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Summer signing: “Newcastle now almost feels like a second home”

7 years ago
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Working with ‘a great manager and great players’, DeAndre Yedlin is enjoying life on Tyneside and the only drawback being competition for places in the first eleven.

After making only two Championship starts in the first couple of months, recent weeks have seen the USA international getting the nod ahead of Vurnon Anita.

Three wins in the Championship and the 6-0 thrashing of Preston in the League Cup, have seen Yedlin and his teammates score 13 goals and conceded only two in these last four matches.

Away preparing for a tough World Cup qualifier on Saturday when the USA meet Mexico, DeAndre Yedlin says that already ‘Newcastle now almost feels like a second home’.

The right-back was at Sunderland last season on loan but decided to live on the Tyne rather than the Wear and that held him in good stead, as he and his family loved it down on the Quayside and what the city of Newcastle had to offer.

When deciding to sign for Newcastle, Yedlin says that a ‘big part’ of his decision was because he thought the club was capable of bouncing straight back to the Premier League.

With ‘50,000 at home and 6,000 away’ at places like Barnsley and Preston, DeAndre Yedlin says that the fans make it feel like you’re not really in the second tier.

DeAndre Yedlin speaking to MLS Soccer:

“It’s been great (at Newcastle), it’s obviously a bit of a different experience going to the Championship, but I’m in a team that’s very, very capable of going back up, so that was a big part of my decision.

“I’m working with a great manager (Rafa) and great players, so it’s not like it’s easy for me to get into the line-up and play every game. So it’s a challenge for me, so that’s good as well. That’s what I need at this point in my career.

“The first six months to a year (at Spurs) was a bit tougher than I thought it was going to be but obviously I was at Sunderland last year and I lived in Newcastle, so I knew Newcastle from my time there, so living in Newcastle now almost feels like a second home. So that’s been a pretty easy transition.

“A big thing for me is that I’m a big family guy, I have always been around my family.

“I was in college for a year and a half and then I went back home, so I was always around. To not have my family there was tough.

“If you want to call them there’s a time difference, so you have to plan for that. Other than that it’s not a huge difference living on my own for the first time.

 “I think we’re pulling 50,000 at home (St James Park) and 6,000 away, so in terms of the support and things like that and the size of the club, it’s not any different.”

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