With their pre-season campaign set to begin against Celtic today, Eddie Howe has been hard at work getting his Newcastle United players prepared for the long season ahead.

In a ‘warm weather training camp’ in Austria, one Howe admits was overcast and drizzly at best, the squad has worked extensively on their fitness, completed training exercises and team building activities.

And it also marked the first time Howe got to properly work with new signing Anthony Elanga after his £55m move from Nottingham Forest earlier this month.

In a new interview released by the club, Howe has given his verdict on Elanga’s time so far at the club, and it’s looking very positive based on Eddie’s early assessment.

Howe’s first impressions of Elanga; on and off the pitch

So far this window, Elanga is the only first team signing we’ve made, something which Howe is right to have a brief moan about it.

However, he is clearly delighted to have the 23-year-old, being full of praise for four things in particular; his personality, his pace, technical ability and athleticism.

“There’s been a lot of work transfer-wise, for very little incoming action. Although we’re delighted to get Anthony Elanga in of course.

“He’s done really well in the first couple of days training so we’re delighted to get him in.

“First impressions are really strong. Firstly, his personality, he’s fit really well into the group.

“He knows a lot of the players anyway, so I think he feels at home with those connections that he has with the individuals, whether it be from international duty or his history really.

“Training-wise he’s trained really well. He’s technically been excellent, and he’s shown his pace and his athleticism which is a real weapon for us to add to the players who have similar qualities.

“So yeah it’s been an impressive start.”

So, with Elanga coming in and already hitting it off well with big stars like Sven Botman and Alexander Isak, as well as more squad players like Will Osula and Emil Krafth, it speaks volumes about his character and why we were so keen to get him in.

Howe hasn’t yet disclosed if we’ll see Elanga given his unofficial debut for us in Saturday’s Adidas Trophy game in Glasgow, but it’s likely the former Forest start is involved in front of 10,000 Geordies in Glasgow.