Former Republic of Ireland midfielder Tony Cascarino believes that Newcastle United midfielder Joelinton is the Magpies' Player of the Season award after impressing under Eddie Howe on Tyneside.
Prior to Howe's appointment at St. James' Park, the majority of football fans had written off the Brazilian as, somewhat. of a flop, having signed for Newcastle in 2019 for a whopping fee believed to be in the region of £40m.
Nevertheless, Joelinton has transformed himself from a not-so-sharp shooting striker into a monumental midfielder, one that has been key to the Howe revolution.
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From the middle of the park, Joelinton has netted a career-high of six Premier League goals this season, whilst also earning an impressive Whoscored.com average rating of 7.28.
And Cascarino told talkSPORT that the 26-year-old is fully deserving of the biggest prize when it comes to end-of-season honours.
"He drives forward and he's now seeing passes," Cascarino explained. "He's got eight goals this year, and, okay, it's not to the level of Odegaard and De Bruyne and others, but he's just stood out with his physicality in every way.
"Defensively, the number of times I've seen him head away corners and clear his lines, get out and then become a midfielder. He ran Spurs midfield ragged. He just made run after run. They couldn't handle him at all.
"I think the team that Newcastle have become is largely reflected by players like him. Now, Guimaraes has played really well, Isak's done well for a part of the season, and you can name many others at Newcastle. Botman in defence and Pope in goal [have done well].
"But to me, he's been their outstanding player. If you said to me, Newcastle's Player of the Year, I'm going Joelinton all day long."
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