First pictures arrive of Joe Willock in a NUFC shirt as Bruce drops new hint on Arsenal star - Photo
Steve Bruce has confirmed that NUFC new boy Joe Willock is 'in contention' to come straight into his side against Southampton on Saturday.
The highly-rated Arsenal talent has finally been spotted in a black and white shirt this morning (see pictures below) after he sealed a loan move to St James' Park in the final few minutes of deadline day.
Bruce has revealed that the 21-year-old was in the stands to watch our 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace last night and hints he's already in his plans ahead of this weekend's game.
The manager also talked up his 'energy' and ability to add goals from midfield ahead of his first training session with his new Toon teammates today, with The Chronicle suggesting he could even start on Saturday in place of the disappointing Jeff Hendrick.
Here's what Bruce had to say about our new loan recruit last night:
"He will give us something different - a very good young player who we are delighted to acquire.
"He brings a certain energy and has got a goal in him from midfield.
"He'll also hopefully brings that bit of quality.
"He was in the stands tonight [Tuesday], starts training tomorrow [Wednesday] and will be in contention for Saturday."
Let's hope he can make a difference."
Willock's ability to carry the ball could have been ideal last night, as we looked totally void of intuition in the second half when the onus was on us to break Palace down.
As Tuesday night's defeat showed, when it is up to us to break a team down and unlock a tight defence who are willing to sit deep and dig in, Steve Bruce seems to run out of ideas and resort to desperately throwing on every attacker we own!
Hopefully by signing Willock he can give us another option the next time we are tasked with doing exactly that - and it sounds like that could be as early as Saturday when Southampton come to town!
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