Newcastle United did not expect Bayern Munich to be so critical of Nick Woltemade’s move to the club from Stuttgart.
Woltemade joined Newcastle United from Stuttgart at club-record expense in August and has since scored seven goals in 18 games for the club.
The German has made a fine start to life at St James’ Park, exceeding expectations and making a mockery of the constant digs from Bayern Munich legends.
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Bayern were furious that they couldn’t sign Woltemade, having expressed their interest in the striker following his emergence at Stuttgart.
Back in September, Bayern supervisory board member Karl-Heinz Rummenigge suggested Stuttgart had found an “idiot” willing to pay so much money for a relatively inexperienced player.
The 23-year-old has done his talking on the pitch and fresh insight into the rather ugly and unhelpful digs from Germany has now emerged.
Newcastle United didn’t expect Bayern Munich’s criticism over Nick Woltemade deal
According to The Athletic, Newcastle simply didn’t expect the comments from both Rummenigge and fellow Bayern legend Uli Hoeneß.
Hoeneß also claimed that Newcastle overpaid for Woltemade, with the deal to sign him thought to be worth a potential £69million.
While Newcastle did their work on character references behind the scenes and the like, they didn’t see the rather sour reaction from the Bavarian giants coming.
Thankfully, those comments do not appear to have had any impact on the player.
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How Nick Woltemade responded to criticism from Bayern Munich
Eddie Howe believes Woltemade was unfazed about the criticism from Bayern Munich and his statistics certainly suggest that too.
He’s already scored seven goals this season. Six of those came after those comments emerged in the German press.
Adapting to a new club in a new league all with the pressure of replacing Alexander Isak cannot have been easy.
The process was no doubt made all the more difficult by questions about his price tag from his homeland.
Woltemade, however, has shrugged it all off and shone. That speaks to a player with an absolutely brilliant mindset.
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