Eddie Howe confirms new Newcastle United signing - Tottenham & West Ham United miss out

Newcastle United have signed Manchester City midfielder Alfie Harrison, head coach Eddie Howe has confirmed.

The Magpies agreed an undisclosed fee for the 18-year-old earlier this week. It's understood Harrison has signed a long-term contract and has been provided with a 'clear path towards first-team action'.

HITC reported that Harrison had attracted interest from West Ham United, Tottenham Hotspur, Brighton & Hove Albion, Celtic, Valencia, Borussia Dortmund and Nice before deciding to move to St James' Park.

"We welcome him into the football club," said Howe. "I wasn't directly involved in that transfer but certainly, he's a highly talented player and we hope he does really well with us."

Harrison, who joined Man City's academy aged nine, has scored eight times in eight Premier League U18s games and made his under-21s debut in December.

He's also trained with Pep Guardiola's first team. It's claimed Harrison has drawn comparisons to Erling Haaland for "their visual resemblance and has recorded an impressive goal and assist statistics for their age-group teams".

Howe added: "We have to sign talented young players, whether that's signing a 12-year-old locally for our academy or players from other Premier League before they've matured into the players they're going to be. It's an avenue for us to try and improve our development of players.

Newcastle head of youth recruitment Paul Midgley, who joined from Man City in 2022, is understood to have played a key role in the move with talks centred around Harrison having a clear path towards the first-team.

Indeed, Howe has showed a willingness to hand young players first-team opportunities, the prime example being 17-year-old Lewis Miley, who has made 18 appearances this season. Meanwhile, the likes of Alex Murphy, Ben Parkinson, Michael Ndiweni and Amadou Diallo have appeared on the bench.