Newcastle United and Bradford City went head-to-head this week and the Magpies ran out comfortable winners.
Newcastle United took on Bradford City in their latest pre-season clash on Wednesday evening and the Magpies made light work of their opponents.
New signing Jacob Murphy scored a brace while Dwight Gayle and Aleksandar Mitrovic also got on the score sheet, but it was a new face at the opposite end of the pitch that earned plenty of plaudits of his own.
Newcastle manager Rafa Benitez had to wait patiently for the club to tie up a deal for centre-back Florian Lejeune and on this evidence it was time well spent.
The Frenchman arrived at St. James’ Park in a cut-price deal from Spanish side Eibar and he is slotting seamlessly into Newcastle’s back line.
They will face far tougher opponents than this, but Lejeune has come up against some of the best attacking talent in Europe and he will be hoping to become a Magpies favourite sooner rather than later.
At 26, Lejeune is arguably reaching his peak and he could be just what Newcastle need as they look to settle quickly upon their return to the top flight.
While the Magpies may have struggled to conduct sufficient business so far this summer the players they have managed to sign are clearly the real deal, and with a few more Benitez should be happy enough with his work.
After the match against Bradford we took to Twitter to see what Newcastle fans thought of Lejeune’s performance and you can read a selection of what we found below:
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