Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe will not have realised how good Paraguay attacker Miguel Almirón can be.
That is according to Sky Sports reporter Keith Downie, who was speaking to This is Futbol about the latest news at St. James’ Park.
After having scored 14 goals over the best part of four seasons, Almirón has exploded into life since the beginning of the current campaign, scoring seven Premier League goals in 13 appearances, according to Transfermarkt.
The right-winger seems to have found a new lease of life under manager Eddie Howe this season, and recently won his club’s player of the month award for October.
And Downie believes that “something has really clicked” for Almirón in the last few weeks.
“I think he scored one [goal] early doors and then just faded away a little bit, but he’s just come to life in October.
“And I think Eddie Howe is now looking at him and thinking ‘hang on, he’s got something that I didn’t realise here.’
“I would not be surprised if he thought that because Almirón hadn’t shown that, not just last year, he hadn’t shown that before.
“I mean he played for months before he scored his first Newcastle goal, after arriving in a record-breaking deal at the time, and he looked like he wasn’t cut out for English football.
“Something has really clicked for him in these last few weeks.”
TIF Thoughts on Downie’s comments…
We agree with Downie and believe Howe will be stunned at Almirón’s turnaround in form, with the former club record signing (£20m) playing at a completely different level to what he was last season.
Journalist Dean Jones has suggested to GIVEMESPORT that the Magpies could look to target Bayer Leverkusen’s £60m-rated winger Moussa Diaby, but the club may think twice at spending a large amount of money if the 47-time Paraguay international can keep up his current form.
Therefore, we think that Howe and PIF will look at Almirón’s upturn in form as a real bonus for the club, and could potentially enable Newcastle to look to invest in other options to improve their squad.