EDDIE HOWE insists Newcastle United cannot spent time wondering about what might have been after spending part of the summer lining up a potential move for Borussia Dortmund’s midweek matchwinner Felix Nmecha.

Nmecha was one of the players Newcastle scouted extensively in the second half of last season as they compiled a list of potential midfield targets for this summer.

There was always an expectation that the 23-year-old, who began his career in the youth ranks of Manchester City, would be leaving Wolfsburg in the close season, and Newcastle’s recruitment team assessed the pros and cons of a possible transfer.

In the end, they opted to look elsewhere, signing Sandro Tonali in a club-record deal with AC Milan and bringing in Harvey Barnes from Leicester City, and Nmecha ended up joining Dortmund for a reported fee of around €30m.

The Germany international has taken time to settle at Signal Iduna Park, but he impressed on Wednesday evening as his first goal for his new employers secured a 1-0 win at St James’.

“He’s (Nmecha) a player that we looked at and really liked,” confirmed Howe. “But, yeah, he’s obviously a Dortmund player now. Was it a case of us getting someone else instead? It’s never as simple as that.”

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Dortmund boss Edin Terzic was keen to praise Nmecha’s performance on Tyneside, with the attacking-midfielder, who briefly played in England’s youth ranks before switching to Germany, the land of his birth, having been signed as part of the rebuild that followed the departure of Jude Bellingham this summer.

Newcastle’s defenders struggled to deal with Nmecha’s breaks into the box in the first half of Wednesday’s game in particular, with the matchwinner producing a clinical finish to convert Nico Schlotterbeck’s pull-back on the stroke of half-time.

“Felix is a brilliant player,” said Terzic. “We know about his potential and his talent, and we knew he could improve our game. He had a fantastic game, and he finally managed to score. He had many opportunities to do that in the first games of the season.

“It was a slightly different role for him because he played more attacking. He had a bit of a rocky start in Dortmund, but now he is in good form and good shape.”

Terzic was understandably delighted with his side’s performance against Newcastle, with the win having lifted Dortmund above their opponents into second place in the group table.

However, the Dortmund boss has counselled against taking anything for granted ahead of the return fixture in Germany in a fortnight’s time.

“It is just half-time,” he said. “We face each other again in a couple of weeks, and that is going to be a very important game. I thought we showed a fantastic first half, and then fought a lot in the second half. We deserved our lead in the first half, and protected it in the second.”