Newcastle United have had their fair share of incidents among their players over the years.
Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer famously had a fight on the pitch at one point, while Alan Shearer once kicked Neil Lennon in the head during a game.
Newcastle’s players often get themselves in these sorts of situations, and speaking to Open Goal, Dwight Gayle has spoken about how he would often scrap with one of his teammates in Newcastle training.
Gayle was brilliant in training at Newcastle apparently, but according to the striker, he would often get into fights with Matt Ritchie.
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Matt Ritchie would fight Dwight Gayle in training
Gayle spoke about how he used to get into fights with Matt Ritchie.
Matt Ritchie had some brilliant moments for Newcastle, but according to Gayle, he would often kick off in training and be a bit too chirpy to his teammates.
The £11m man once got on the wrong side of Gayle, and they got into a bit of a fight on the training ground.
“How did you find Matt? The busiest man in football?” Gayle was asked.
“Yeah, me and Matt used to have so many fights all the time. All the time. Not me and him, we did have one, but he would fight with everyone, he was so chirpy, he would push it and push it and push it.
“He’s a great professional and he’s overachieved because of how hard he worked.
“What happened was the ball was bouncing around and he said ‘lift him’ to Ciaran Clark, and we started arguing and grabbing each other and whatever. Rafa said to us to both go in, because Rafa hated it.
“But it came back around, and he tried smashing me, so I just grabbed him to the floor and he’s trying to grab my legs and stuff.”
Dwight Gayle record alongside Matt Ritchie
Gayle and Ritchie may have clashed in training, but they did have a good record together at Newcastle.
Indeed, these two were key players in Newcastle’s promotion push back in the 2016/17 season, and while they didn’t always get on personally, they worked well together on the pitch, as the numbers show.
| Games | 84 |
| Wins | 34 |
| Draws | 17 |
| Losses | 33 |
| Dwight Gayle goals | 29 |
| Joint goal participation | 4 |
Gayle and Ritchie won’t necessarily go down as Newcastle United legends, but they are two important figures who helped the Magpies through what was a very difficult period in the Championship.
These days, Gayle and Ritchie are still playing with Gayle turning out for Hibs in Scotland, while Ritchie is playing for Portsmouth back in the Championship again.
