United's backroom boys | OneFootball

"A MASSIVE PART," says Lewis Hall, describing Stephen Purches' role in helping him break into the England squad this season.

"Him, as well as all of the coaching staff got me to that position and put trust in me, but Purchey as an individual has definitely done a lot for me."

Hall is one of several players to have benefitted from meticulous post-training one-on-one sessions with first team coach Purches, who made more than 400 appearances during a 16-year playing career which started at West Ham's academy alongside the likes of Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick and Joe Cole and took him to Bournemouth twice as well as Leyton Orient, where he was captain.

"He's done work behind the scenes that people would never, ever realise - not just on the pitch, but that extra mile," Hall adds over lunch at the Magpies' training ground. "He's a good person to communicate with away from football if you have anything in your life that you want to talk to him about. He's helped me massively; not just me, loads of players. He's a great guy to work with."

Purches, who has held the UEFA Pro Licence since 2018, was already studying for coaching badges long before a broken leg curtailed his playing career in 2014. "I wish I'd done it even earlier; it does help the way you view the game and we say that to the players now," he explains. After being awarded a testimonial against West Ham and playing his final match in a glamour friendly against Real Madrid, no less, he was then given the opportunity to lead the Cherries' Under-21 team. He stepped up to first team coach in 2017 and by 2020 he'd progressed to assistant manager.

Then in November 2021, Howe was appointed United's head coach with the Magpies second-bottom of the Premier League and without a victory. "When this opportunity came, we were all ready to come and do it," Purches says. "It couldn't be further away from where we were down south, but despite that I loved the authenticity and connected with the city straight away.

"We went into the Hilton for the first part of our time here. Every day, you've got St. James' Park, the Tyne Bridge literally outside your window. It allowed us to learn about the city quickly. People would stop you in reception. One was a factory owner, who said: 'You don't realise what a difference a result makes to the city for productivity. If we win, our sales go up. If you lose, people don't turn up. At the minute, there's a cloud over us and we need to lift it.'

"It's always stuck with me. Within these three and a half years it feels like everything's opening up everywhere; there's new restaurants, people are happy. Hopefully, from the point of view of that guy talking to us there to now, he's seen the city grow with the club."

Purches and his colleagues work long days at the club's Benton base and he acknowledges his wife, Jilly, and sons Ben and Harry for allowing him to "dedicate the hours to give everything you can here".

He continues: "Day to day, I try to connect everything; what the manager wants on the training ground, how do we build the sessions, who's doing what, whether it's split or whether it's together, visually how do we make that work?

"We all have areas that we'll concentrate on, certain groups - for example the leadership group and specific individuals - then we'll bring it all together for training and matchday. It's important that each day runs smoothly in order to go home better than when you came in."

On matchdays, Purches is in constant communication from the dugout with coach analyst Jordan Tribe, "connecting what the manager might be seeing on the pitch to the analysis point of view to make sure at half time anything that the manager needs - clips, stats, good or bad - are relevant for the players".

But Purches admits that homing in on specifics with the likes of Hall is one of the most satisfying parts of his job - a legacy, perhaps, from his early days developing youngsters at Bournemouth.

"If you can affect any individual enough, you're giving yourself a chance," he says. "Everyone will be able to affect that situation within our coaching team and we as staff all have different personalities and strengths to deliver what the manager wants for the players to succeed. If you've had a little part, then anything that you see out on the pitch, you think: 'I've helped to do that.'

"People learn differently; some players need to see things slightly differently, some need to be told slightly differently. It's just getting to know the individual and getting the best out of them. Those 'extras' after training - there's a window to be able to get just that little bit better. Hopefully the culture here is that they want that, and the manager sets the standards that our culture is built on."

Hall - who also shares how much he's appreciated Purches' ongoing support as he recovers from a broken bone in his foot - will look to build on his fine campaign and first two England caps when he returns next season and Purches, similarly, is determined to continue pushing the envelope after March's Carabao Cup success.

"What happened will live with us forever, but you want more," he says. "How do we compete at this level all the time? It goes back to the same thing. It's about your standards every day, to go and produce the performances or results that you need to again perform at the highest level. That’s what we're all here to do."

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NOBODY at Newcastle United's training centre calls Simon Weatherstone by his given name; to players and staff alike, he is "Tinners".

