Paul Dummett’s Newcastle United loyalty is admirable, but careers are short

The gaze of every Geordie is firmly fixed on the transfer market and who Newcastle United might bring in for their first Champions League season in two decades.

Yet quietly behind the scenes other work has been going on which concluded in Paul Dummett, among others, signing a new deal. Dummett is staying on at Newcastle for another season – and it got me wondering why. I get it from the club’s point of view but why would he be more than willing to do it?

I’ve always had a soft spot for Paul. I’ve seen him as a replica of my old team-mate Frank Clark. A local lad who has given such long and loyal service to United and whose defensive capabilities have been second to none.

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For a while under the old regime I rated Dummett as the best defender in the club, a sound left-back more than capable of filling in as left sided centre-half. Now however he is well short of Sven Botman and cannot get into the side in his original position because of Dan Burn, a central defender filling in at left-back.

All of which brings me back to my point. Why has Dummett committed himself to a further season? He is 32 next birthday and didn’t play a single Premier League game last season. Indeed he is not even United’s cover left-back – Matt Targett is.

I cannot get my head round why any player is not looking to play as much as possible because it is a very short career. Perhaps I know better than most how you can regret a shortened playing time. I was 28 when I got a bad knee injury at Arsenal and 29 when I was forced to make the decision to retire because I couldn’t hack it any more.

By 32 – Dummett’s age next birthday in September – I had been manager of Fulham for two years! There is no substitute for playing but by the time a lot of players find that out it is too late.

Sitting on the bench game after game after game and never even getting on as a sub yet travelling all over the country for nothing must be soul-destroying and certainly a waste of precious time. Things are different these days and I know why United would offer an extension. When I played we had 11 starters plus one sub. Another goalkeeper would join us in training each day so we had two keepers for a game but he was nowhere to be seen on match days.

Now United officially have a PL squad of 25 players and can name nine subs. Honestly, it is a different world and so they need players of experience who are willing to stick around in return for little action. Also Dummett significantly ticks the box about the number of home grown players who must be included in the squad.

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However what attracts the likes of Paul to sacrifice what little is left of his career? All I can think of professionally is a love of his hometown club. He has been with them all his life apart from two fleeting diversions on loan at Gateshead and St Mirren when he was looking to gain experience.

The same applied to Steve Harper. He was at Newcastle for 21 years yet made only 157 league appearances. What a waste of a playing career. I often wonder if deep down Steve regrets wasting so many years. At one time he was touted as a possible England keeper yet he sat behind Shay Given and hardly played for large slices of time.

Oh, like Alan Shearer, he will publicly talk of his devotion to Newcastle and sure enough he is back working there now but you cannot get back the barren seasons wasted.

Of course other things will come into Dummett’s thinking: his family are settled up here and no doubt have no wish to be uprooted and the money is probably better than he would get elsewhere at this late stage of his career.

I just hope that a nice lad doesn’t look back during his long years of retirement and think about what might have been. Nothing, absolutely nothing, beats playing a game we all love.