Newcastle fans have been warned not to expect new signing Florian Thauvin to set the world alight straight away as he prepares for a debut at Manchester United.
The 22-year-old Frenchman, who completed a big-money move from Marseille on Wednesday evening, could be in line for his first taste of action with the Magpies at Old Trafford on Saturday.
However, head coach Steve McClaren's assistant Paul Simpson is urging supporters to give him time to settle into the Barclays Premier League.
Simpson told nufcTV: "He's a really talented footballer, somebody who we hope will add to the group and improve the group.
"If he's involved at Old Trafford on Saturday, we're not expecting him to go and set the world alight straight away. But if we can get him involved, it will give the whole football club a boost, and the rest of the players because they want competition for places.
"And I also hope it will give the supporters a boost because so far, we've only got one point. But the level of performance against Southampton gave us all a little taster of where we can get to and what levels can be achieved.
"Hopefully with the new signings coming in, we'll go into the rest of this period before January with a good group of players, a group of players who all want to be part of this football club, who all want to give 100 per cent every day in training and in every game that we have.
"If we've got that, we can't really ask any more of them."
Source: PA
