Saturday afternoon’s pre-season opener turned into an afternoon that many Newcastle fans will want to forget ever happened.
The Mags fell to a 4-0 loss at Celtic Park, with goals from Arne Engels, Jonjoe Kenny, Yang Hyun-Jun and Liam Scales giving Celtic the win in the Adidas Trophy game.
The absence of Alexander Isak, Joelinton, Lewis Hall and Tino Livramento was felt, as Howe looks to manage the minutes of even his very top players at this stage of the summer.
However, in what may seem like a small consolation given the lack of senior additions so far, another project signing was spotted at Celtic Park ahead of his official move to Newcastle.
New signing seen at Celtic Park
Pictured in attendance for yesterday’s 3pm kick-off was South Korean winger Park-Seung Soo, who has been tipped to sign imminently.
Although not officially a Newcastle United player just yet, Park sat alongside the newly-appointed Head of Strategy Jack Ross (to the left). See both photos below:
We revealed earlier this week that the 18-year-old had landed in the UK and was set for a medical, so we can expect an announcement very soon confirming his arrival.
As reported, Newcastle are believed to have beaten Bayern Munich and Marseille to his signature, while reports in Asia indicate that he’s likely to stay with our under-21s in his first year, opposed to being loaned out.
Will he feature during pre-season tour of Asia?
After today’s torrid display against Brendan Rodgers’ side, and with Anthony Elanga being the only first team-calibre player brought in so far this window, could Eddie Howe be tempted to bring some of his youngsters along for upcoming pre-season tour of Asia?
The likes of Sean Neave, Alex Murphy and Leo Shahar have all built up quite a reputation within the youth system, and will be clamouring for opportunities in the senior squad for the upcoming season.
Park could be an option as well. We notably play Team K-League and Spurs in his native South Korea, so the opportunity to showcase his talent in front of a welcoming crowd could be the perfect way to kickstart his Toon career.
One youngster we’re unlikely to see much of in pre-season however is Antonio Cordero: fresh off a run to the finals of the U-19 EUROs with Spain, he’s still expected to be loaned out this summer, with Ajax a reported candidate to sign him.
I bet he was well impressed watching us against Celtic yesterday.
Ian(Quote)
As a pro footballer I’m fairly sure he understands the 1st pre season game is about fitness, especially against a team that start their league season in less than 2 weeks. Meaningless result wise, despite this modern trend to be so OTT about everything in the media. It’s almost like some of the national press want to cause a club in crisis narrative to suit their click bait agenda…please let’s not fall for it
East stand(Quote)
Fair result due to the absentees from our normal first team. But you learn more from losing so Eddie rightly there’s a lot to do. But as Alf Ramsey in 1965 and 1966. When you lose it highlights your weak areas and he went on to win the World Cup for England. I was 17 and did not like losing. So losing is not nice but Eddie knows more about where to focus our efforts. Hence the reason for friendlies. The players and management got a platform to build on. Celtic on the other hand learnt nothing from the game because they were not playing a full Premier League side. So HOWAY THE LADS. MARTYN BRISTOL
Martyn Hancock(Quote)