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IT’S always special when Newcastle come back to Belgium, and Club Brugge are a good draw for them. If Newcastle United play to their level, winning home and away shouldn’t be a problem.

Brugge are top of the table over here after six games in the Belgian league, but the rhythm of the game and the quality is not as high as in England, France, Spain or Germany.

We’ve got a very, very good squad for our national team, but we don’t have the money to keep our best players.

That makes it very difficult for our clubs to do well in Europe.

It’s not like the 70s and 80s when we were able top buy the best players from France and Holland.

Brugge bought Jean-Pierre Papin in 1985 and Anderlecht signed Robbie Rensenbrink in 1971.

Papin was European Footballer of the Year in 1991, and Rensenbrink is one of the best Dutch players ever.

Now, Belgian clubs can’t compete financially with the top European clubs, and certainly not the Premier League, where there is more money than any other league.

Brugge haven’t won anything for the last five years – they won the cup in 2007 – so they’ve bought some players in the last couple of years to try and do something about that.

Newcastle will find they’re a very organised team with a manager who’s been in the job for 25 years. Georges Leekens has probably worked for 20 teams in that time so he’s got a lot of experience.

Alan Pardew has said he will rest players in the Europa League this season, but I don’t think Leekens will.

Brugge have a good squad by Belgian standards, so they will be able to play their strongest team in the Europa League without having to worry about their title chances

Newcastle need to be careful about Lior Refaelov, Brugge’s left-sided midfield player. Victor Vazquez was a young player at Barcelona and the two strikers, Mohamed Tchite and Carlos Bacca, are dangerous.

They’re four players who regularly make the difference at Belgian level, and are good enough to do it in Europe too.

They’re not so good at the back if Newcastle can put pressure on them and the goalkeeper, Bojan Jorgacevic, is not very sure of himself.

Brugge have already said in the newspapers over here they expect Newcastle to win the group and they’ll be worried about Hatem Ben Arfa, who can be very important for Newcastle.

He didn’t play that well for France in this summer’s European Championships, but then France didn’t have a very good time as a team.

I was lucky enough to cover the Newcastle v Man United game for Belgian TV in January and it was a very good display from Newcastle, who played with two very good strikers in Demba Ba and Shola Ameobi.

Ba is a great striker who can have a great partnership with Papiss Cisse.

I think Newcastle can finish in the top six this season and hopefully go far in Europe as well.

Yohan Cabaye has inherited my old terrace song and he deserves it. He was another one who didn’t have a great Euros but he was fantastic last season and if he can repeat some of those performances he will be a big player for Newcastle.

I will never forget the five wonderful years I had playing for Newcastle. I’ve got great memories of the club and the town was fantastic so I’m always pleased to see them winning games and very happy to see them playing at European level again.

The fans are absolutely fantastic and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were 5,000 out here. It was like that when we played Antwerp in 1994.

I would love Newcastle to win the group and Brugge to be second. There’s a good chance that could happen.

Philippe Albert was interviewed by Stuart Rayner