The Newcastle United centre-back has wasted little time impressing his new fans.
For weeks, Newcastle United fans waited as newspaper reports linked the Magpies with a bargain move for centre-back Florian Lejeune, only for the silence to become deafening as the newly promoted club waited to get their first deal of the summer over the line.
Eventually, the 26-year-old did arrive and on recent evidence he is going to quickly endear himself to the St. James’ Park faithful.
After his performance in the 4-0 victory against Bradford City on Wednesday evening, one Newcastle fan took to Twitter to suggest the club had found their next Jonathan Woodgate, and that would be welcome as they bid to not only remain in the Premier League long term but ensure they are fighting for silverware in the coming years.
Woodgate only payed 28 times for Newcastle due to injury. However he quickly proved his worth and fans of the club will be desperate to see another ball-playing centre-back excel at the club, this time long term.
Lejeune is not the type of no-nonsense centre-back that usually arrives in the Premier League from abroad. He proved against Bradford that he wants to play out from the back and, while the competition is going to get a lot tougher in the months ahead, it is a promising start.
Lejeune has already faced the likes of Antoine Griezmann, Luis Suarez, Neymar, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, and has not abandoned his playing style in the process. So it seems in this instance that Benitez has bought an absolute gem for an absolute steal.
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