Jay Turner-Cooke set to join St. Johnstone on season-long loan

St. Johnstone manager Steven MacLean appears to have let the cat out of the bag on his club's loan move for Newcastle under-21 star Jay Turner-Cooke.

The 20-year-old has been linked with a move to McDiarmid Park in the Scottish press over the last few days, with MacLean's comments seemingly being confirmation of those rumours.

Here's everything The Saints boss said when asked about Turner-Cooke this morning:

"Jay has been involved with the Newcastle first team in pre-season. He was in the squad against Rangers and got some game-time against Villarreal. He’s got a really good pedigree and Newcastle have high hopes for him. He showed a real eagerness to come here

He’s hungry to come to Scotland and do well. Jay was with Tranmere for the second half of last season and played a dozen games or so, so he has a bit of first team experience under his belt already.

He is a box-to-box midfielder who can also play off the side as well, so he will add something to the squad. We’re happy to get him and hopefully he does well here."

Catching the eye a few times during a pre-season in which he got 49 minutes of action with the senior side, Turner-Cooke spoke about his versatility earlier in the summer after scoring at Gateshead:

"That’s what I wanted to do today - show people, show the manager what I can do. Thankfully I’ve come on and scored a goal and hopefully that will stand me in good stead.

The goal was to go on and try and give the manager and his team something to think about, and I think we all did that, to be fair. I probably see myself more as a midfielder, like a 6. I love getting on the ball and making things happen. That’s what I want to do with any chance I get.

Hopefully everyone has seen a bit of what I can do today, but there is so much more to come."

All of us here at NUFC News wish Jay the very best up in Perth, we're sure he'll do brilliantly.