NEWCASTLE UNITED flop Luuk de Jong has described how his half a season at St James’ Park helped shape the rest of his career.
The Dutchman is impressing for Sevilla these days after returning to Holland to play for Sevilla in the summer of 2014.
His successes at both clubs make a mockery of the time he spent on Tyneside when he was unable to find the net in any of his 12 Premier League appearances.
And he feels that the then Newcastle boss Alan Pardew never utilised his strengths properly, which meant he was never able to make the permanent switch from Borussia Monchengladbach at that time.
De Jong’s performances were reminiscent of £40m man Joelinton nowadays, although the Brazilian has shown improvements in recent weeks to give head coach Steve Bruce belief that he will come good.
But de Jong, 29, said: “I have indeed played in Germany and England, but the clubs were not the right ones for my game. I was never afraid that it would not work abroad a third time. I was very confident that I wanted to do this. I have shown at PSV in the Champions League that I can play well against European top clubs. Then I can also do that in a top league.”
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