Newcastle United and Nick Woltemade look like a match made in heaven.
A chaotic summer transfer window saw Newcastle United miss out on several key targets before eventually signing Woltemade from Stuttgart.
Newcastle United’s club-record signing has already scored four goals in his first five starts since sealing a mega-money move to St James’ Park.
Bayern Munich have criticised Newcastle’s deal for Woltemade but the 23-year-old has responded on the pitch. Such comments have sounded like sour grapes, particularly because Bayern wanted to sign Woltemade before he joined Newcastle.
The Bavarian giants have consistently cherry-picked the best German talent from Bundesliga rivals but the forward, along with Liverpool’s Florian Wirtz, broke the mould somewhat.
Woltemade appears to have found a happy home at Newcastle and even the most optimistic supporters would surely admit that he’s made an even better start than predicted.
Now, some insight into the talks to sign him has emerged.
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Nick Woltemade’s camp were immediately impressed by Newcastle United
The move to sign him came from relatively nowhere. While the striker had been speculatively linked before, little looked advanced until the media reported in late August that a deal was very close.
At the time, all eyes were on the Alexander Isak situation.
Interestingly, according to BBC Sport, Woltemade’s camp did not have a huge amount of knowledge about Newcastle before talking to them.
His agents, however, instantly got a good feeling about the move because of Newcastle’s “personable approach”.
It’s also claimed that the Woltemade camp could tell that Newcastle had a clear idea on how they wanted to use the striker and they were also pleasantly surprised by the fact coaching staff were so willing to alter their style of play to get the best out of him.
Eddie Howe’s immediate feeling on Nick Woltemade revealed
It’s positive to hear that things went so smoothly. This was not a long and drawn-out transfer saga and the striker’s start to life on Tyneside has been rather seamless so far.
The fact he’s doing so well should not be taken for granted. Woltemade arrived with a lot of pressure on him considering the toxicity of the Isak saga and had a big price tag hovering over his head.
Thankfully, he appears to have taken all of that in his stride.
Eddie Howe’s positive gut feeling on Woltemade looks to have been correct.
Earlier this month, the Newcastle United manager said: “It’s never lost on me, the psychology factor, the responsibility that comes with the position.
“Not everybody can take that here. I felt immediately when I spoke to him, he could [deal with the pressure].”
With Yoane Wissa injured, Woltemade has helped prevent Newcastle from verging into another striker crisis.
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