He said: “There is no need to speak of any speculation. He has only just arrived in Newcastle and in the fledgling stage. Any talk of him being linked with any other club is purely mischief making. It is part and parcel of the game.
“He can play with both feet and he is a super guy to work with. He’s 22 years old and in two years’ time we could be possibly saying, ‘£10m, what a snip’, we’ll have to wait and see.”
He continued: “I think there are a few people choking on what they said about him in the first four to six weeks.
“I’ve not got a problem with that. All I’ve said, and I say that with every judgement I’ve made in life, if I’ve made a mistake, I always put my hands up and say I have made a mistake.
“But he is a serious player and a serious striker. You look at players from my era, like Gary Lineker. Whether Gary likes it or not, he had lots of games where he hardly got a kick except when it mattered and he got his chances and put them away to win games.
“Oba had that game on Thursday night, he did not get great service, but when the chance came along, bang, he won the game. I don’t want to put any extra pressure on him, but he is capable of scoring 20 goals a season and I’ve thought that ever since he started training with us.”
