Newcastle United’s new signing Matthew Bondswell has given his first interview since singing earlier this month.
The teenager made the move to St. James’ Park after leaving RB Leipzig, and has joined up with Chris Hogg and Peter Ramage’s U23 squad.
Bondswell is yet to feature for the Magpies, but could be in contention to face Wolverhampton Wanderers in the next game against on April 12.
The idea is that Bondswell gets up to speed with the youth team, before hopefully transitioning into the first-team.
That’s something he’s already thinking about, and there are two players he wants to follow the example of, being a former Nottingham Forest player.
He said (nufc.co.uk): “Jamaal Lascelles and Karl Darlow came through Forest’s Academy and one thing they had at the club was a wall of Academy graduates who had made their debut.
“Their pictures were both on there which gives me a little bit of motivation. I’ve seen those two players have their pictures on the wall and they started off at the same place where I did.
“It gives me some motivation to see if I can follow on the same path as they have.”
Bondswell will hope to make a quick impression, as the left-back position in the first-team remains an area of weakness.
A chance for Bondswell
Jamal Lewis has not had the best of debut seasons for Newcastle.
The left-back position remains an area of slight concern and so Bondswell should be looking to shine and get that first-team promotion.
Using the success stories of Lascelles and Darlow, hopefully that call will come fairly soon, although given Steve Bruce’s reluctance to use young talents like Elliot Anderson and the Longstaff brothers, fans won’t be getting their hopes up.
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