Newcastle United have bolstered their attacking options with the addition of Joselu, who has joined from Stoke City in a £5million deal.
The 27-year-old has been plying his trade in the Potteries since the summer of 2015, when he left Hannover for the Britannia Stadium. He scored four goals in 22 Premier League appearances during his debut campaign in England, but last term he was sent on loan to Deportivo La Coruna for whom he scored six times before suffering an injury.
Although Stoke manager Mark Hughes was in no particular rush to offload Joselu, he was content to let him join the Magpies once he had found a replacement in Paris St Germain youngster Jese Rodriguez. This has allowed his counterpart at St James’ Park, Rafael Benitez, to make the former Spain Under-21 international his fifth signing of the summer.
“We have known Joselu since his days at the Real Madrid academy, and we know that he has the potential to do well for us,” said Benitez. “Obviously he has experience of English football and the Premier League and that was another thing we took into consideration. We think if we can exploit his full potential he will be a good signing for us.”
Joselu was not involved as Stoke began their season with a 1-0 defeat at Everton on Saturday afternoon, but he will hope to force his way into the Newcastle side in the coming weeks. The Magpies also suffered a loss at the weekend, 2-0 at home to Tottenham Hotspur, and travel to fellow new-boys Huddersfield Town on Sunday this week.
