Last year, Newcastle United completed the signing of Georgian teenager Vakhtang Salia from Dinamo Tblisi with the 17-year-old officially joining the Magpies in August when he turns 18.
Vakhtang Salia is a highly-rated young forward who has been tipped to follow in the footsteps of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, and it was Newcastle who won the race for the talented forward.
Today, the youngster visited Newcastle for the first time taking a look around the stadium and the training complex, meeting players and staff and sitting down for his first interview.
The 17-year-old is brimming with confidence and speaks excellent English. We already can't wait to see the lad in action.
Salia spoke to NUFC TV and smiled his way through the five-minute interview where he signed off by promising fans that he won't let us down and that he is going to work twice as hard when he arrives in the summer. He's certainly not short of confidence but refused to be drawn on what individual attributes set him apart from other players.
“I don’t think I can play in just one position. I can play more. Just let me play, and I will prove it. I don't care, just play me. I don’t like to think about me – I let other people talk about me.”
Just wind him up and watch him go, I guess is the message here.
It may be a year or two before we see Salia near the first team, but if he can back up his confidence and indeed the hype surrounding him, it shouldn't take him too long to break through.
Salia's birthday is the 30th of August which is when the transfer will go through, so that will rule him out of being involved in any pre-season action for Newcastle.
Hopefully, he will get plenty of minutes in the reserves to show off his talents and gets to work impressing Eddie Howe as much as he impressed us in this interview.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
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1 |
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23 | 35 | 56 |
2 |
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24 | 27 | 50 |
3 |
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24 | 13 | 47 |
4 |
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24 | 16 | 43 |
5 |
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24 | 13 | 41 |
6 |
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24 | 13 | 41 |
7 |
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24 | 13 | 40 |
8 |
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24 | -3 | 37 |
9 |
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24 | 4 | 36 |
10 |
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24 | -3 | 34 |
11 |
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24 | 0 | 31 |
12 |
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24 | -2 | 30 |
13 |
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24 | -6 | 29 |
14 |
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24 | 11 | 27 |
15 |
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24 | -17 | 27 |
16 |
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23 | -5 | 26 |
17 |
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24 | -18 | 19 |
18 |
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24 | -28 | 17 |
19 |
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24 | -27 | 16 |
20 |
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24 | -36 | 9 |