"I've got ginger hair, it was brushed forward, and I had a little tiff at the front," explains the Magpies' effervescent first team coach. "From ten years old, I was called 'Tintin', then over the years it's evolved: 'Tinno', 'Tin', 'Tin Man', 'Tinners'...

"Everyone will know me as 'Tinners' or 'Tintin'. Some of my friends' kids have always called me 'Tintin' and they think that's my name. My first captain at Oxford, Les Robinson, once came up to ask me: 'What is your actual name?'"

Weatherstone, however, made something of a name for himself during his playing career, which started at Oxford - where he played in the old First Division, now the Championship - before joining Boston, who he helped win promotion to the Football League. A goalscoring midfielder, he represented England C as well as Yeovil, where he achieved another promotion, then Hornchurch, Stevenage, Weymouth, Crawley and Eastbourne.

He was a teammate of Graeme Jones at Boston and at Weymouth he played alongside Jason Tindall before retiring at the age of 30. "I decided it was time to concentrate on the next part of my life, and that was coaching," explains "Tinners", who attained the UEFA Pro Licence in 2020. His passion for that aspect of the sport had started as a teenager, when he began helping respected talent-spotter Malcolm Elias - now head of talent ID and recruitment at Fulham, having held similar roles with Liverpool and Southampton - with holiday soccer schools in Oxfordshire. "I'd say Malcolm is probably the biggest influence on my whole career," says "Tinners". "I owe so much to him and I still speak to him regularly."

Eddie Howe and Tindall gave him an opportunity at Burnley - "I was scouting games, then I'd be on the training ground with them most days," says "Tinners", who stayed on at Turf Moor under Sean Dyche and became the Clarets' Under-21 development coach as well as supporting first team staff on matchdays, then followed Howe and Tindall to Bournemouth in 2014. "The rest is history," he adds. "We had an amazing time at Bournemouth and achieved so much together, also encompassing Stephen Purches and Dan Hodges, then came here which has been an incredible experience."

Callum Wilson worked with "Tinners" at the Vitality Stadium before being reunited at St. James' Park and tells UNITED: "He's always there bringing energy to the lads and gets the togetherness going. He's that gap between the players and the staff.

"I personally call him 'Spinners', because he does 'spins' throughout the team and he's really good at it. He's an important part of the staff. I've worked with him for many years and he has the ultimate respect of the players and staff here."

"Spins" are part of the club's disciplinary system, with "Tinners" the master of ceremonies as a black and white wheel in the training ground canteen is spun to determine fines and forfeits for misdemeanours like poor timekeeping or wearing incorrect kit.

"The environment we create is one of the biggest things," insists "Tinners". "That's pushed heavily from the manager and he encouraged me to look after that side. There's a serious side to 'spins', but a funny side as well; no one likes giving their money away but I do it in a humorous way, for the right reasons. The environment we set since we first came in has been set in stone but we've evolved it each year and the lads respect that.

"It's making sure that everybody wants to come into work every day, with a smile on their face, whether it's the security guards, the media team, the chefs, the waitresses, the groundstaff; there's so many people that the fans don't see but they're an important part of the team. It's making sure that they feel that, because we are as one."

"Tinners" and his wife, Kari, who is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, became parents to daughter Teddi in September. "Kari's got a really important job in finance in New York and she's sacrificed her own career to support me in mine," he says.

"She loves sport herself and supports the Philadelphia Eagles. The year we lost the cup final, the Eagles lost the Super Bowl to the (Kansas City) Chiefs and she said at the start of this season: 'The Eagles will win the Super Bowl and Newcastle will win a cup.' It was crazy that it happened - I'll be asking her in the summer what's happening next season!"

There's a serious side to Weatherstone, a deep thinker who sets up each training session every morning and undertakes position-specific work with small groups, as well as supporting injured players as they transition back into everyday training.

But throughout our conversation, laughter echoes around the corridors of the Magpies' Benton base - a far cry from November 2021, when United were fighting relegation and winless all season until Howe arrived with "Tinners" and the rest of his coaching staff.

"I think that's what we bring as a team," he reflects. "We’re all different personalities, we all bring something different.

"Laughter is such a powerful thing. We work hard, but we have a good laugh and when you achieve something together you want more. You want to experience the emotions on the pitch after the cup final and that parade again; one of the proudest things is knowing that we're the first to do it for such a long time. That will live with me forever.

