Newcastle skipper Matt Thompson has said the Jets squad has not let any off-field incidents affect their preparation for next Wednesday’s crucial Asian Champions League match against Korean side Ulsan Hyundai.
News had filtered out over the past week that the team had threatened to boycott the match against the K-League team over the whereabouts of player payments for the ACL campaign.
Thompson said that the matter had been resolved after a meeting between the players and owner Con Constantine on Thursday night and the Jets skipper confirmed the players were committed to playing in next Wednesday night’s match in Korea.
“We obviously have a better understanding of where it lies,” he said at a press conference on Friday afternoon. “We spoke to the PFA about where the AFC payments would come from and we have to thank them for that.”
“But having said that Con (Constantine) sat us down yesterday and made it clear with us and where it lay and we left that meeting with all the boys happy with what Con had said and now we are just concentrating on next week’s game.”
Asked if the off-field dramas had affected the players during the build-up for next week’s match Thompson was emphatic in his response.
“It hasn’t. You step over the white chalk to get business done and when we got off the pitch there were a few things to sort out but training has been great the whole week,” he said.
“You only have to spend five minutes watching the guys to know we are switched on for the game.”
“We have been preparing for this since the recovery after the win over Beijing so we can’t wait to get out there and come away with three points.”
