Steve Bruce now shares what he said to Lee Charnley when he found out Newcastle were signing Joelinton

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Steve Bruce was Newcastle United manager when Joelinton arrived in 2019, but the Brazilian is now very different four years later.

Under Eddie Howe, Joelinton has become a midfield enforcer. He has developed into a key player for Newcastle, having previously been ridiculed for his efforts.

Joelinton joined the club in 2019, arriving from Hoffenheim for £40million. He became Newcastle’s most expensive signing ever at the time, and was given the famous number nine shirt.

He was Steve Bruce‘s first signing as Newcastle manager, although he did not have much say on whether or not the Brazilian was coming to St James’ Park.

Bruce had to work with what he was given, and what he was given was an expensive number nine who didn’t look comfortable as a striker and was far from hungry for goals.

That was a concern for Bruce, who has now shared what he told former Toon chief Lee Charnley when he found out that Joelinton was definitely joining Newcastle.

Steve Bruce on his immediate reaction to Newcastle signing Joelinton

Bruce spoke about Joelinton at length on BBC Radio 5 Live Sport on Wednesday night, and even compared the 27-year-old to Arsenal player Kai Havertz.

“The first thing when I walked in at Newcastle, Joelinton was done,” he said.

“The deal had been done. I think we were down the road with another manager and that didn’t happen.
Anyway, Joelinton was done so he was arriving. The one thing I did question Lee Charnley about at the time was when you look at his goalscoring record as a number nine, his record isn’t great. Now, we can go on the stats and ,no disrespect, it’s the one thing I look for in a centre forward. A centre forward who just wants to score a goal is vital.

“What you see is with the really good ones, the really good ones are only interested in scoring a goal otherwise they are not happy. Joelinton was never like that.

“I had a really difficult conversation with him after a year and a half to say ‘look Jo I think we are going to play you in a different position’. I then played him where he played at Hoffenheim on the left. But to be fair I never saw him as one of the midfield three like Eddie plays him now.

“But we bought Callum Wilson to play through the middle and all Callum is interested in is scoring. If you look at his stats, they are good.

“That’s why I say all the time forward players, especially players who score a goal, are the most important.
Joelinton is a typical one like Havertz who can play in a number of positions but I don’t think he’s a natural goalscorer in terms of a number nine.”

Steve Bruce is braving comparing Joelinton to Havertz right now

Given what Havertz did to Sean Longstaff last weekend, Bruce is very brave comparing him to Newcastle superstar Joelinton.

In terms of being a goalscorer, the comparison makes sense, but that is where it ends between Joelinton and Havertz.

It is interesting to hear that Bruce immediately had concerns about Joelinton, and his record before joining Newcastle really wasn’t that good. It made the £40million price tag look rather questionable.

As Bruce says, you compare him to Callum Wilson and it is chalk and cheese. Wilson is a pure goalscorer, while Joelinton is not. We saw that on Tuesday when he missed a golden chance to equalise against Borussia Dortmund.

But there appears to be a bit of revisionist history from Bruce when it comes to changing Joelinton’s position. While he did play some games out wide after Wilson’s arrival, he was still primarily used as a striker.

It was only really that final Bruce season when Joelinton was a proper winger, which eventually led to him moving to the middle of the park when Eddie Howe took over.