Howe: I'm delighted with Gordon signing
Eddie Howe has been speaking in a press conference ahead of Newcastle's Carabao Cup semi-final second leg with Southampton and sung the praises of new signing Anthony Gordon.
The forward signed for £45m from Everton this week and Howe believes the 21-year-old will bring a lot to his team this season and in the future.
"He’ll give us a lot. He's a young player with huge attributes, huge potential to have a big impact on our season," said Howe. "He's a quick, dynamic player. Versatile, can play off both sides. The best is yet to come from him and he can add something different for us. I'm delighted to get him.
"We’re getting someone fiercely determined and ambitious. He's got a nice balance between confidence and knowing there are areas to improve in his game. I have no doubts about his character. We do a lot of research with every signing but we’ve tracked him for a long time, since the early days at Everton and the loan spell he had. We know the player and I’m really pleased he’s now part of our team.
"We saw the player and talent he has and tried to vision what he can do in our team. We felt he’d be a good fit for us. Time will tell if that’s a good decision or not. But I believe from the brief meeting with him yesterday and [how he] trained with us yesterday, I was very excited by what I saw.
"I believe he will fit our style of play. He’s an incredible athlete, he’s got ability to run box to box at high speed, good endurance levels and turn of pace as well. He has the athletic durability we want in our wide players. I do see it being a good mix – but he’ll have to earn that support the crowd will give him.
"On either wing I see being his primary position. He can play as 10 or 9… he gives us that flexibility with Chris Wood’s absence.
"Anthony has been a long term target for us. We were keen not to sign anybody in January who isn’t part of our long term plans, so I'm delighted to get a player we’ve admired for a long time.
"For someone of his age, we’re going to really need to support him and guide him through this move. Certainly how he handled yesterday, I thought he was excellent -meeting new team-mates, coaching staff, getting a lot of information, trying to settle in, I thought he handled himself really well."