Geremi: 'By The Way - Christmas Is Cancelled!'

Geremi: "Christmas in England is going to be a very different experience for some of the players, but we've tried to make them aware of it. In effect, they know they're not going to have Christmas.

"They're going to struggle with all the games, it was one of the first things I talked to them about at the start of the season because it's better they're aware of it as early as possible so they can prepare.

"The thing is, if we win our games over Christmas, we won't notice the tiredness.

"It's much easier to recover from games when you've won, it's only hard if you've lost and have to pick yourself up again to play a couple of days later.

"That's the message we have to understand as a team. The best present of all will be to win all our games.

"There's been a lot of rubbish talked about this season, but we ignored it and stuck together as a team.

"I explained to the new players that this is what happens when you play at a big team in England like Newcastle.

"There's a lot of pressure, but we responded well. As captain, I didn't have to say much to the players, I think we knew we had to stick together, that was the only way we were going to get ourselves out of it.

"I've tried to keep everyone focused on what we have to do and to ignore the things that were being written and said about us."