Howe can land his own Varane as Newcastle eye move for "confident" £27m-rated machine - opinion

Newcastle United and Eddie Howe quickly identified the defence as an area in need of strengthening during the January transfer window.

During that month, the Toon brought in the likes of Kieran Trippier, Dan Burn and Matt Targett to try and stem the tide of leaking so many goals and avoid getting relegated.

This ended up working wonders for the Magpies, as they only lost five league games after January, four of which were against the teams who ended the season in the top four.

Now that the summer transfer window is set to open, this will once again give Howe the chance to strengthen his squad and put them in a good place to take on the next campaign.

One figure with whom Newcastle have been linked recently and who could potentially make them even stronger at the back is William Saliba.

In the summer of 2019, Arsenal signed the defender in a deal worth a reported £27m. Since then, the £27m-rated Frenchman has had loan spells in his homeland with clubs such as Saint-Etienne, Nice and Marseille.

"}" data-sheets-userformat="{"2":14753,"3":{"1":0},"8":{"1":[{"1":2,"2":0,"5":{"1":0}},{"1":0,"2":0,"3":3},{"1":1,"2":0,"4":1}]},"10":2,"11":0,"14":{"1":2,"2":2237737},"15":"Arial","16":11}">

His recent campaign on loan with Marseille saw the 21-year-old show his capabilities at the back by making more interceptions (80) and clearances (91) than any other player at the Stade Velodrome. He also made more tackles (47) in the defensive third of the pitch than any of his latest crop of temporary team-mates.

Dubbed a “confident” defensive player by former Arsenal ace Bacary Sagna, Saliba has also been likened to fellow countryman Raphael Varane by Fabio Frasconi.

As one of Europe’s most highly-decorated players, the opportunity to have