, I’m alright’, it’s not the fact they know how to deal with it, that just probably shows how much of a problem is it.”
The Blades welcome the Champions League outfit to Bramall Lane hoping they can register their first league win of the season. They came ever so close last weekend at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, only to be denied by two late goals in added-on time. The Sheffield United boss then shared his concerns about the standard of refereeing following that match and his comments went viral. The reaction to that was among the topics covered this afternoon following a meeting earlier today with the head of referees Howard Webb. Here is every word Heckingbottom said on the fall-out from Tottenham, the speculation over his job, this weekend’s clash against Newcastle United and the racial abuse suffered by goalkeeper Wes Foderingham.
