OPINION
Florian Lejeune was one of a few new faces to arrive at St James’ Park at the start of this season and despite some good performances he’s forever overshadowed by teammate Jamaal Lascelles.
The Magpies paid £8.7million, according to Sky Sports, to sign the 26-year-old centre-back from La Liga’s Eibar in the summer.
Lejeune has made 23 appearances in his debut season at the club and looks to have cemented himself as a first-team regular for many seasons to come.
The 26-year-old has put in many decent displays in his outings, including his latest appearance against Tottenham on Wednesday, but because of how talented his central defensive partner is, he gets wrongly overshadowed.
Lascelles, who is club captain, is of course worthy of all the praise that comes his way and he has been a key factor in the Magpies securing their place in the Premier League for another season.
However it means that pundits and fans have missed out on praising Lejeune for performances that have significantly helped his side’s cause.
While the 26-year-old was a bit shaky in his first outings for the club, and had a knee injury that caused him bother in the current campaign, Lejeune deserves his moment in the spotlight to get praise for his displays.
The only issue is Lascelles doesn’t look like he will be able to stop submitting eye-catching performances anytime soon, and with one game left ago, Lejeune only has one chance to get his just desserts before the season ends.
The French centre-back must be a literal wall when it comes to stopping Chelsea’s all-star attack on Sunday as fans will remember a game where they foil a high-ranking team such as the Blues.
Antonio Conte’s side may have one eye on the upcoming FA Cup final, but their frontline will be throwing everything at the Magpies, as Chelsea’s strike force which each individually being making a case for why they should start in the upcoming cup final.
Therefore Lejeune will no doubt have lot of danger on his hands to deal with and only a tip top performance will keep the Blues at the bay.
The 26-year-old has shown this season he is capable of a such display, but if he puts a blinder of a performance on Sunday, it might just see him get the plaudits instead of Lascelles.
This all means that Lejeune has one more chances to make everyone realise he deserves plaudits, even when he has a talented defensive partner, before the season ends.
As at the start of the next campaign, everyone always resets their opinion on players, so Lejeune’s good work for this season could end up missing the praise it warrants.
