Jamaal Lascelles has performed himself into Eddie Howe’s long-term plans at Newcastle after stepping again into the firing line amid an harm disaster.
The 30-year-old defender discovered himself a part of the supporting solid as head coach Howe, armed with the spending energy of the membership’s new Saudi-backed homeowners, embarked upon a spending spree which has so far seen them make investments round £400million within the squad.
Sven Botman’s £32million arrival from Lille specifically left the Magpies’ membership captain largely sitting on the bench, however the harm which noticed the Dutchman miss virtually three months of soccer handed the previous Nottingham Forest man an opportunity he grasped with each arms within the last yr of his current contract.
Requested if he needed Lascelles to remain, Howe stated: “I’m positive contract talks with Jamaal… I’m simply making an attempt to wrack my mind as to the place his contract is at, however I believe he’s a part of our long-term future, for positive.”
Botman’s misfortune struck when he suffered a knee harm in September which sidelined him till he got here on as a late substitute in a 3-0 Premier League win over Fulham on December 16.
In his absence, Howe turned to Lascelles and obtained precisely the response for which he had hoped as he stepped in alongside Fabian Schar and performed his half in a Carabao Cup victory over European champions Manchester Metropolis and a 4-1 Champions League demolition of Paris St Germain.
In doing so, he demonstrated simply how exhausting he had labored in coaching to have the ability to ship the sort of soccer Howe calls for of his central defenders and produce his greatest kind so far for the membership.
Howe stated: “Jamaal has carried out actually, very well this season and his recreation has come on in a lot of methods.
“Firstly, defensively, he has all the time been very robust aerially and also you noticed that lately in opposition to Fulham. His defensive understanding of what we would like him to do has been superb from day one.
“His use of the ball has improved, he seems to be actually comfy within the staff in the intervening time, and he’s taking part in some actually good soccer.”
Nevertheless, Lascelles is going through a race in opposition to time to face former membership Forest on Boxing Day after limping out of Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Luton earlier than half-time.
Howe remained coy over his skipper’s harm after the sport and he will probably be assessed with Botman, who changed him at Kenilworth Street, standing by to begin a league fixture for the primary time because the 8-0 win at Sheffield United on September 24.