Eddie Howe says Karl-Heinz Rummenigge’s claim that Newcastle United were “idiots” for paying £69m for Nick Woltemade is “irrelevant”.
The Bayern Munich supervisory board member congratulated Stuttgart for “finding an idiot who will pay that much money” and stressed “we would have certainly not done that” during an interview with Blickpunkt Sport.
The Bundesliga champions had previously failed with multiple bids to sign the Germany striker before Newcastle broke the club’s transfer record to recruit him last month.
Howe stopped short of being dragged into a war of words with Rummenigge, but defended the club’s outlay.
“It’s irrelevant, really,” the Newcastle head coach said of the comments. “The market forces dictate transfers fees – not necessarily any one club.
“We’re very pleased to have Nick with us. I think he’s started very strongly in what has been a difficult period for him because he’s been thrust straight into action with no training time of note with us.
“He’s done really well. We’re really pleased to have him with us and the transfer fee is absolutely irrelevant.”
Newcastle have repeatedly come under fire from figures with Bayern links since the deal was completed.
Honorary president Uli Hoeness suggested Newcastle’s strategy was “nothing to do with football” and instead “like Monopoly these days”, while sporting director Christoph Freund said the black-and-whites were a “good club but not the top tier”.
Max Eberl, the club’s board member for sport, questioned “whether this was a strategic transfer or an act of desperation”.
Woltemade, 23, has not appeared to have been affected by the comments or his price tag, scoring two goals in his opening three Premier League games.
“He’s not that type of character,” Howe said. “I don’t think he necessarily overthinks too much, which is a really big strength. Whatever we have paid for him is irrelevant. What he is going to be judged on is how he performs in the team and what he gives to the club going forward.
“I would urge any footballer to try and dust that off, but it’s easier said than done. I’ve seen players myself be weighed down by either the fee or the expectation but he’s very relaxed. He looks like he’s enjoying his football, enjoying being here, and ultimately that’s key.”
Woltemade opened the scoring against Arsenal at the weekend, but Mikel Arteta’s team came from behind to win 2-1 thanks to late headers from Gabriel and Mikel Merino.
Howe has called on his side to use the manner of the defeat as fuel to “regroup and come back stronger” when they face Union Saint-Gilloise in the Champions League on Wednesday.
“I don’t necessarily feel that in a sense of a hangover,” he said before the game in Brussels. “For me, it should be a motivator.
“If you can replay those moments again, we would have to do better as a group and respond better to the threat that we faced in those final few minutes.”