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The first ever Premier League duel between two ‘Guanchos’ was big news back in Tenerife this weekend.

Ayoze Perez might not have strictly gone nose-to-nose with Pedro on a tumultuous evening on Tyneside, but Tenerife’s Depor Press still called it in favour of the Newcastle United man. “Newcastle had to be content with a point but if this was boxing the win – on points – would have gone, with clarity, to the former Tenerife player,” they wrote. “It was a day to remember for the Premier League.”

That Perez outshone Pedro as an attacking force is beyond doubt – but no less remarkable for it.

Five years ago, Perez – dumped by Tenerife for being too slight – was playing in a regional league in the Canary Islands, zipping to and from part-time training in a battered Corsa. The games he was playing in at Club Deportivo San Andres attracted a few hundred spectators.

In the same year, Pedro – groomed for greatness since being spotted by Barcelona as a young teenager – was scoring in the Champions League final. Perez’s incredible rise since being released by his hometown club as a 17-year-old deserves recognition.

Perhaps the reason why he looked like the fittest player on the pitch on Saturday was the long, gruelling sessions in a baking gym in Tenerife building his upper body for the challenge of professional football. Nothing that has come to him in the last 12 months has arrived easily, and Perez plays like it.

When we’re searching for leaders and talismanic figures in the Newcastle squad – players to hang our hats on when the going gets tough – Perez can emerge as one of them. Polite, respectful and dignified he may be, but this is no pushover. He is growing into that black-and-white shirt week by week.

It is why Steve McClaren’s sparing use of Perez has been so strange. At Manchester United he was tireless playing off the front man. Last week, asked to play deep in behind Aleksandar Mitrovic, he was simply brilliant: a mix of Premier League work-rate with intelligent, incisive running.

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Had it not been for the notable performance of wannabe show-stopper Mitrovic, Perez would have swiped the headlines. Perez, surely, must be one of the first names on the team sheet from now on.

Perez’s performance also lays bear the nonsense that Newcastle need more Brits to succeed.

In the past few weeks there has been much soul-searching about Newcastle’s approach in the transfer market. Chief among the complaints are a lack of Premier League know-how, experience, aptitude and – most puzzilingly – a lack of British-born players in their starting line-up.

But Perez is the antidote to talk that United are somehow being corroded by foreign players. He is, in my opinion, the template for ‘new Newcastle’.

Partly through their own inability to keep up with the best, and partly because of changing market forces, United have been forced to move on from the Freddie Shepherd days of grand-standing signings.

Although I might like it to on occasions, the current transfer blueprint is not going to alter. So the challenge is about getting the right mix within that, rather than yelling about the need for a tub thumper in the dressing room.

So here’s a theory: more Perezs, less complacency. What United have been missing during 2015 is not British bulldog spirit but enough players with the hunger and drive to succeed. On Saturday, Perez took 48 touches, three shots, scored and – interestingly – made four defensive tackles in the opposition’s half.

Over 45 listless minutes against Watford, Papiss Cisse took 13 touches and made no tackles. Half-fit he might be, but his contribution smacked of disinterest. He can claim to feel proud at carrying the number nine on his back for Newcastle all he wants, but his actions don’t speak of someone who is.

Perhaps it is not a character trait. Maybe Cisse is, as others are, worn down by all that has passed at St James’ Park in his four years on Tyneside. But the hunger that burned deep inside him when he arrived on that cold January day in 2012 has disappeared.

You can see it in Chancel Mbemba, Mitrovic and Georginio Wijnaldum, too. Less so Moussa Sissoko, who talks and plays like a player waiting for the next move.

Applying the Perez test, he’s past his sell-by date. Young and hungry is the way to go.