Eddie Howe’s patience has paid off again as he’s landed another long-term target in young right-back, Harrison Ashby from West Ham for a fee of around £3m.
Ashby was highly rated by the West Ham fans, and clearly, Eddie Howe believes the hype as we had a failed attempt to land the youngster in the summer, but Howe has persisted once again and landed his man in the next window, much like he did with Anthony Gordon.
In his first interview as a Magpie with NUFC TV, Ashby spoke of his desire to learn from Kieran Trippier, to become as good as him or even better, seemingly he has his sights set on some lofty goals: “Short term is to learn as much as I possibly can off the gaffer and the big one is obviously Tripps.
“Long term is to become Newcastle’s number one right-back and to fill in Tripps’ shoes.”
The NUFC TV interview was an unusually candid one as Ashby spoke about almost giving up on football in his early teens, only to be persuaded to stick at it by his parents. He also spoke of the season where it all clicked as he cemented his position as a right back but ended up scoring 17 goals and registering 15 assists. It will obviously be a ridiculous thing to expect a fullback to produce those types of figures in the Premier League, but it does give us an insight into the type of player we’ve got on our hands here.
He’s not even kicked a ball for us yet, and fans have already christened him, Mini Tripps.