Shearer says Eddie Howe has turned 26-year-old Newcastle man into fan favourite

Add as preferred source on Google

There aren’t many stories of a player transformed as good as that of Joelinton at Newcastle United but Alan Shearer always saw the potential.

Alan Shearer has said that he felt sorry for £40million star Joelinton when he first joined Newcastle in 2019. Joelinton was brought in from Hoffenheim and given the number nine shirt at Newcastle, famously worn by Shearer himself and often reserved for the player responsible for bagging Newcastle’s goals.

It was an odd move considering Joelinton was mostly deployed as a left-winger in Germany, but Newcastle signed him as a striker and that’s where Steve Bruce persistently played him. Completely out of his comfort zone, Joelinton became a laughing stock in the Premier League as his inability to find the back of the net became a thing of legend.

Eddie Howe put Joelinton into midfield and never looked back

Through good judgement or sheer dumb luck, Eddie Howe stumbled upon Joelinton’s true calling when Ciaran Clark got himself sent off in the first eight minutes against Norwich in one of Howe’s first games in charge. Needing to shore things up, Howe told Joelinton to drop into midfield and a star was born.

Since then, Joelinton hasn’t looked back turning from laughable striker into one of the best box-to-box midfielders in the Premier League. Such is the boost in confidence this new role has given him, he’s even discovered his scoring touch having netted eight times this season for the Magpies.

Speaking to Premier League Productions (via HITC), Alan Shearer has said: “I felt sorry for Joelinton when he first came to Newcastle. It was unfair to put him in the position that he did: giving him the number nine shirt, paying that amount of money for him and expecting him to be their saviour by scoring goals when that wasn’t his job.

‘He has turned into an incredible player for Newcastle’ – Shearer on Joelinton

“That wasn’t what he was brought in to do, in terms of what the fans expected of him. [But] the way Eddie has gone in and handled him and turned him into a crowd favourite. They always appreciated him because he never hid.

“He always wanted the ball, however tough it was for him and Newcastle fans appreciated that. But what he is doing now is incredible. He is aggressive, on the front foot and he’s scoring goals. He has turned into an incredible player for Newcastle.”

Shearer clearly felt that Joelinton always had something in him that Newcastle just weren’t seeing before Eddie Howe came along, and let’s be honest, most of us fans missed it too such was our frustration at his lack of goals.

Joelinton is now just one of a few players Eddie Howe has transformed since his arrival with Miguel Almiron, Jacob Murphy and Sean Longstaff all improving massively under the former Bournemouth gaffer, but Joelinton was the original and best.