'It's unfinished business' - Newcastle find 'hell of an' FFP solution to save tens of millions

Nine. That's how many games Lloyd Kelly played under Eddie Howe at Bournemouth, but the versatile defender still left his mark on the Newcastle United boss in their one and only injury-disrupted season together. Former Bournemouth captain Steve Cook saw that first hand.

"It's unfinished business," he told ChronicleLive ahead of the pair's reunion. "Eddie didn't get the chance to work with Lloyd individually for too long so this is a great opportunity.

"The way Eddie and his staff coach their players, I'm sure he will get every ounce out of him. Lloyd will know what he is walking into.

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"Any new signing that hasn't worked under Eddie and his staff take time to adapt because the levels they expect day-to-day are very high physically and mentally. Lloyd has had that. He will be ready for what's coming and I'm sure he will thrive off it."

That is the added advantage of this free transfer. At a time when Sven Botman and Jamaal Lascelles are sidelined with serious knee injuries, Newcastle needed someone who could come in and hit the ground running and Kelly is a player Howe and his staff have known for years - even before they brought him to Bournemouth from Bristol City in 2019.

Such was Kelly's promise at Bristol, the academy graduate was, tellingly, not loaned out and duly impressed on his full senior debut in a Carabao Cup win away at Watford, who were in the Premier League at the time. Bristol carefully introduced Kelly to life in the Championship thereafter and the youngster travelled with the team to stadiums up and down the country to whet the appetite and help him feel like he belonged in the group.

There were testing moments along the way when Kelly eventually got in the team - not least being hooked at half-time of a 5-0 defeat at Aston Villa - but the defender went on to become a regular starter under boss Lee Johnson after adjusting to the mental demands of life in the second-tier. In fact, Johnson was so struck by Kelly's 'footballing brain and Rolls Royce athleticism' that he even put a call in to the England youth set-up.

"I remember phoning them saying, 'You have to take this lad. You have to look at him, at least,'" the former Sunderland manager recalled to ChronicleLive. "I've never done that and I haven't since. That was the confidence I had in him.

"Then when you go and watch players of that quality at that level, they're just so comfortable. Because he was always being pushed up at Bristol, he never actually had time to settle at his own level. He was always being stretched and that was part of his journey. When he dropped back to his own level, he was just outstanding."

Bournemouth had long tracked Kelly's progress by then. Andy Howe, who is now Newcastle's assistant head of recruitment, was part of the scouting team at Bournemouth who monitored Kelly for several years before the Cherries won the race to sign the centre-back for £13m amid interest from Liverpool in 2019.

It was a sizable fee for Bournemouth at the time, particularly for a young player with no previous Premier League experience, and Kelly's new team-mates were naturally curious to see what all the fuss was about in that first training session. Dan Gosling, who represented Bournemouth and Newcastle, of course, was quickly struck by Kelly's 'unbelievable' physical attributes, which the Magpies will have at their disposal once the 25-year-old passes a medical.

"We saw it straight away," Gosling told ChronicleLive. "We did a one v one drill and no one could get past Lloyd. He was that quick on the turn and strong. His athleticism was 10 out of 10. He's a specimen. He's 6ft 3in. He's got everything to be a top defender.

"I just remember the blistering pace and the recovery runs he can do. He almost plays in second gear, really. I would like to see him at fult tilt and he's got so much room to improve. That's the beauty of it.

"He's now going to go up there to Newcastle at 25 as an established Premier League player, but with another one or two levels to go to and this is the perfect move and perfect environment because he's going to continue to grow and learn, which is important, and he's not going to walk straight into that side, either. He's going to have to prove himself all over again."

You suspect that is something Kelly will relish. Not only to prove he can step up at Newcastle, at centre-back or left-back, but, also, to prove that he is robust enough to be a regular in the Premier League after making just 54 top-flight appearances in three seasons at Bournemouth following a spate of niggles. As Gosling put it: "If you can keep Lloyd Kelly fit throughout the season, you've got a hell of a player. That's probably the only question mark."

In truth, those injuries have only made Kelly more determined. This is certainly a resilient character, who has spoken openly of his 11 years in foster care, and Kelly has bounced back from a number of setbacks in football. When ex-Bournemouth boss Gary O'Neil took the captaincy off Kelly, for instance, so that he could focus on his game after coming back from injury, the defender did not let that understandable disappointment show and instead continued to lead by example and drive standards having previously led his side back to the Premier League as skipper.

Clearly this is a player who can add value off the field, as well as on it, and buy into the team-first mentality at Newcastle. Former Bournemouth defender Charlie Daniels, who also happens to be a Newcastle fan, remembered how 'nothing really fazed' the level-headed Kelly, who has had to 'deal with a lot'.

"Lloyd is a really nice lad," he told ChronicleLive. "He's determined and knows what he wants and is always willing to improve.

"You could see that and the type of character he is when he took the armband. He is a leader. He's not the most vocal leader in the world, but he's very professional and plays the game the way it should be played.

"What you get from Lloyd is he will give his all for the shirt. He's a very calm, composed player. If he's not playing at a particular time, he is one a bit like Matty [Ritchie] and Paul Dummett, who will encourage and just want the best for Newcastle. That's what you need in a squad if you want to be successful where you know that maybe you're not going to play every single week, but you realise there's something bigger than you."