According to reports from The Sun, new Newcastle United manager Steve Bruce is interested in making Preston North End defender Ben Davies his first summer signing at St. James’ Park.

The former Sheffield Wednesday boss will be looking to reassemble his squad left at his disposal by Rafa Benitez, after his shock departure from Hillsborough last weekend.

And, The Sun claims that Davies is a player that Bruce is a keen admirer of, and he may look to bring him to St. James’ Park after a hugely impressive time at Preston North End.

Davies has been one of North End’s most important players under Alex Neil - he struggled for game-time before the Scot arrived at Deepdale, but a loan spell with Fleetwood Town in 2017 seemed to galvanise him and transform into a much better player.

North End have already lost one key player this summer with Callum Robinson departing for top-flight side Sheffield United, but the loss of Davies would still be just as significant for completely different reasons.

Here, we take a look at why Davies is so important to Preston...

Ball-playing, left-sided centre-backs are hard to come by nowadays, so it is quite clear to see why Newcastle are believed to be holding an interest in Davies, who is arguably one of the most underrated players in the Championship.

Last season, Davies made 41 appearances all competitions for Preston, playing 3851 minutes of football with 40 of those appearances coming in the Championship. He played as a left-sided centre-back, playing alongside Jordan Storey for most of the season.

Playing the ball out from the back is key component in the way that Neil likes his Preston team to play, and one of Davies' best attributes is to pass out from the back and start attacks.

He accrued an impressive pass success rate of 84% last season, which is probably hardly surprising given that he was a left-back in his early years. We see plenty of sides play out from the back in the Premier League, therefore Davies could fit right in at Newcastle if Bruce sticks to his playing style.

Defensively, he was also very solid, winning 291 aerial duels and 274 interceptions, an average of 7.1 and 6.7 respectively. He also made 211 clearances and blocked 26 shots, which shows that he coped well with the rough and tumble side of the game.

Considering how Preston finished last season, Davies is a player that has really gone under the radar in the Championship, but these statistics show that he could be an absolute steal for Newcastle if they went out and signed him.