I think how football works, the way you have to look at football, that is the difference between Leicester and Newcastle. There is big motivation here to keep growing and to get better here at Leicester. I didn't feel they had it at Newcastle.
I've got the opportunity to manage a big football club, a seriously big football club, and I wasn't going to turn that down.
You start going to games when you're younger but you think it's the norm that every football club in the world has that many fans, but as you get older you realise they don't! And you realise just how big a club Newcastle is.
I have followed Newcastle my whole life. I had two Newcastle shirts when I was little. It was unusual; most people choose a team like Manchester United or Barcelona, but for me, it has always been Newcastle.
Leaving Liverpool was the toughest decision I had to make in football because I was in an exemplary club, a proper football club, with a lovely and sharing stadium that meant a lot of things to me. The fans are the best in the world, no doubt about that, and I was comfortable there.
At Leeds, it was to stay up. I was such a young player, Leeds were my club, and we didn't do it. That was a lot to take. At Newcastle, the expectations to win a trophy were enormous. The No. 1 thing everyone up there thinks about is the football club.
My job is to be a spokesman - the spokesman, I suppose - for the President, for the White House, to do the daily briefings, to manage the press corps in terms of travel, day-to-day needs, access, interviews, all those issues.
Your boyhood club, the one you've supported, the one result that you look for more than anybody else because of my upbringing, has always been Newcastle so to go and manage it is arguably the pinnacle but it's a really difficult job, I have to tell you.
For any Geordie, if you can't manage to play for Newcastle, then to get back and manage them it's something special.
It was really hard in Newcastle. It was one city, one club. Everybody there was really crazy about Newcastle.
At Newcastle, I had a team at the bottom of the table with a crowd that was very angry at what had gone on at the club for a period of time.
I had other interesting offers, but for me, it had to be a top club. When you look at Arsenal, with a fantastic manager, good environment, and never any bad press surrounding the club, they are playing attractive football and have a great stadium with great fans.
A football club's board of directors' job is to attract and get the best football players and keep them at the football club.
I've always wanted to play for Newcastle, and I've only had a little taste of that, so for me, it's about getting fit as soon as I can and getting back on the pitch for Newcastle and making more memories of the future.
I enjoyed my time at Newcastle and it was a very good experience for me to be involved at such a big club.
Pardew has come out and criticized me. He is the worst at haranguing referees. He shoves them and makes a joke of it. How he can criticize me is unbelievable. He forgets the help I gave him, by the way. The press have had a field day. The only person they have not spoken to is Barack Obama because he is busy. It is unfortunate but I am the manager of the most famous club in the world. Not Newcastle, a wee club in the North-East. I was demonstrative. I am always demonstrative. Everyone knows that. I am an emotional guy but I was not abusive.