Jamaal Lascelles used to spend too much time dealing with dressing-room unrest at Newcastle. Be that internal tension, negativity towards management or external factors causing agitation, his role as captain was often fraught and onerous.
But not now. Not under Eddie Howe. Today, Lascelles and his team-mates are free of the stresses which had become very evident on the pitch.
A good group were written off as ‘Championship players’, so limited that no manager could do any better. That was always a point of angst among them.
Jamaal Lascelles (left) has heaped praise on Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe (right)
But Howe has instilled a winning mentality, as Lascelles puts it, aided by the recruitment of characters who have added to a spirit that was always there, even if it was suppressed at times.