prove” after swapping Tottenham Hotspur’s deep
freeze for the St James’ Park spotlight.
Newcastle United’s new £12m signing concedes
there is some considerable catching up to do if he
is to achieve his twin aims of helping Steve
McClaren’s side avoid relegation and earning a
place in England’s Euro 2016 squad.
“I’ve got a massive point to prove now and
hopefully Newcastle will benefit from that,” said
the 24-year-old winger. “I think my last full 90
minutes in the Premier League was just under two
years ago so I have not played consistently in a
long time.
“But the last time I played nine or 10 Premier
League games in a row I was playing for England
and kind of setting the world alight. I can’t wait to
get a run of games and consistency going and
hopefully get back to that level I was at a few years
ago.”
Along the way, McClaren’s third January recruit –
Jonjo Shelvey and Henri Saivet are the other two –
hopes to help Newcastle escape the bottom three. “I
have confidence we have the ability in the dressing
room to stay up,” said Townsend. “Hopefully now
the manager has brought in the players that he
wants, we can climb the table.”
“Roy Hodgson has always had faith in my ability
and included me in squads,” he said. “Every time
he has put me on the pitch, I have repaid that faith.
“But I need to take baby steps. I’ve not played in
the Premier League for a couple of months now. I
need to focus solely on Newcastle and helping them
get out of the relegation zone. If I can do that and
score a few goals along the way, hopefully the
England stuff will come off the back of that.”
McClaren welcomed him with a special film. “We
had a sitdown and went through my strengths and
my weaknesses, and then he showed me a 10-
minute video of what he wants me to bring to the
team so I am under no illusion as to what’s
expected of me,” said Townsend.
“It surprised me, I’ve never had that before. But it
just shows how much homework the manager did.
I’m filled with great confidence that he knows what
I can bring to the team.”
He is also looking forward to playing alongside
Shelvey. “I’d already decided Newcastle was the
club for me before they signed Jonjo from
Swansea,” he said. “After they signed him I was
amazed. For them to be able to attract Jonjo was
great for Newcastle and it’s great for me to know I
have a central midfielder of that ability feeding me
balls out wide.”
Amid all the excitement about the future Townsend
makes it clear he would rather not have left Spurs
after being frozen out of the first-team picture by
Mauricio Pochettino and being sent to play with the
Under-21s in the wake of a row with Nathan
Gardiner , the fitness coach, following a win against
Aston Villa in early November.
“I had been at the club 16 years, the best part of
my life, so to leave was obviously a sad moment,”
he said. “When you’re not playing you do suffer.
But I know I’m still the same player that broke on
the scene in 2013. I’m still that same player that is
desperate for the opportunity to show what I can
do.”
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