Imagine him & Burn: Howe can seal terrifying NUFC duo by signing £13m "Rolls-Royce" - opinion

Newcastle United‘s summer business is set to get underway as the transfer window opens next week and Dan Ashworth is able to get to work.

The former Brighton chief has arrived at St James’ Park as sporting director and will now be working with Eddie Howe to bring in new signings to bolster the squad ahead of the 2022/23 campaign.

One player for whom the club have recently been linked with a swoop is Bournemouth defender Lloyd Kelly. Dean Jones of GIVEMESPORT has revealed that the centre-back is one of the Magpies’ main targets this summer, having worked with Howe at the Vitality Stadium previously.

The Newcastle head coach can seal a terrifying Magpies centre-back pairing by signing the Cherries defender to pair up with Burn at St James’ Park.

Kelly, who joined Bournemouth for £13m three years ago, enjoyed an excellent season in the Championship as they won promotion to the Premier League, and he has earned plenty of plaudits during his time on the south coast.

Former Cherries boss Jonathan Woodgate previously took the time to salute the defender’s pace, saying: “At the minute he just looks like a bit of a Rolls-Royce doesn’t he? He looked very, very good (against Bristol City).

“I was impressed to be honest with you, especially when (Antoine) Semenyo tried to run him down the line and Semenyo gave him two yards and Lloydy overtook him. It’s eye-catching when things like that happen, especially as a fellow defender. When you see things like that, it’s like ‘you’ve got a bit’.”

In the 2021/22 campaign, Kelly averaged a superb SofaScore rating of 7.04 in the second tier across 41 appearances for Bournemouth. The 23-year-old won 64% of his duels and made 4.3 clearances per game as his team kept a whopping 20 clean sheets