Newcastle star received sheep’s heart Xmas present as he ‘didn’t have one of his own’

A Newcastle player was once given a sheep’s heart as a Christmas gift as he ‘didn’t have one of his own.’

The recipient of the bizarre gift was former Toon star Alessandro Pistone, who was handed the present for his apparent lack of commitment on the pitch. The Italian was brought to the Magpies in 1997 by Kenny Daglish, but was frozen out of the squad by the Scot’s successor Ruud Gullit.

He was left without a squad number and banished to play in the reserves along with Toon legend Rob Lee who had also fallen foul of Gullit. And it was Lee who revealed that Pistone was given the sheep’s heart from the butcher’s as a joke on Xmas as the defender lacked courage during matches.

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Lee and the other Toon players weren’t impressed by Pistone’s theatrics that saw him plead for attention from the club’s physios at any given opportunity.

So, to exemplify Pistone’s courage void, the squad pulled together to get him a heart from the ruminant mammal.

The sheep’s heart gift seemed to have the right effect as Lee noticed a significant shift in the effort Pistone started to apply in training, and his commitment to learn English, Lee said via NUFC: “I discovered Alessandro was a nice lad. He was always a very good player but when he first came here he had big problems with English and was always wanting attention from the physios for every tiny thing.

“That’s all changed; he’s really got his head down in training, he’s taken language lessons and his English is getting very good. Everybody respects him now.” Pistone took the joke surprisingly well according to Lee, and the full-back was adamant it wasn’t serious because a few other players including Duncan Ferguson got funny gifts too.

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He mused: “I’m sure it was a joke. The others had some really funny presents too, Temuri Ketsbaia [who is bald] got a hairbrush and Duncan Ferguson a prison shirt.” Funnily enough, Pistone’s lack of heart was prevalent once again when he had a tense run-in with big Dunc who summoned him for a fight after he told the Sottish powerhouse to “f*** off”.

But instead of going to meet the raging forward and settle their differences, Pistone burst into tears, to the shock of Kieron Dyer. Dyer relayed the encounter during a podcast appearance and couldn’t stop laughing as he recanted the frosty moment.

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