Former Newcastle United player Lee Clark has provided deadline day signing Miguel Almiron with some words of wisdom to help him make a success of his time on Tyneside.
The Paraguayan arrived in January for a club record fee and is widely expected to be handed his debut against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Clark has given him some pearls of wisdom for the road ahead.
“The feeling around the city and the club is one of excitement after Miguel Almiron’s arrival,” he wrote for Tribal Football.
“He is a player the manager had wanted for a long, long time and he’s a player they had been missing in the forward areas.”
“If there is any advice I can give to Almiron is that all the supporters expect of you, no matter how you’re playing in terms of your personal performance, is that you just give your very, very best every game.
“They’ll accept sometimes when you’re not at your scintillating best. And just go and embrace it, enjoy it. There are people inside the organisation that have paid a lot of money for you, so go and embrace that pressure.”
OPINION
There is certainly a lot of pressure on Almiron given his transfer fee and how he is now viewed as some sort of messianic figure by the Newcastle supporters. He’ll be expected to come in and do the business pretty much straight away, and to provide this Magpies team with some of the creativity they have missed this season. It’s important, though, as Clark says, for Almiron to focus on trying his best and working hard for his team, and the rest will follow. He needs to enjoy his football and that will then bring out the best in him and his team mates. He’s a top class player so he should do fine as long as he is able to settle quickly into this Newcastle team. He needs to embrace the pressure, as Clark says, and not let it crush him. He’s been quickly installed as the main man on Tyneside and now it’s up to him to produce the goods on the pitch. We all look forward to seeing how he gets on.
