"I didn't realise how good he was" - Elanga hails Newcastle star and snubs Alexander Isak

Anthony Elanga is having to work pretty hard to win over the Newcastle United fans after his £55 million move from Nottingham Forest in the summer.

Eddie Howe spent big to bring in the Swedish winger after a lengthy pursuit that saw Elanga linked with a move to Newcastle in several transfer windows before the move actually happened last year.

However, for whatever reason, the 23-year-old hasn't been able to replicate the scintillating form he showed at Nottingham Forest last season at Newcastle.

He has started to look more confident of late, and it feels like he's growing into the team following his brace at Barcelona, helped on by fans chanting his name during games.

Elanga wowed by brilliant Bruno

If there were still any fans out there who weren't sold on Elanga, though, what he did in this interview with The Premier League's YouTube channel, you might feel a little bit warmer about him.

Discussing his Newcastle teammates in an interview with the Premier League, the former Forest man spoke highly about several members of the squad, hailing Nick Pope's sense of humour, Malick Thiaw's presence and Nick Woltemade's technical ability, but his comments on Bruno Guimaraes stood out.

Not only did he praise Bruno's on the pitch, Elanga reveals the role he played to help him settle, whether it was inviting him to his son's birthday party or helping him speak about any issues.

"That's another one I'm really close with (Bruno Guimaraes). He actually invited me to his son's birthday, so I'm really close to him now.

"He's someone that's helped me a lot since I came here because he speaks French and I speak French. 

"He's been helping me a lot off the pitch and on the pitch. He's someone you can speak to about whatever, and another one I didn't know how good he was until I played with him."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV_QMTcsojg&t=313s

Elanga went on to say how proud he is to represent his country and that Sweden has some top players he loves to play with, and as he reeled off a few names, there was one that was suspiciously absent.

Alexander Isak was snubbed by Elanga

When you think of Sweden, you probably think of Alexander Isak, but the ex-Newcastle man didn't even get a mention from Elanga.

It could have just been that he's injured and won't feature for a while, but we'd like to think it was a conscious effort by our new Swedish star.

Alexander Isak is pretty much persona non grata around Newcastle these days after the way in which he engineered his exit from the club, so to see him getting the cold shoulder from Elanga just feels good.