Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur met in Kyle Walker-Peters’ debut back in 2016.
Tottenham Hotspur defender Kyle Walker-Peters has told Copa 90 that he was taunted by Newcastle United’s Jonjo Shelvey before his Premier League debut back in 2016.
Walker-Peters was selected to play right-back for Tottenham at St. James’ Park, and Shelvey was clearly keen to test the youngster’s mental strength.
Even before a ball had been kicked the Newcastle midfielder picked Walker-Peters out in the tunnel, and announced that he would be testing him out immediately.
“Going into it was nervous as going into in the tunnel before the Newcastle tunnel is quite tight, and I remember Jonjo Shelvey saying ‘give me the ball at kick-off, I’m putting it on his head’,” Walker-Peters recalls.
“And I remember he did exactly that, he’s got crazy technique, he put it right on my head and I won the header and that gave me confidence for the whole game.”
Tottenham went on to win 2-0 against Newcastle on that day, with Walker-Peters impressing.
Unfortunately for the youngster, that game has been one of the highlights of his Tottenham career so far.
Walker-Peters has still failed to nail down a place in Spurs’s line-up, and he was loaned out in January to Southampton to try and get him some regular game time.
The move is yet to really work out for Walker-Peters due to the suspension of the Premier League, but when football does come back, the Spurs academy graduate will surely be hoping that he can get can a run of games with the Saints and prove that he is capable of performing at Premier League level.
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