Taylor excited by Cisse signing

The Magpies completed the transfer of Cisse from German side Freiburg on a five-and-a-half-year deal shortly before the forward - who has scored nine goals in 15 league games this term - jetted off to take part in the Africa Cup of Nations.

And Taylor has admitted that, although he does not know a lot about Demba Ba's international team-mate, the 27-year-old is looking forward to playing alongside Cisse in the Premier League.

"I know we've signed a new number 9, but no one's really seen much of him," Taylor told Absolute Radio.

"I know he's obviously a big team member of Demba Ba's, so we’re all excited to start working with him and to see what he’s got for us."

Taylor has featured heavily for Newcastle this season and has helped the club reach the dizzy heights of sixth position in the standings.

When asked if he was surprised with how well the club were doing so far this term, Taylor replied: "When you say 'surprised', there’s only the big clubs above us.

"We've had a great season, we've got some great players, the club's nice and stable now, so it's going well.

"When you say 'surprised', no one is surprised because we know we've got some good players here."

As well as praising the efforts of the Newcastle players in helping the club to achieve their current league position, Taylor reiterated that manager Alan Pardew has been crucial to their success.

"He's just come in with his own plans, his own staff, and he's brought a number of players in who are completely different characters to what we already had here," he said.

"So, that's going to be all down to the gaffer for the way he's gone about settling the club down and bringing in some quality additions.

"The place itself now just seems a lot more relaxed and it helps you for when you've got a game on the weekend."

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By Vaishali Bhardwaj

Gregg Davies

Gregg Davies is the Chief Sub Editor of FourFourTwo magazine, joining the team in January 2008 and spending seven years working on the website. He supports non-league behemoths Hereford and commentates on Bulls matches for Radio Hereford FC. His passions include chocolate hobnobs and attempting to shoehorn Ronnie Radford into any office conversation.