Joe Willock has spoken about his life outside of football and has admitted it was a struggle for him to adjust to life at Newcastle United following his permanent switch from Arsenal.
Following his £25million permanent switch from Arsenal, Newcastle United‘s Joe Willock says found it hard to come to terms with the move at first.
In an interview with The Telegraph, the player Sven Botman called ‘special‘ after the game against Everton revealed that he was homesick for a long time after his transfer to the North East.
Joe Willock admits he was homesick for pretty much all of last season
“Newcastle is my home now,” Willock told The Telegraph. “I love the place, the fans, the people, the city. But to be honest with you I was really homesick. It lasted the whole of that first season. I was so used to my London ways. I was close to my family and everything was the same.
“Suddenly I was at the other end of the country, living on my own. It was difficult. I was miserable at times.
“I would go home after training and it would kick in. The team was struggling at the start of the season. I didn’t think I was playing well. I didn’t have anyone to take my mind off things. I was alone for the first time and spent way too much time thinking about everything.”
This is a part of being a footballer that isn’t really thought about by the average fan. Footballers are young, they’re taken away from their families to different parts of the country, sometimes to different parts of the world, and are expected to be at their best on the pitch despite all that’s going on behind the scenes.
Willock did initially struggle at Newcastle when he made his move permanent, but after his run of goal-scoring form during his loan spell, he’d set himself an insanely high bar that he was never going to reach.
Now, though, Willock is playing probably the best football of his career so far. Granted he’s not scoring goals like he was at the end of the 2020/21 season, but he’s now more of a complete midfielder. One of the stand-out moments of this excellent season was Willock’s breathtaking outside of the boot pass for Alexander Isak to score against Tottenham.
Newcastle are seeing the best of Willock now and shouts for an England call-up are getting louder
The 23-year-old has said that the move has made him grow up a lot, and now he’s settled that’s likely helping with his form. Not to take anything away from Eddie Howe who has used his Midas touch on Willock.
“Coming through that period was the making of me,” admits Willock. The manager (Howe) has been fantastic and he’s been one of the most important people, without a doubt, in terms of developing me as a player. But also as a human.
“You can speak to him about anything. For him to be genuinely interested in you and everything going on, it’s brilliant. He’s done an amazing job.
“He has created an environment for players like me, but also players like (Brazil international) Bruno Guimaraes who are from the other side of the world, to feel at home. We are like one big family here. Newcastle is an incredible place to play football.”
With Willock’s new-found form, the calls are once again for him to be selected for England by Gareth Southgate. In fact, they’re louder now than they were after his incredible run of goals in 2021 as people are seeing more and more what he’s capable of.
It looks like we’re finally getting the player we thought we’d signed in the summer of 2021 and then some.
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