'Knows this is not enough' - Source close to £86.5k-p/w Newcastle star reveal frank admission

Newcastle’s Joelinton knows he can continue to improve, a source close to the player has told The Athletic‘s Chris Waugh. 

In the words of Newcastle World’s Jordan Cronin, the player has enjoyed an ‘absolutely extraordinary turnaround’ in his Magpies career.

At £39.6m, the Brazilian remains the club’s record signing, and was ‘written off as a… flop’, according to The Telegraph’s Luke Edwards. Under Eddie Howe, though, Joelinton has moved away from the forward line and into a central midfield role – with startling results.

The 25-year-old averaged a SofaScore rating of 6.7/10 throughout the first four months of the campaign, but following the positional change in December, he is averaging a 7.1 performance rating. On Saturday, he bagged the first of his team’s two goals in a 2-0 win over positional rivals Brentford, who they overtook in the table following that result.

As per The Athletic, the source close to Joelinton has revealed that the Brazilian is determined to push on even further under Howe rather than resting on his laurels following his recent improvement.

They outlined: “Joelinton knows this is not enough. He knows he must push his limits and strive for more.”

Joelinton is still fairly new to playing in midfield, so he’s bound to be still learning his craft, and there was room for improvement on Saturday – he lost eight duels and gave up possession 14 times in the win at Brentford.

Over the season as a whole, the £86,500-per-week ace boasts a passing accuracy of 77% and a duel success rate of 48%, figures which could certainly be improved upon.

However, his apparent mentality will surely delight Newcastle fans, many of whom were already showing their appreciation for the 25-year-old after the final whistle at