Jamaal Lascelles did not confront Eddie Howe over his extraordinary six-month wait for a Premier League start.
For a player that has been at the epicentre of everything at Newcastle United in the past decade, it can't have been easy for the 29-year-old centre-back that was once wanted by Arsene Wenger at Arsenal during his fledgling years as a kid with Nottingham Forest. Since making his top-flight bow for the Magpies he has found himself at the head of a restaurant table with business tycoon Mike Ashley to thrash out political disputes, nose to nose with senior pros over a dip in standards back in 2016 and was deemed as the leader Rafa Benitez saw fit to guide the club back to the Premier League in 2017.
In all truth, the above passage skims over a clutch of stormy episodes that would make a best-selling autobiography for Lascelles later in his life. This season alone has been layered with many testing moments for the Derby-born defender from a personal point of view.
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Lascelles has watched on in the last eight months alone as long-serving team-mates such as Jonjo Shelvey, Isaac Hayden, Federico Fernandez and close pals Ciaran Clark and Karl Darlow have headed for the exit door. It would have been easy for him to hand in a transfer request but the club captain who was signed by Alan Pardew in 2014 opted for fight rather than flight.
Anybody who knows Lascelles will tell you he would never be the problem player that pollutes the dressing room in protest of losing their place. And even though he has had to watch on as Kieran Trippier led a sturdy defence of Fabian Schar, Sven Botman, Dan Burn and Nick Pope find themselves emblazoned on to a fan banner, he remained focused on training.
After carefully observing the demands of the sixth head coach of his career at St James' Park, Lascelles was rewarded with a start against Man City in the weekend defeat at the Etihad Stadium. It may have been a defeat but Lascelles won man of the match for Newcastle after setting the tone with a crunching tackle on 33-goal Erling Haaland as the Norway ace ended the day without a goal.
As Newcastle's defence has gone from looking invincible to slightly vulnerable in the past month or so, Lascelles is asked if his argument to start matches was now stronger than the first half of the season.
Lascelles told Chronicle Live: "Yeah. But I have always been a player that has never wanted to use my captaincy or my voice to force my way into the team.
"I want to earn it. I want to be the best in training and be amazing when I play, and I want the manager to be able to say: 'He has to start.'
"I'm not the type to go round knocking on doors and stuff. "The manager is a smart manager, and whatever team he picks we know it is a squad game.We all fully back it. It is a collective thing.
"I don't think about myself. I have been so many years, and of course, I want to play every single game. But we are a squad. That has been the biggest driving force for our success."
Lascelles quietly got back to business at Man City and his contributions were there for all to see. He wasn't on the pitch when a more confident looking United defence dealt with then Everton player Anthony Gordon in a much-publicised spat in the autumn win over the Toffees.
As another unsavoury encounter unfolded at the Etihad and Newcastle looked less likely to control the battle it was Lascelles who came from nowhere and cleaned up an ugly encounter which centred around Burn and Haaland. As City tried to waste time at the end with Haaland and Jack Grealish winning corner after corner, it was Lascelles who took a yellow card and put a stop to City's antics when energy levels elsewhere were dipping.
Lascelles knows what he might have to bring to the team in the closing chapter of the season and said: "I think the confidence has been flying. "Up until this little dip, we have been winning a lot of games.
"Now it takes the big characters to keep everyone level-headed and stay consistent. The results will come. The leaders and the characters need to keep everyone at it still."
Newcastle players are presented with leaderboards and rewards for training displays around Benton as achievements on the training pitches are displayed around their North Tyneside HQ. As Newcastle go in against Wolves this weekend for what many see as a "must win" Lascelles agrees that the build-up to this one is no different to any other, Howe has always billed matches as "must win" since taking over.
The centre-back reflected: "Definitely. Definitely since the manager has been here. He has instilled that in us. The way we train, everything is about winning.
"Even the training sessions. You get a photo (beamed around the training ground) if you win a game of possession. Everything is about winning we are obviously devastated. There is more expectation now and it's about us boys delivering."
Lascelles has played just 194 minutes in the Premier League this season and must wait to see how the head coach approaches the return of Fabian Schar this weekend. Lascelles though won't change regardless of Howe's decisions.
Lascelles said: "No footballer wants to sit on the bench. But at the same time, I accept when a team is playing well and has got a brilliant defensive record that is how football works. It will never change my mood or my professionalism. It will just make me work harder and I will always support the team.
"Fabby had a little knock and didn't play, I thought there were positives to take for me as an individual and us a team and a squad."
Newcastle have slipped from second place on Boxing Day to sixth place with 14 games to go. A once firm grip on the Champions League places has been replaced with talk of dropping into Europa League or Europa Conference League spots.
The defender said: "The encouraging thing for me is that although we’ve had a little dip in the season, our performances in the Liverpool game with 10 men, the final, (against Manchester City), there are positives to take with the chances and we could have stopped their goals.
"We've only lost to Liverpool and Man City so we just to need to make sure we get six points from our next two. We've got a great squad, we’ve got strength in every position and I like to think that it doesn’t matter how many changes are made, we’re still strong and our bench is really strong. It’s a good headache for the manager to have."
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