Gini Wijnaldum was the first player signed by Newcastle in the summer, and but our Man of the Match polling he was our best player yesterday against Southampton when we drew 2-2 with the club who finished 7th in the Premier League last season.

Vurnon Anita – the challenge where he was injured

Newcastle now have a number of Dutchman at the club and we had five playing yesterday in our first game of the season – Tim Krul, Daryl Janmaat, Vurnon Anita, Gini Wijnaldum and Siem de Jong came on as a substitute.

With head coach Steve McClaren having experience in managing in Holland at FC Twente, that could mean that even more Dutchmen will be joining Newcastle in the future.

This is what Vurnon has said about our latest Dutch arrival at the club – Gini Wijnaldum:

“He will be a great addition,” “He’s a very technical player and can be effective inside and outside the box.”

“You saw in the first half how he got into a great position to score and he was so happy that he scored with his second chance, so that the first one could be forgotten.”

“There are a lot of Dutch players here now, and we’ll certainly be doing our best for the club.”

“There’s always been a bit of a connection between Dutch people and Newcastle – partly because of the players that have been here in the past, and partly because it’s close to Holland.”

“I think there’s probably even more interest now because there are more of us.” “We’re happy with most of the things we did.”

“We started fairly sharply and dominated for large periods.” “But we didn’t win and that’s obviously a disappointment.”

“We were 2-1 up, and when you’re in that position, you have to see the game out.”

It wasn’t so long ago that we had eleven French players in the Newcastle squad although that didn’t work out too well but Frenchmen Moussa Sissoko and Massadio Haidara started the game on Sunday.

Four Dutchmen started the game and once Siem de Jong is fully match fit he could make it five.

It looks like when Newcastle’s games are on there will be a quite  a large TV audience in Holland watching the games.

It also will make it that much easier to attract top Dutchmen to Newcastle, but it looks like we missed out on Memphis Depay.

🙂

Vurnon was taken off in the second half yesterday after seemingly injuring his hip, but Steve McClaren after the game thought it was not serious,  and it even looks like he will be fit for the tough game at Swansea on Saturday.

Hope so.

Comments welcome.