While it hasn’t been a start to the season that most of us hoped for, 4 points out of the first three league games is not too bad, and we qualified for the Europa League and got a fairly easy looking group too, and we just have to hope that some of our big stars are soon back to their best.
Davide Santon – telling Cabaye where to go this season 😀
And certainly Yohan Cabaye looked good for France last night in their 1-0 win in Finland, and one player who has looked good and better than last year is 21 year-old Italian left back Davide Santon.
There’s not much doubt that this lad is an excellent footballer technically, but after seeming to settle down on Tyneside, he has started the new season very well and continues to improve.
It seems that Roma and maybe one or two other Italian clubs were keen to take the lad back to Italy over the summer, but Newcastle would have none of it, and turned the approaches down immediately.
Davide seems happy enough to stay at Newcastle, where he now has a Geordie girlfriend, and he has given an interview in the Journal today and thinks he’s settling in well:
“I feel like I have settled into English football,” he said. “Maybe it takes time but I think I am now settled and I understand the Premier League better.” “Against Aston Villa I think I had a great game but I can do better. I feel good in England now, I want to stay in England for a very long time and I want to help my team for the rest of the season.”
“This summer, there was a chance for me to go to Italy. One or two teams in Italy wanted to take me back but I always wanted to stay in Newcastle. I love Newcastle and I do not want to leave.”
“I did not want to take that chance because I like my coach, I like my team and I like everything surrounding the club. It is a great club and I feel really good about my future at Newcastle.”
It seems that Davide likes everything at Newcastle, but from what we’ve seen and heard from him, he’s just a smashing lad and not a bad footballer either.
It’s asking a lot of a 20 year-old to come into a new country without knowing the language, and settle down and start playing well immediately.
And Davide had one or two difficulties last season, but he was managed superbly by Newcastle manager Alan Pardew, and that is now starting to pay off for the club.
Davide was scouted by Newcastle Chief Scout Graham Carr, whose star has risen over the last couple of seasons, and if Davide continues to improve this season, as we expect him to, he’s going to be a steal at just £5M from Inter-Milan.
For the record, Davide has now played 30 times for Newcastle, after appearing 53 times for Inter Milan under star manager Jose Mourinho, and 11 times on loan at Cesena.
He has played 7 times for Italy – so far.
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8 comments so far
FAU
Sep 8, 2012 at 10:04 AM
Comment #1He also can play in centre, and right! whatta scout Carr!
Adopted_Geordie
Sep 8, 2012 at 10:04 AM
Comment #2Great to see this lad progressing so well,very comfortable on the ball but has to tighten his defensive side of the game a wee bit!
jawballsaswallwell
Sep 8, 2012 at 10:05 AM
Comment #3Not ashamed to say I have a huge man crush on young Davide. Haven’t felt this way since the erstwhile Davide was gracing our flanks.
nico
Sep 8, 2012 at 10:12 AM
Comment #4He is very good and will only get better.
dmac
Sep 8, 2012 at 10:25 AM
Comment #5In my eyes young Santon was a real coup for us. Under Mourinho he featured regularly in a team that won the CL. He had alot of promise and i think we are starting to see glimpses of that.
rudy
Sep 8, 2012 at 10:35 AM
Comment #6thanks also to his geordie girlfriend 🙂
Krul to be Kind
Sep 8, 2012 at 1:20 PM
Comment #7crackg player but i think he ould be better on the right, he keeps ctting in on the left meaning Jonas has to cover and thats why he is consistently getting caugh out of position, if he were to play on the right and hug the touchline, taking people on on the outside and whipping crosses in e could (emphasis on could) be orld class in seasons to come!
Munster Mag
Sep 8, 2012 at 3:35 PM
Comment #8Have to say, although i dont see as much action as many of the fans on this site, he has looked poor against decent wingers. I dont rate him so far as a defender, although very athletic going forward. He’s nowhere near Enrique as a one to one defender, yet.