Newcastle United fans have been reacting to a new report that Florian Lejeune has been the best performing player for Deportivo Alaves this year.
The decision to send Lejeune to the Spanish outfit last summer didn’t sit well with everyone.
He may have suffered a second serious knee injury in the 2018/19 season, but he recovered fairly quickly and returned in 2019/20 to play nine games before struggling at the end of the campaign with a thigh problem.
It was felt that Lejeune needed a loan move to rebuild some momentum, but it was not a totally popular decision due to the level the Frenchman shows when he is fit.
Arguably, he is the best defender Newcastle have on paper.
Over in Spain, Lejeune is now really in the groove.
Alaves are second-bottom in the table, but the 29-year-old is impressing at the Mendizorrotza Stadium.
According to the CIES Football Observatory, Lejeune has been the best-performing player at Alaves for the first quarter of the calendar year.
That probably further suggests that Newcastle made a mistake in letting Lejeune head out on loan.
Yes there is the argument that he perhaps needed a slower-paced environment, but that won’t wash with too many Toon fans.
Maybe Newcastle should have had taken the gamble of keeping Lejeune and helped him with careful managing of his minutes.
On social media, some Newcastle fans have reacted with frustration about Lejeune’s good form for Alaves:
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