With just a month to go before the Premier League's big kick off, Newcastle United left-back Jamal Lewis again finds himself in contention ahead of the new season to do what he intended to just two years ago.
Eddie Howe announced the first cut of his Toon squad with less than a week before United players will jet over to Austria for an intense boot camp for pre-season. And Lewis looks certain to be on the plane after a difficult 2022 so far.
After finding himself out of favour under Steve Bruce then picking up groin and hamstring injuries during the early days of Howe's tenure, his time on the pitch amounted to just 353 minutes last term. Howe said Lewis would get another chance to impress him this summer and he has been as good as his word so far.
READ MORE: Newcastle remain in dialogue for Gordon as Dan Ashworth holds high level talks
Lewis wasn't on the list of senior players told to report to Little Benton this week to train with the reserves. The hard work, however, starts now for the Northern Ireland international.
The 24-year-old has Matt Targett ahead of him in the queue for the left-bacl slot and there's also competition from Paul Dummett. Howe will work with Lewis and he is expected to play in pre-season, which is a similar story to last term when he impressed in friendly games under Bruce.
Lewis was rated highly when he made the £15million switch from Norwich City in 2020 and had been chased by Liverpool with Jurgen Klopp a big admirer. But his Newcastle career has yet to really and after 34 games the flying full-back will need to find his best form to dislodge Targett.
The former Aston Villa man will surely be one of the first names on the team sheet for the game against Nottingham Forest if fit. And it is now up to Lewis to really make that impression on Howe.
Pre-season is the perfect opportunity for him to do that with Howe set to rotate his squad and get minutes in the legs of his squad over in Austria then Portugal before two friendly games at St James' Park to finish off an action packed month. Howe has already stated that he wants "at least two players" fighting for each position.
So the grapple for the left-back spot will be one of the most intriguing of all and Lewis has to take it with both hands. The start of the season has already resulted in Howe being assertive enough to tell four squad members that there time is up at United, not to mention Isaac Hayden who left earlier this summer for Lewis' old club Norwich.
But for players like Lewis, the gauntlet has been thrown down and fans could get to see the player that Klopp wanted to sign just a couple of summers ago.
READ NEXT
Why Newcastle's economical June points to exciting July
Eddie Howe's challenge as he looks to trim down squad
The Magpies quoted crazy fee for Southampton star
Jamal Lewis' big question as he returns to Newcastle training ground
