Axel Tuanzebe should reject potential reunion with Steve Bruce at Newcastle United

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Manchester United defender Axel Tuanzebe has been linked with a move to Newcastle United – he worked with Steve Bruce during his time at Aston Villa.

Newcastle United could be one of the busiest teams before Thursday’s deadline as they have seemingly expressed their interest in ex-Aston Villa and current Manchester United man Axel Tuanzebe.

The Daily Mail have claimed that Newcastle are keen to strengthen their backline ahead of deadline day and Steve Bruce is keen on centre-back Tuanzebe, who he worked with at Villa Park last season.

Simply put, Tuanzebe would be daft to reunite with Bruce at St James’ Park for a number of reasons, and the manner in which the four-time promotion winner treated him at Villa is one of the biggest reasons.

First of all, Tuanzebe is now seemingly set to be given a chance at Old Trafford where they are aiming to get back to their best by returning to Champions League football and winning trophies.

The chance to play regularly at Manchester United over joining Newcastle, who have been in a mess all summer, should be a pretty easy choice by the highly-rated defender.

Added with that, he would be reuniting with Bruce, who during his time at Villa, played him at right-back rather than centre-back last season.

Tuanzebe initially joined Villa during the second half of the 2017/18 campaign, but at the time, he was not going to dispose of the strong defensive partnership of John Terry and James Chester.

However, when he returned for a full campaign in 2018/19, places at the heart of Villa’s defence were up for grabs, especially with Terry leaving.

But Bruce opted to play defensive-midfielder Mile Jedinak in defence instead and it ruined Tuanzebe progress by playing him at fullback – if he moves to Newcastle, the same could happen and that’s the last thing he needs.

When Dean Smith replaced the sacked Bruce at Villa Park in October, the first thing he did was put Tuanzebe in his rightful position. He didn’t look back as his performances in defence helped Villa earn promotion. Tuanzebe should stay put at Old Trafford because Newcastle isn’t the place for him, at this moment in time.