Newcastle's 'massive' transfer bonus as quiet five-year statement made and Benton boost to come

Newcastle United's decision to hand Lloyd Kelly a five-year deal feels like a quiet statement of sorts. It is a huge show of faith in a defender who, in the right hands, can get even better. Just ask former Bournemouth captain Steve Cook.

"Lloyd has always had great potential," he told ChronicleLive. "He's very strong, extremely fast and very agile for his size as well. He's got everything to be a top centre-back - if he can stay fit."

It is the burning question: can Newcastle keep Kelly fit? This is a defender, after all, who only made 54 Premier League appearances in his previous three seasons in the top-flight.

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As much as Newcastle faced stiff competition to sign Kelly, inevitably, there will have been other clubs who had reservations about the centre-backs injury record - even as a free agent. Yet the fact Newcastle moved to tie up a deal for Kelly before the window opened shows how highly they rate the 25-year-old. Crucially, the timing of the move will also enable Kelly to get a full pre-season under his belt.

"It's massive," Kelly told club media. "My number one priority is getting settled somewhere, putting that at ease and focusing on pre-season because I want to be able to come into pre-season 100% fit physically and mentally ready as well."

Just as Howe and his staff know Kelly's body, the new arrival also knows what to expect when he reports for his first day at Benton next month. That also feels like a bonus of sorts.

Fellow defender Dan Burn was the first to admit that it 'took me a while' to adjust to the intensity of sessions following his mid-season move from Brighton in 2022. Others have needed even longer.

"The signings we made took a little bit of time to get up to speed," Burn previously explained to ChronicleLive. "You need to know your roles to play in this team. You’ve got to think quite a bit. It’s not just something you can step into.”

That won't be an issue for Kelly, who also played under Jason Tindall during the Newcastle assistant's time in charge of Bournemouth. As former team-mate Dan Gosling told ChronicleLive: "Lloyd will certainly know the intensity of it. That's only going up. That's not going down."

Those are not empty words. After missing out on Europe last season, which was a huge blow, Howe will have more time with his players on the training pitches at Benton, which was the foundation of the Magpies' top four push in 2023. In contrast, last season, there were times when the players were unable to train at full tilt because of the packed schedule.

The squad will also have more time to recover between games following a campaign where Newcastle players, by a distance, missed the most days through injury in the Premier League as the black-and-whites battled on four fronts. Although there were a freak number of impact injuries, Howe admitted some others were down to 'too much load or maybe our programmes are not good enough in the gym'. "If we are sitting here going we have not made any mistakes I think we are being fools," the Newcastle boss said a few months ago.

Lessons need to be learned and Newcastle have set out to 'improve what we deliver for the players' at a time when the physical demands of the game are greater than ever. Not only has the Premier League, statistically, got even quicker - matches are even longer following the introduction of new directives on timekeeping last year.

Howe has highlighted the importance of pre-season because players need a 'good load behind them to make them resilient and strong'. In the Newcastle boss' own words, finding the 'optimum spot' between players being undercooked and overcooked goes a 'long way' to keeping players fit throughout the campaign. Kelly, who suffered an ankle injury in his first summer with Howe, feels like a case in point.