Eddie Howe says Karl-Heinz Rummenigge’s declare that Newcastle United have been “idiots” for paying £69m for Nick Woltemade is “irrelevant”.
The Bayern Munich supervisory board member congratulated Stuttgart for “discovering an fool who can pay that a lot cash” and confused “we might have actually not executed that” throughout an interview with Blickpunkt Sport.
The Bundesliga champions had beforehand failed with a number of bids to signal the Germany striker earlier than Newcastle broke the membership’s switch document to recruit him final month.
Howe stopped in need of being dragged right into a disagreement with Rummenigge, however defended the membership’s outlay.
“It is irrelevant, actually,” the Newcastle head coach mentioned of the feedback. “The market forces dictate transfers charges – not essentially anyone membership.
“We’re very happy to have Nick with us. I believe he is began very strongly in what has been a troublesome interval for him as a result of he is been thrust straight into motion with no coaching time of be aware with us.
“He is executed rather well. We’re actually happy to have him with us and the switch charge is totally irrelevant.”
Newcastle have repeatedly come beneath hearth from figures with Bayern hyperlinks because the deal was accomplished.
Honorary president Uli Hoeness advised Newcastle’s technique was “nothing to do with soccer” and as a substitute “like Monopoly today”, whereas sporting director Christoph Freund mentioned the black-and-whites have been a “good membership however not the highest tier”.
Max Eberl, the membership’s board member for sport, questioned “whether or not this was a strategic switch or an act of desperation”.
Woltemade, 23, has not appeared to have been affected by the feedback or his price ticket, scoring two objectives in his opening three Premier League video games.
“He isn’t that sort of character,” Howe mentioned. “I do not assume he essentially overthinks an excessive amount of, which is a extremely huge power. No matter now we have paid for him is irrelevant. What he’s going to be judged on is how he performs within the group and what he provides to the membership going ahead.
“I’d urge any footballer to try to mud that off, however it’s simpler mentioned than executed. I’ve seen gamers myself be weighed down by both the charge or the expectation however he is very relaxed. He appears like he is having fun with his soccer, having fun with being right here, and in the end that is key.”
Woltemade opened the scoring towards Arsenal on the weekend, however Mikel Arteta’s group got here from behind to win 2-1 due to late headers from Gabriel and Mikel Merino.
Howe has referred to as on his facet to make use of the style of the defeat as gasoline to “regroup and are available again stronger” once they face Union Saint-Gilloise within the Champions League on Wednesday.
“I do not essentially really feel that in a way of a hangover,” he mentioned earlier than the sport in Brussels. “For me, it needs to be a motivator.
“If you happen to can replay these moments once more, we must do higher as a gaggle and reply higher to the menace that we confronted in these closing couple of minutes.”
