STEVE BRUCE admits Nabil Bentaleb and Valentino Lazaro have moved to Newcastle United with a point to prove, and is confident the loan duo will get their respective careers back on track at St James’ Park.

Bentaleb will make his Newcastle debut in this afternoon’s sold-out FA Cup fourth-round tie with Oxford United, having moved to Tyneside on a season-long switch from Schalke last month.

Lazaro completed his temporary switch from Inter Milan yesterday, with Newcastle having negotiated a potential £20m permanent transfer this summer, but is unable to feature today as the paperwork of his move was not completed in time.

The pair have travelled to England under something of a cloud, with Bentaleb having spent most of the first half of the season training with Schalke’s Under-23s and Lazaro having made just three Serie A starts for Inter since a summer move from Hertha Berlin.

Both players are desperate to make up for lost time, and Bruce accepts that if he is going to bringing top-class players to Newcastle, they are probably going to be arriving with some baggage from their previous employers.

“If you’re a club outside the top six or so, then you’re probably going to be signing players with rough edges,” said Bruce. “One hundred per cent. That goes for a lot of clubs, and a lot of good players who we are trying to bring in.

“That’s the difficulty of trying to bring in people, there are just not enough top players around, and we are all looking for them, especially in January. So, usually, you end up looking for someone who has had a fall-out, with Bentaleb, or someone who it’s not gone so well for, like Lazaro at Inter. But for us to get them two, with that right quality, is vitally important.”

Bentaleb will start in midfield today, and Bruce insists he is unconcerned at the discplinary issues that led to the 25-year-old being frozen out at Schalke.

The Algerian is understood to have clashed with Schalke’s last two managers because of his vocal support for Domenico Tedesco, who was dismissed last March, but Bruce has conducted a large amount of due diligence and is satisfied he can handle the midfielder.

The Magpies boss spoke to Les Ferdinand and Tim Sherwood, who worked with Bentaleb during his time at Tottenham, and received glowing reports about his attitude and professionalism.

Those attributes have shone through this week, with Bruce hugely impressed at the state of Bentaleb’s fitness given that he has barely played a game in the last ten months. Having monitored the midfielder closely this week, he has no qualms about handing him a start this afternoon.

“He’s a good player, and all week we’ve been asking where he is in terms of his fitness levels, but they’re excellent,” said Bruce. “There’s not even a question mark over whether he should play because his fitness levels are fantastic considering he hasn’t been playing. He played 45 minutes about three weeks ago, but not for (Schalke’s) first team, but he’s in great nick.”

Allan Saint-Maximin will also start today after recovering from the issue that kept him out of Tuesday’s 2-2 draw with Everton, but Florian Lejeune and Emil Krafth are unavailable after sustaining injuries at Goodison Park and Andy Carroll is not yet back to full fitness either.

Nevertheless, Bruce is adamant he will be naming as strong a side as possible this afternoon as he looks to end a dreadful run of FA Cup results that have seen Newcastle fail to reach the fifth round in every year of Mike Ashley’s ownership.

In the past, Newcastle have made no secret of their refusal to prioritise the cup competitions. Times have changed though, and Bruce is adamant he has free reign to give this season’s renewal his best shot.

“I’ve never changed on my attitude to the cups here, I really haven’t,” he said. “The team have bought into it. David Meyler was at the training ground this week, talking with Ciaran Clark about the FA Cup (for an Irish radio station), and he’ll say that day when we got to the final with Hull was the greatest day of his career.

“It certainly changed me. I am never going to win the Premier League, but we were close to winning the FA Cup. It’s the only thing I can realistically try to achieve. We have to have a bit of luck along the way, but let’s try to beat Oxford, it’s a great opportunity to get to the next round.”

Newcastle will be playing in front of a sold-out crowd this afternoon after this week’s decision to slash children’s tickets to just £1 resulted in a rush of applications.

The demand for tickets is evidence of the enduring romance of the FA Cup, as well as proof of the growing weight of support behind Bruce and his players.

“The minimum we could have charged (for adult tickets) was a tenner and people have bought into it,” said Bruce. “The last little push was letting kids in for a quid. Is there still some magic in the Cup? Well, you’re not going to get 52,000 if there wasn’t. Absolutely. Let’s hope we can keep things going.”