Woltemade’s British humour helped him fit in at Newcastle United, says Howe

NEWCASTLE manager Eddie Howe said Nick Woltemade's British sense of humour helped him adapt to life in England, ahead of tonight's Champions League clash in the striker's native Germany against Bayer Leverkusen.

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Howe yesterday called the 1.98-metre-tall striker "a funny guy - and I meant that in the nicest sense".

"I think he has British humour," Howe added. "He came in with a very good way of approaching a transfer. He came in, felt at home, made people laugh.

"He has gone in wholeheartedly to the Newcastle way of life and what the team and the city requires when you play for this football club.

"He's done brilliantly."

Newcastle have won three of five matches in the Champions League this season and sit one point, but six places, ahead of Leverkusen in a congested middle of the table.

Woltemade has seven goals in 19 games since he moved to Newcastle from Stuttgart in the summer for a £69 million fee and is emerging as a cult figure on Tyneside.

The 23-year-old said he brushed off criticisms of his transfer fee, including from Bayern Munich powerbroker Karl-Heinz Rummenigge who said Stuttgart had "found an idiot who paid the money" in September.