"When we used to come here as opposition, we knew Newcastle was a big club. When you live it every day, you realise it's bigger than you think. Everyone around the world recognises the team that play in black and white. It's such a unique city; one club, the stadium sits on top of the city and looks over it like a cathedral. I feel so proud to be a part of it and the club's history."

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"FOUR YEARS OLD, I WENT TO MY FIRST GAME," says Gateshead-born Graeme Jones, reflecting on how his love affair with Newcastle United began. "Supermac was playing, it was a night game, stood in the paddock, just overwhelmed by this thing.

"My dad and my uncle Alan, they took me to the games. Every game, Chinatown, Rosie's Bar, upstairs there; pool table and a packet of crisps. We went right through that era - Peter Withe, Alan Shoulder.

"The club was on its knees, the stadium derelict, then (Kevin) Keegan signed. I was one of 50,000 people outside the stadium trying to get in (for his debut in 1982). I stood from 11 o'clock at the Gallowgate End. It was rammed - I'd seen nothing like it - but I got in the Leazes End. That guy changed everything at this football club.

"My dad's a Platinum Club season ticket holder. He's been dead nine years but he's still got his Platinum Club membership and there's a brick at the stadium with me, my dad, my brother (and Jones' sons) Jacob and Isaac's names on. I bought him that for his 60th birthday.

"I just remember Sunday and Monday being ruined if we got beat. That's how serious him and my uncle Alan were."

Uncle Alan still lives in West Denton. Sadly, Jones' father, Ray, and mother, Rita, were both taken by cancer a quarter of a century apart - Ray was 72 while Rita was just 46. "My mam died when I was 20 and I grew up overnight - it changed me, it changed my character," says Jones, who along with his wife, Debbie, is an ambassador for St. Oswald's Hospice in Gosforth.

Inevitably his parents were at the forefront of Jones' thoughts when the final whistle went at Wembley three months ago and the assistant head coach joined Howe, the rest of the coaching staff and the players in lifting Newcastle's first domestic trophy in 70 years.

He arrived at St. James' Park in January 2021, initially as assistant to Steve Bruce, and had been part of Jason Tindall's coaching staff at Bournemouth alongside Purches, Weatherstone and Dan Hodges. "I would have never left for anybody else - I was that happy," he says. "South Coast, sun was shining, we were going really well. But Newcastle's Newcastle."

Jones gained the UEFA A Licence at the age of 30, coached and lectured at Darlington College of Technology, then became assistant manager to Billy Reid at Hamilton Academical. Former Wigan teammate Roberto Martínez soon took him to Swansea and the pair worked together for 12 years, winning the FA Cup with Wigan, qualifying for Europe and reaching two cup semi-finals with Everton before helping Belgium finish third at the 2018 World Cup.

He was also part of the England coaching staff as the Three Lions reached the final of Euro 2020 and admits: "It dawned on me the other day, I've been part of some unbelievable things - nothing bigger than this.

"I remember saying to you in my first interview, I'm in a position where I can affect some change. To think that I played a part (in United's Carabao Cup success), I can't tell you how I felt, the pleasure I took, with my past with my mam and dad, Debbie and my two lads were there, my brother's there; best day of my life. Euphoria like I've never experienced before. I felt so proud that we did it.

"All the money in the world cannot buy that feeling. The satisfaction, the love for your family, your love for the club; the biggest one was the relief of breaking that bogey that we had over us, that monkey on wor back. You're having to fight against history. Now it's a clean slate for everybody who comes in after us."

Released by Millwall as a teenager, Jones played for Newcastle Blue Star and North Shields and won the FA Vase at Wembley with Bridlington before earning another shot as a professional with Doncaster at the age of 23. He went on to score more than 100 league goals in England and Scotland, including 31 in one season for Wigan in 1996/97.

Part of Jones' wide-ranging remit is the transitional element of the team's play, and he spends much of his time on the training pitch with the forwards. "I Iove working with Bonner," says Alexander Isak, scorer of 62 goals for the Magpies across the past three seasons. "He’s a big personality, well-respected within the group, and we all appreciate his part in the team. He's an attacking specialist in my eyes and he's helped me a lot with my game, finishing and getting into positions that I like to be able to be in - overall details in the game."

