By Darren Bent

1st Dec, 2019 | 2:55pm

Exclusive: Darren Bent drools over 'On fire' Newcastle player who Bruce has had 'word' with

Darren Bent heaped praise on Newcastle United midfielder Jonjo Shelvey following his performance in the 2-2 draw with Manchester City.

Speaking exclusively to Football Insider correspondent Laura O’Leary, the former Sunderland and Aston Villa striker claimed Bruce has gotten the best out of Shelvey due to having a word with him.

The 27-year-old Magpies midfielder scored this third goal of the 2019/20 campaign against Man City on Saturday and as result is the club’s current leading goalscorer this season.

Bent stated that Shelvey was on fire in his opinion currently and revealed he believes Bruce has given the midfielder a new lease of life by restoring his confidence.

When asked about Shelvey’s memorable goal and his performance against Man City being worthy of speaking about, Bent told Football Insider: “Yeah, and he has been on fire as well as Bruce has given him a new lease of life.

“He’s put the confidence back into him by kind of having a word and saying, ‘you’re going to be a big player for us, we need you’ which they do, so yeah it was a great performance by him.

“Great goal, hopefully, he can build on that, we saw him score a great free-kick against West Ham a few weeks ago, so hopefully he can build on this going forward.”

Shelvey struggled to regularly feature for the Magpies under Rafa Benitez during the 2018/19 campaign as he only managed 18 appearances across all competitions.

The English playmaker has been at St James Park since joining from Swansea City in January 2016 and is contracted to stay with the club until 2021.

In other Newcastle United news, Hutton has dropped a training ground reveal about Steve Bruce after his players “flopped” against Villa.