Steve McClaren’s Magpies made their fifth signing of the summer transfer window with a swoop for highly-rated Marseille winger Florian Thauvin for £13 million.
The French flair player will become the latest in a long line of wingers from the other side of the English channel to star at St James’ Park following David Ginola, Laurent Robert and Hatem Ben Arfa in this tradition.
Last year’s version, Remy Cabella, returns to Marseille on loan with a ‘compulsory purchase option’ should he play an agreed number of matches, having failed to get to grips with the physical side of English football.
One outstanding performance at Chelsea was not enough to persuade McClaren and the United hierarchy that he was worth a second season at the club to prove his worth.
Thauvin, who turns 23 in January, is 5ft 10in and built more robustly to cope with the rigours of the English game.
He has scored 25 goals so far in 130 career games for Marseille, Lille, Grenoble and Bastia and won the France U20 World Cup in 2013 scoring both goals in the Semi-Final against Ghana.
Thauvin will hope playing on the big stage at St James’ Park in the best League in the world will prove a platform to the full France squad in time for the European Championships next summer.
Certainly playing with full France international and World Cup star Moussa Sissoko, who scored in Brazil, will do his full international chances no harm at all.
Respected French coach Alain Casanova, who managed Sissoko before his move to England, said of Thauvin:
“a player in the image of Franck Ribéry … someone who is able to disrupt any opponent, someone very dangerous when he picks up speed. Very dangerous indeed.”
Beating off competition from Internazionale and Spurs, Newcastle have signed him to a typically long deal at the club and will hope their new coaching staff can tease out the best in a player with a vast potential which is as yet fully realised.
Expected to feature predominantly on the left-wing, he will multiply The Magpies’ attacking options and offer real width and crosses to a team that will increasingly look to be built around the aerial threat of Aleksandar Mitrovic.
As the transfer window nears its end, Newcastle could add more signings and have been heavily linked with Monaco centre back Aymen Abdennour and Celtic’s Virgil Van Dijk having shipped 4 goals in their first 2 games with Steve McClaren saying:
“We’re never finished until the window closes.”
