You probably already have an opinion on Jason Tindall. It would be difficult not to. Newcastle United’s assistant head coach is more visible, colourful, confrontational and, for many opposition managers, more annoying than anyone else in the Premier League.
Tindall is in-your-face loud. He will argue and complain on the touchline. He is in the fourth official’s ear and gets under your skin. He is impossible to ignore and, apparently, hard to like if you are on the opposition bench.
There is not another assistant manager like him, but there is one thing you need to know about Tindall, something that fuels him, something that has made him Eddie Howe’s most trusted and loyal companion for 17 years: he “does not give a s---”.
Newcastle fans adored him long before he and Howe delivered the club’s first domestic trophy for 70 years. But the man they have dubbed Mad Dog is far more than just football’s ultimate wind-up merchant.
“I don’t exactly know what that Mad Dog thing is or why it came about,” Tindall says, leaning forward in his chair in the new Sir Bobby Robson Room at Newcastle United’s training ground. “It’s probably to do with the way I am on the sidelines.
“I’m very, very passionate, I’ll do anything to win and that’s probably a good thing. Eddie isn’t very emotional on the touchline and I think it is important that I am the way I am. If I wasn’t, that is something he would probably have to be and there is so much other stuff that is important on a match day that he needs to focus on. I take that side of things away.
“When he was younger Eddie used to get much more involved in those arguments, but it has happened naturally, it’s me who does it. I very rarely think I’ve crossed the line. I will vent my frustration if I’m not happy with certain things. I don’t think I’m disrespectful.
“Obviously, the opposition want to win too and sometimes they will say things that I don’t agree with. I will let that be known. If I’m there to be that person to have an argument, that is what I’m going to do.”
When I put it to him, that for many outside of Newcastle, he is the most irritating man in football, Tindall’s eyes light up and a broad, gleaming white smile spreads across his face.
“It’s not my intention to attract attention if that makes sense,” he said. “People say I’ve got too high a profile for an assistant manager, how that has come about, but again, I don’t take any notice of it or think I’m going to do this to gain more attention.
“The outside world can say what they say, but it’s just me. I just go about my business. This isn’t new and Ed will say the same, the way I am at Newcastle is exactly the same as I was at Bournemouth.
“It’s part of my character, I don’t care what people think [including ...
