Newcastle United's new consortium made England international full-back Kieran Trippier the club's first signing of its new Saudi Arabia-backed era as the 31-year-old completed his switch from Atletico Madrid to kickstart Eddie Howe's revolution on Tyneside.

Trippier was a star-struck youth player at Manchester City when the Abu Dhabi United Group took over The Citizens in 2008 and never got a chance in the first team to show his worth but his career has turned full circle as he now leads Newcastle's transformation wearing the no. 15 shirt and has signed a 2.5 year contract with options.

With many football pundits and observers saying Newcastle - whose 81 conceded goals in 2021 is the Premier League's record in a calendar year - need a complete overhaul of the back four and even goalkeeper, the signing of a world-class defender like Trippier is the first step in rebuilding the New-castle defensive wall of a proud Northern English city whose motto is 'Fortiter Defendit Triumphans' - Triumphing By A Brave Defence.

Trippier is the first England international to sign permanently for The Magpies since Michael Owen in 2005 (although loan signing Danny Rose has recently featured in The Three Lions squad when he arrived in 2019) and at an initial £12M with clauses and bonuses is is great value for a player who will be on the plane to the World Cup in Qatar with Gareth Southgate's Three Lions in November.

The England Manager, who will be hoping to go all the way at The World Cup in Qatar 2022 after defeats at The Semi-Final stage in Russia 2018 and, agonizingly, losing to Italy at Wembley in the Final of Euro 2020, said this about Trippier in June:

“He is a very underrated player. People are still looking at the player from a few years ago and not at the one who is at Atletico Madrid and playing like a warrior in the last few seasons.
“He is a big part of what we’ve done over the last few years"

The former Barnsley, Burnley and Spurs defender who came through the ranks at Man City without making a first team appearance for the club has 79 Premier League appearances to his name as well as 35 England caps and won the La Liga title with Diego Simeone's Atleti side last year after a meteoric rise to glory in the last three years.

As well as an excellent defensive full-back or wing-back who can play left or right side as he demonstrated kicking off England's Euros campaign at left-back against Croatia in June, Trippier is renowned for his passing and technical excellence with former boss Diego Simeone calling him a "genius technically" and as England fans know, he is a set-piece specialist whose one goal for his country came in spectacular style at The World Cup against Croatia in The Semi-Final in Russia in 2018:

Its the second time Eddie Howe has captured a player he knows very well having signed him for Burnley in his ill-fated managerial spell at Turf Moor in 2011 when Trippier played regular first-team football under him but this is no sentimental return to join up with a boss who helped kickstart his professional career in English football but rather an ambitious return to The Premier League to play at the highest level in the best League in the world leading up to The World Cup to fast-forward the Newcastle United Revolution.

“This was the turning point in my career really. I first went to Burnley on a six-month loan [from Manchester City] when Eddie Howe was the manager there and I was playing week-in and week-out in the Championship and really enjoying it." Kieran Trippier

Trippier, who brings a wealth of international and title-winning experience from Spain, is both a terrific defender and an excellent attacking weapon, and is very highly regarded within the game with England's foremost journalist Henry Winter delivering this judgement on the player with the accuracy of a tradermark Trippier free-kick:

It is an ambitious first signing for the new Newcastle United and one the consortium have put their best foot forward to in order to seal to attract other high calibre players to the Geordie cause of staying in The Premier League this season and with anywhere up to another half dozen incomings potentially arriving on Tyneside this month including highly-rated centre back Sven Botman from Lille and in-demand Fiorentina hitman Dusan Vlahovic, there's never been a more exciting time to be a Newcastle United fan.

As Fabrizio Romano says, 'Here We Go...'