Club legend Alan Shearer has heaped praise on new signing Callum Wilson following our 2-0 win against West Ham.
Wilson bagged the opener on his debut and has recently revealed that our former captain helped convince him to move to the North-East, with big Al also in touch with the 28-year-old after his first call-up for England a few years ago.
Shearer also praised fellow new boy Jeff Hendrick, believing the former Burnley man was “superb” in Saturday’s 0-2 win.
Here’s what he had to say about the win on Match of the Day:
“A very encouraging week for Newcastle and they matched it with a really promising performance.
“They had an edge to them that I didn’t see many times last season and that edge was because of Callum Wilson.
“His ability to constantly be a menace, be in and around the box is what Newcastle lacked.
“It will take his teammates some time to get used to it because he is making clever runs in behind (the opposition defence).
“He’s horrible to play against, defenders hate that.
“Hopefully in time his teammates will learn how to play with him and get up to support him. He was alive in that 18-yard box and it’s what they needed someone to do.
“Jonjo Shelvey was top scorer last season with six goals and the reason they bought Callum Wilson is the put the ball in the back of the net and given them that focal point.
“And he gets the goal that his performance deserves – it was good play on the left-hand side from Jeff Hendrick, who I thought was superb as well.
“That’s what he has to do. What a start for him and what a start for Newcastle.”
Wilson has stated that he would love to have even just a quarter of the success that big Al had at Newcastle – which to be precise would equate to just over 50 goals.
Toon fans would be more than happy with that considering no Newcastle player has reached that threshold since Shearer himself retired.
With one in the bag already, let’s hope there are many, many more to come!
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