Newcastle United assistant coach Paul Simpson knows that the club's newest star signing, Florian Thauvin, will be under pressure to perform.
Thauvin joined Newcastle on a five-year contract in a deal that saw Remy Cabella head the other way to Marseille on a one-year loan with a purchase option. The 22-year-old French winger is expected to be a key piece to Newcastle's attacking shape this season.
But, Simpson is urging the club's fans to temper their expectations ahead of Thauvin's potential debut against Manchester United on Saturday.
"He's a really talented footballer, somebody who we hope will add to the group and improve the group," Simpson told nufcTV, as quoted on Sky Sports. "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."
Newcastle hasn't had the best start to the 2015-16 Premier League season, picking up a 2-2 draw in the season-opening match against Southampton and then dropping a 2-0 decision to Swansea City last weekend.
Newcastle had a torrid end to last season, finishing 15th place overall. It was a season the club will hope to move on from but that fans won't soon forget, either. Thauvin could help reverse negative fan sentiment, Simpson says.
"I hope (the signing of Thauvin) will give the supporters a boost because so far, we've only got one point," Simpson said. "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 everyday in training and in every game that we have," Simpson concluded. "If we've got that, we can't really ask any more of them."
