Townsend From Tottenham Joins Newcastle For £12m

8 years ago

Townsend From Tottenham Joins Newcastle For £12m

Winger has played only 64 minutes in Premier League this season

‘I can’t wait to get started. Newcastle are a fantastic club’Townsend said.

Andros Townsend has joined Newcastle United for an undisclosed fee, believed to be £12m, from Tottenham Hotspuron a five-and-a-half year contract.

The deal is a risk for Steve McClaren as Townsend has not completed 90 minutes for Spurs for almost two years and has seen only 64 minutes of Premier League action this season.

The England winger has been training with the under-21s for the past two and a half months after being frozen out by Mauricio Pochettino in the wake of his public spat with Nathan Gardiner, Tottenham’s fitness coach, following a win
against Aston Villa in November.

He is clearly delighted to be seizing the lifeline thrown from St James’ Park. “As soon as I heard Newcastle were interested in me there was only one place I wanted to go,” said the 24-year-old, who has 10 England caps. “I can’t wait to get started. I’m delighted to be here.
Newcastle Unitedis a fantastic club with great fans, a great stadium and great tradition.

“Two of the best positions you can play in football are centre-forward and left wing at Newcastle. Now I’ve got the chance I couldn’t turn them down. I can’t wait to play my first game at St James’ Park. I’m excited.”

With Newcastle in the bottom three, he steps straight into a relegation fight though the club’s cause has been helped by the arrival of Jonjo Shelvey for £12mfrom Swansea and Henri Saivet, recently acquired from Bordeaux for £4.5m.

After persuading Mike Ashley, Newcastle’s owner, to invest heavily on British players in the shape of Shelvey and Townsend McClaren appears to have succeeded where Alan Pardew failed and won a significant behind the scenes victory.

“Bringing Andros to the club is a great signing,” said McClaren, whose side lost 6-0 to Sunderland in a behind closed doors friendly at the Stadium of Light on Wednesday. “He’s a very good talent who is a current England international and should be one for years to come too.

“Andros is a winger with an old fashioned style.
He can play on the right or the left, is two-footed, quick, very direct and loves taking defenders on and crossing the ball. He feels he has a lot to prove and I can’t wait to see him do it in a Newcastle shirt.”