And Jones concurs. "The level of detail we go into is just incredible," he says. "We try to be perfect, we try and win every game - every single game.

"I can guarantee the supporters: if we get beat it's not through lack of preparation, effort or detail with this group of management and players. That's never, ever the reason."

*

LAST MONTH, Eddie Howe went to see Bryan Adams in concert at Newcastle's Utilita Arena. Did Jason Tindall, his long-time number two, join him?

"You know me," he laughs. "Listen, he's got a few good songs but that's not my idea of a good night out. If any of the staff were going to STACK for a couple of drinks and watching the football, maybe I'd have went…"

Not quite (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, then; while Howe's also a fan of A-ha and Coldplay, Tindall likes Maxwell, R&B and "good beats". The two former teammates are in many ways polar opposites, but when it comes to footballing philosophies, they are absolutely in tune.

"The way we like our teams to play, the beliefs of how we work and what we want is the same," explains Tindall, who first started working with Howe when the pair were parachuted in to save Bournemouth from relegation from League Two in January 2009.

"We've always been that way. We want to play aggressive, attacking football, we want people to see goals, excitement, and we're always striving to be better at delivering that.

"When you work out the amount of time we have spent together in our lifetime, we've spent more time with each other than we have with anybody else. That would be a fact.

"We've worked closely for so long, we do think the same way; we see things, a lot of the time, in the same way.

"But we have different opinions. I think that's why we’ve worked well for so long. There's a big boss of any organisation; there's so many people that would just agree with their manager or their boss, because they wouldn't want to say something that may almost cross that line, or they want an easy life.

"I never wanted to be that person. If I can express my opinion but justify it, then that's fine. I always vent my opinions - always, no matter what the situation is. We clash from time to time, but I see that as a healthy thing."

When Howe was hospitalised with pneumonia in April, Tindall stepped in to take charge for three matches and oversaw big home victories against Manchester United and Crystal Palace.

"Obviously it was a difficult period due to Ed not being well, the uncertainty at the time - whether he was going to be okay, when he was going to be back, the stability," he recalls.

"Would I say I enjoyed it? To take the reins and be almost a frontman at such an important stage of the season was a challenge but with the way we work I knew the expectations, I knew what needed to be done. He showed a lot of faith and trust in me, the lads performed well and we got some important results during that time.

"There's this perception that's out there, that's been created, of 'centre of attention, he likes the limelight' but how I am now is how I was 15 years ago, so there's no change there. I take my work very seriously. I want to do the best I possibly can, for the football club and ultimately myself."

Kieran Trippier was coached by Tindall at Burnley before joining Newcastle in January 2022. "JT's a fiery character but passionate because he wants to win," says the 54-time England international. "I've been lucky enough to work with him twice. He's a top quality coach, everything's structured and he instils what it means to take pride in keeping clean sheets and defend well.

"But it's not just what he's done for me in football terms - it's off the field as well. When I left Burnley, I spoke to him so many times and to me it's more than a football relationship. What he's done for me on and off the pitch, I can't thank him enough."

Tindall's father, Jimmy, was a talent-spotter for more than 20 years at West Ham and founded and managed Senrab FC, whose list of former players includes John Terry, Ledley King, Ray Wilkins, Sol Campbell, Lee Bowyer, Ugo Ehiogu, Bobby Zamora, Jermain Defoe and Tindall, who played for Arsenal at youth level then turned professional with Charlton.

He never made a senior appearance at the Valley but played more than 200 times for Bournemouth before embarking on his coaching career and helping to take the Cherries on a meteoric rise to the Premier League.

Last season, Newcastle won a trophy and qualified for the Champions League by finishing fifth in the Premier League.

"Do you know what? In some senses it has been a strange season - but an unbelievable season," Tindall reflects. "To win silverware for this club was a dream come true. Winning the trophy was probably the highlight of my career for all the hard work, all the time you sacrifice with your family and friends. To achieve that was such an emotional moment but my happiness was more for the people, including my family.

"My dad has just turned 80. Without my dad, my journey never would have been what it has been. He gave me my love for football. For my family and him to be there, to experience that in his lifetime, and to give the fans their first trophy in 70 years makes all my sacrifices and hard work worthwhile. That's why I do what I do."