"I love it," deadpans Callum Wilson, asked for his thoughts on the questions that continue to be asked about his fitness. His face is straight but a hint of a smile is threatening to break out. "I really enjoy when people write me off. It just sets a fire off inside, which is then a problem for other teams and other people. Sometimes as a player, it's human nature - you can get complacent in life, can't you? If I have someone there constantly trying to put me down and write me off, that just keeps me alight, really. It's proving people wrong. I got here by doing that and I will continue to do it.
"So I actually really, really enjoy it when people say, 'Cal's not good enough, he can't do this, he can't do that, he's going to get injured'. I get so much satisfaction out of proving people wrong."
There is an understandable weariness worn by Wilson when such questions arise at a time when the 30-year-old hopes they can all be confined to the past. He feels like he has built "a robustness and a tolerance" to it all after serious knee injuries, plural, plus last season's calf problem that sidelined him from December to May. When he returned for the run-in he looked sharp, hungry, potent, attested by a final-day brace at Burnley.
How do you do that? How do you come back so strongly, again and again? "Mentality," he says. "Honestly. You get to a certain level in football through ability. Mentality is the rest. For me, when I get a setback, my mental strength switches on, kicks into overdrive and I always will come back in a better place. I tell myself that, and I do it as well.
"I remember before, I did my second ACL, came back and within a game or two I scored a hat trick in the Premier League (against Huddersfield Town in November 2017). We've mentioned scoring on the first game of the season - you've done it so many times that you're like, 'I'm going to do it again'. It's kind of the same thing with a setback. 'Right, I'll come back, hit the ground running'. You say it, but you've already done it, so you can believe it, then you put it into action. It's probably a bit of visualisation, manifestation, that kind of thing. I never come back in a bad place. But from now on, I hope I won't have to come back."
Wilson celebrates after putting Newcastle 2-1 up during Sunday's thrilling 3-3 draw with Manchester City
Earlier, we spoke about his first day record. This season began like the previous two have for Wilson: with a goal, in the win over Nottingham Forest. Some players can be hampered by an atmosphere and some are elevated by it and Wilson believes he is the latter. He is comfortable with the 'process' of pre-season, the time for cumulative load-building and physical tweaks, but it doesn't fire him. "You have friendly games, and they're stimulating, but it's not the same as when you have 50,000 there. The last two years, on the opening matchday, we've been at home, and you're like, 'I have to try and perform today'. It's not like I don't think that every week - it's just the whole excitement, buzz, the dressing room. And then you're aware of the record, so you're almost like, 'well, no matter what happens, I'm going to score today anyway'."
Wilson supported Coventry City as a child. The Sky Blues were slowly sliding from the top flight then but there are memories of Robbie Keane, Youssef Chippo, Mo Konjic and Magnus Hedman. He was a season ticket holder in the West Terrace at Highfield Road, "where it used to go off. I used to be singing the songs with the fans, this and that, and it just built the passion, really." His taste for the big stage can be traced back to his league debut for his boyhood club, by then at the Ricoh Arena, in front of 17,000 in December 2010. It came just before a half-season loan at Kettering and by the time he returned the following summer, there were fewer wide-eyed nerves.
A 21-year-old Wilson celebrates a goal for Coventry against Bristol City in 2013
"I was annoyed that when I was making my debut, I wasn't the kind of character I was at the back end of my loan spell," he says. "I went to Bournemouth years down the line, and it's not a massive stadium there, so I did enjoy playing away as well. The more I was playing at the bigger stadiums, freely, the more I enjoyed it, the more I enjoyed scoring, celebrating, opposition fans being on your back - everything that comes with being a striker.
"I always wanted to join a club where my home games would have an unreal atmosphere, and it was part of the reason I came here when I had the opportunity. I've been here as an opposition player, I've seen it, I've heard the roar. I thought, 'I would want that for myself scoring a goal'." Wilson reiterates that the feeling of netting is unparalleled but "to match that with the roar of the stadium here...," he adds, "it's unreal. That's the feeling you crave."
United's number nine sat alongside his teammates last week as head coach Eddie Howe delivered a potted history lesson. It encompassed those years when that intangible, intoxicating feeling of optimism lingered around the club like it was part of the fabric. Kevin Keegan returned to St. James' Park as manager the same year Wilson was born and his presence was felt throughout. "It was eye-opening," he says. "You might understand the history of the club, but you might not understand the extent of some things, or how things played out with Keegan. I was unaware that the year he signed he'd been England captain, and he dropped down to what is now the Championship to come here, so that was new to me. You know your club a bit more. It was like a life lesson, really, but a nice one. You're pulling on that shirt and you want to know what it represents. I feel like now, every player in the squad does know."
"...the roar of the stadium here... it's unreal. That's the feeling you crave."
After his delicate flick sealed the 2-0 win over Forest, Wilson - in a post-match interview broadcast live - spoke of wanting to make England's World Cup squad for this year's tournament in Qatar. It is still relatively uncommon for top level footballers to air their career aims in such a forthright manner and the frontman says he is not inclined to discuss it in too much depth. But the desire is there.
"I didn't shy away from the question, first and foremost. What you see is what you get with me. I don't really have an act. I say it how it is, really, and they asked me about the World Cup," he explains. "My answer was an honest one. Yeah, I do want to go to the World Cup. I'm not hiding the fact that I do. I'm not saying that I'm not sure, (so that) if I fail, it's like, 'I didn't really put it out there anyway so no-one's going to know that that's my ambition'.
"For me, it's my ambition. I'm setting my mind on it and if I get there, I get there. If I don't, maybe something along the way I must have not achieved or a goal I must have not got, but I've set my targets and set my ambitions and I don't hide away from the fact that I want to represent my country.
"I also am very conscious that I don't want to talk too much about it in the media. I don't want to talk my way into the squad. I want to do my talking on the pitch, score goals here for Newcastle, and if the manager of England decides to take me as part of his squad then so be it. All I can affect is what I do on the pitch here, day-in, day-out in training and then week-in, week-out on a matchday."
Scoring at Wembley on his England debut against the USA in November 2018
Wilson has four caps and one goal to his name to date and it is far from fantasy for that goal to become reality for someone who says that "once I set my mind on something, I usually tend to focus my energy and achieve it." Last year, in these pages, he barely drew breath before answering a question about his aim for 2021/22. "Twenty goals," he replied then.
What about now, in this season of burgeoning hope? "For me, I'm anticipating playing in most of the games - that's in my mind. I believe that if I was to play most of the games - 38 games in a season - I could score 20 goals. That's the magic number for any striker.
"It's still on my agenda. The long-term goal is to get into the 100 club. But the short-term goal is to focus on the process that's going to do that. The quicker you get 20, the quicker you get closer to your long-term goal. I said a few years ago that I was on route to that, and I had a few setbacks on the way which was frustrating. I'll set it the same every year until I achieve it, and then when I achieve it, I'll push the bar up higher."
