The worst kept secret in football is now confirmed as Scottish Premier League side St Johnstone have announced the arrival of Newcastle United youngster Jay Turner-Cooke on loan for the season.
The 19-year-old forward has made a couple of appearances for Newcastle under Eddie Howe, notably in the Diriyah Season Cup win over Al-Hilal last season and a goal-scoring appearance against Gateshead in pre-season.
St Johnstone manager Steve Maclean let it slip earlier in the week that the move was almost complete for Turner-Cooke and now all the formalities have been completed for the youngster to spend a season in Scotland where he will play plenty of first-team football.
Jay Turner-Cooke could turn out against Celtic this weekend
Turner-Cooke is excited to get going at St Johnstone, telling the official site in his first interview: “I’m buzzing to get the deal done as quickly as it has been. It means I can settle in this week with the lads and prepare for a huge game on Saturday.
“I am looking forward to working hard to ensure that happens.”
The former Sunderland academy player could get thrown into the deep end at the weekend with St Johnstone facing off against Celtic, but the lad isn’t too scared about the prospect thanks to his cameo against Chelsea in the Premier League Summer Series.
Fingers crossed this loan goes better than Kuol’s Scottish spell
“I do know how hard a test matches against Celtic and Rangers are,” said Turner-Cooke. “We will be working hard this week to prepare for it.
“I came on for Newcastle against Chelsea in pre-season this summer in front of 70,000 fans, so I will be using that experience for Saturday’s trip to Celtic.”
Best of luck to Jay Turner-Cooke for the season and hopefully his Scottish loan spell works out better than Garang Kuol‘s Hearts disaster.
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