Newcastle United may wait until the summer to bring in a number of first-team recruits, but there’s a new addition due on Tyneside tomorrow.

Georgian forward Vakhtang Salia is due to arrive in August and there is another young attacker set to arrive soon, almost six months after agreeing a move to St James’ Park.

Another Irish talent arriving on Tyneside

Back in August, NUFCBlog exclusively revealed that the club had struck a deal with Galway United to bring in Irish talent Kyle Fitzgerald.

However, his switch to Newcastle United would have to wait until he turned 18 due to the United Kingdom’s non-EU registration rules.

With Fitzgerald’s 18th birthday falling tomorrow on Tuesday 27th January, he will officially become a Newcastle player in the next 24 hours, with a club announcement likely to come soon.

The 17-year-old signed his first professional contract with Galway in 2022 after progressing through their youth ranks from Under-14 to Under-20 level and made his senior debut for the Irish side in June last year.

Brighton and Wolves both showed interest in the left-sided teenager, but he opted or a move to the North East in August, seeing him become the second Galway talent to arrive after Alex Murphy in 2022.

Academy investment continues

Since the takeover, it’s been noticeable just how many players we’ve recruited at every level from U14s all the way up to our U21 side.

We clearly have eyes on the Irish market after moves for Murphy and Fitzgerald, while a ‘strategic relationship’ was set up between our Academy and NIFL Irish Premiership champions Larne Football Club last summer.

Domestically, we’ve seen several highly-rated England youth internationals arrive in Trevan Sanusi (Birmingham), Leo Shahar (Wolves), Sam Alabi (Oldham) and Michael Mills (Port Vale).

Salia is the latest overseas addition and is expected to go out on loan soon after his arrival in August, with Serbian talent Miodrag Pivas currently in the Dutch league after signing last summer.