Former Newcastle United defender Steve Howey has told The Transfer Tavern that he would not have brought Mario Lemina to the club after the Magpies missed out on his signature.

Lemina recently joined Nice from Southampton after spending last season out on loan at Fulham.

However, prior, he had been strongly linked with a move to Newcastle, with the MailOnline claiming club staff managed to convince owner Mike Ashley to revive talks for the player after he initially pulled out due to concerns surrounding age.

Considering that, it appears that Lemina was a midfielder manager Steve Bruce really wanted. Howey, though, does not think the Magpies boss should be losing too much sleep over it.

"I didn't think Lemina was a good buy if I'm being brutally honest," the ex-Newcastle centre-back said. "No disrespect, but do you want to buy a player that's not wanted by a club which you're supposed to be a little bit better than?

"Listen, he's very, very talented. But when you're under the cosh and you need your players to dig in, and every single one of them, there is the accusation that he goes missing. I wouldn't have brought him in."

You would now expect Newcastle to quickly move on as they continue to be linked with a host of other midfielders.

According to The Athletic, the Tyneside outfit have an interest in the likes of Jens Cajuste and Hamza Choudhury.