Alan Pardew: “It’s a very important signing for us, because after Yohan Cabaye left last year, we lacked some intelligence to our team in attacking areas.
“It is (a coup), because he is a player that personally I’ve courted for 14 months or so.
“To finally get him is a real pleasure for me personally and my team, and we hope he is going to have a great career here.
“I’m really pleased that we’ve managed to get a striker early, and particularly a striker of Siem’s type.
“We need to bed him in a little bit about how we’re going to play and find out the best route for him and for us.
“It gives us a real kind of intelligence that we can go straight into the season with.”