'What a ground' - Man City star makes St James' Park claim and namechecks Newcastle United, Sunderland & Leeds
Newcastle United’s St James’ Park and Manchester United’s Old Trafford were among the stadiums mentioned.
Manchester City and England star Kyle Walker has named St James’ Park as one of his favourite stadiums to visit.
The 34-year-old has featured at St James’ Park 11 times as a player, first with Tottenham Hotspur and Man City. He has tasted victory on five occasions, drawn three and lost three.
Although Walker has established himself as one of the Premier League greatest-ever right-backs whilst boasting a decent record against Newcastle, even he hasn’t escaped a few shaky moments on Tyneside.
Walker couldn’t live with Allan Saint-Maximin during a 3-3 draw two years ago, while both Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon cut inside of him to score before Pep Guardiola’s men clinched an injury time win in January.
But it is a stadium Walker clearly holds a lot of respect for as he named St James’ and Manchester United’s Old Trafford as the two grounds that give him “chills”.
He told the You’ll Never Beat Kyle Walker podcast: “I like [Manchester] United. Old Trafford. I like going there. We’ve been fortunate to get the results we have done, especially over your rivals. But even when I played at Tottenham, it probably didn’t come off as well as it has done over recent years but I still always enjoyed going to Old Trafford.
“I like St James’ Park as well. I just think ‘what a ground’.”
Walker then felt obliged to mention Sunderland’s Stadium of Light with his co-owner, former Love Island star Chris Hughes, a big Black Cats fan. The Sheffield-born defender also recognised Newcastle, Leeds, and Sunderland as “passionate” one-club cities.
He continued: “Sunderland’s weren’t bad, I don’t mind Sunderland’s. And I like Villa’s, maybe because I played there.
“You don’t hear certain things. You go to Anfield and there’s the ‘Never Walk Alone’, you hear these things because they’re at the start of the game but apart from that, you don’t really hear much because you’re just so in the zone of concentrating.
“For the fans, they’re definitely sets of fans that you’d put right up there. The one team cities, Sunderland, Newcastle, Leeds - these fans are so passionate.”