'I didn't want to do it': Jermaine Jenas now says he turned down deadline day transfer out of respect for Newcastle United

Jermaine Jenas has been speaking about his time at Newcastle United this week, and while there has always been a big cloud over his time on Tyneside, it seems the former England midfielder still has a love for the Toon.

Jenas, who pushed to leave Newcastle United as he struggled with life in the 'goldfish bowl' of being at a one-club city, departed the club, moving to Tottenham Hotspur, while Newcastle fans took his words to heart.

Indeed, despite often being pretty complimentary about the club when working as a pundit, there are many Newcastle fans who just can't let the past go - the less said about is more recent shenanigans, the better.

While speaking on the Filthy Fellas podcast this week, Jenas spoke about how good Craig Bellamy was at Newcastle, as well as a transfer opportunity that came up years after leaving Newcastle.

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Jermaine Jenas turned down a loan to Sunderland while at Spurs

Years after leaving Newcastle, Tottenham were keen to loan the midfielder out, ultimately allowing him to go to Aston Villa and then back to Nottingham Forest before moving him on permanently to QPR, but Jenas could have really turned the forgiving side of the Toon Army against him when Martin O'Neill came knocking.

"Martin O'Neill had been trying to sign me for years when he was at [Aston] Villa and I kept turning him down. Then he was at Sunderland. At the time, I didn't even know it was Sunderland but my agent rang me and he said, 'There's two clubs.' I just knew one of them was Sunderland.

"It was deadline day and I said to him, 'I just can't go to Sunderland. It kills the Newcastle thing too much and I respect the Newcastle thing too much.' I didn't want to do it and it didn't work out for whatever reason."

Newcastle United gets under players' skin whether they want it to or not

Whatever you think of the man, we love that he wouldn't go to Sunderland out of respect.

There would have been no coming back from that one, given the way he left the club, so he definitely made the right call there.

See, even when players don't have a particularly good time at the club, it still gets under their skin. There's no place like it.