Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
RONDON CALLING
Salomon seals Toon move and gets iconic St James’ No.9 shirt
SALOMON RONDON moved to Newcastle yesterday to lead the attack in Rafa Benitez’s reshuffled front line.
The West Brom striker headed to Tyneside on loan with Dwight Gayle moving the other way.
Rondon grabbed 10 goals in all competitions during the Baggies’ relegation campaign.
Newcastle backed away from buying the Venezuelan when a £16.5million release clause was active, because he is 29 next month. Instead they have paid a loan fee of £2m.
Rondon said: “It’s one of the biggest clubs in the Premier League and I knew about the interest of the gaffer, so I’m happy to be here.”
Benitez added: “I am delighted to sign Salomon. When we were looking for options up front, we knew how important experience would be.
“Salomon has been in the Premier League for a while and he knows how demanding it is.”
Benitez now wants a deal for teenage left-back Stanley N’soki from Paris Saint-germain to be completed. He is available for around £9m, and a price has not yet been agreed.
Ajax star Nicolas Tagliafico is on United’s radar too, and costs £8m.
Newcastle are around £26m in profit on buying and selling this summer, with fans demanding the surplus is spent. Benitez arguably has a slightly stronger squad than last term, and one that should survive – but he wanted better than that.
Florian Lejeune’s season-long knee injury is a huge setback.
New £9.5m striker Yoshi Muto has also arrived – and yesterday revealed he turned down Chelsea.
He said: “Three years ago there was an offer from Chelsea but I didn’t feel I was ready to play in the Premier League. My physical and mental strength improved and Newcastle recognised this and made an offer and I am ready to help.
“As a forward the most important thing is to score goals. My strength is my ability to keep running and work really hard for the team.
“There was interest in me from Newcastle last January, so I started to be interested in following them.
“Maya Yoshida and Shinji Okazaki told me about their visits to Newcastle and I immediately felt I would like to play in front of their wonderful fans.”