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Interesting Mark Hughes comments on Joselu and why they parted company

7 years ago
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Mark Hughes has been talking about Joselu and his departure from Stoke City.

It was Hughes who brought the Spanish striker to England for £5m two years ago and then sold him for the same figure to Newcastle United.

The Stoke boss says that it was the player’s decision to leave and when the players came back for pre-season in July ‘the first knock on the door was Joselu, saying he didn’t really want to be here and wanted to leave’.

Joselu has been one of those signings at Newcastle who arrives with minimal expectations from the fans but has taken very little time to get them onboard, once he got his chance.

Nobody is claiming he is a world beater but his all round game looks very good, is excellent in the air, and was very unlucky not to make it two goals in two starts when Fabianski tipped that header round the post last Sunday.

Stoke fans appeared to think it was a bad move to let Joselu go, especially for only what Stoke had paid two years ago, but Mark Hughes says the forward was ‘agitating to go’ so they accepted Newcastle’s £5m, after lower bids were made, to allow both club and player to move on.

The Stoke manager couldn’t resist one dig though, suggesting that Joselu raised his game (scored four goals in two pre-season friendlies) to attract a new club, Mark Hughes saying ‘He had a decent pre-season but maybe that was with a view to moving elsewhere. Maybe that’s why it was as good as it was…’.

Hopefully Joselu will be reminding Mark Hughes this afternoon that his pre-season form wasn’t a temporary phase.

Mark Hughes:

“Joselu wanted to go, he didn’t want to be here anymore.

“In his first year he felt he didn’t get enough opportunities. Saying that, I think he made about 22 appearances for us. Those were substitutes and starts as well (10 starts, 12 as a sub).

“I think in terms of what the other strikers had, he had a decent stab at it, but he came in after the first season and said he didn’t want to be in Stoke and that’s why we allowed him to go out on loan last year (to Deportivo).

“He came back and we thought let’s see where we are with him – but the first knock on the door was Joselu, saying he didn’t really want to be here and wanted to leave.

“He had a decent pre-season but maybe that was with a view to moving elsewhere.

“Maybe that’s why it was as good as it was…

“He has moved on and we have moved on, he seems to have settled there and he is getting regular game time, which I didn’t feel I could give him, so we will see how he goes.

“I’m sure he’ll want to do well against us. He was a good player and we brought him here with the intention of him playing more.

“He had some good games and affected games in a good way – technically he is a very good player but he was never really able to have a run of performances that enabled him to hold onto the shirt for long enough.

“That’s how it goes and I think he maybe could have given it a bit longer than he did, as we saw his quality and we rated him.

“I just felt he wanted to be playing week in, week out and we weren’t able to give him that – it is what it is.

“We got our money back and maybe people will think we should have got more because of the inflated market but he was agitating to go, so in the end we got our money back and moved on.”

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