Steve Bruce has revealed his delight at tying Jacob Murphy, Federico Fernandez, Dwight Gayle, Fabian Schar and Paul Dummett down to new deals on Tyneside.
The Newcastle United boss has also spoken about his plan to ‘build momentum’ over the coming month, with him clearly keen to take our end-of-season form into the 2021/22 campaign now the players have returned for pre-season.
New signings are yet to arrive – and he’s believed to have been left with a limited budget while takeover talk lingers on – but we’ll have to hope things get moving in that department now the big kick off is just over a month away.
Here’s what he told nufc.co.uk in reaction to the new contracts, saying all five have a ‘thorough understanding’ of the club:
“I’m delighted to extend the players’ contracts.
“They all have a thorough understanding of this club and what it takes to play here, and they have all made excellent contributions over recent years.
“The hard work preparing for the new season has already begun and we’re looking forward to building momentum as we head towards the big kick-off next month.”
Bruce has also had this to say about our pre-season plans, with the club confirming a week-long training session at the Queen Ethelburga’s Collegiate campus from July 12th:
“I firmly believe that for any team it’s always vital to have a training camp away from the familiar surroundings of your training ground and once it became clear that the current Covid-19 restrictions would make travelling abroad extremely difficult, there was only one choice in my eyes,”
“The facilities at Queen Ethelburga’s are first class and I was delighted with everything last year, from the hotel accommodation to the pitches and everything in between, so we’re really looking forward to going back there.”
As things stand, our pre-season schedule is as follows:
- 6th July – Players return to Benton training base for beginning of pre-season
- 12th July – Training camp at Queen Ethelburga’s Collegiate campus
- 18th July – York City (A) and Harrogate Town (A) – 2pm – *First-team squads split*
- 23rd July – Doncaster Rovers (A) – 7pm – Keepmoat Stadium
- 27th July – Rotherham United (A) – 7pm – AESSEAL New York Stadium
- 30th July – Burton Albion (A) – 7.45pm – Pirelli Stadium
- 7th August – Norwich City (H) – 2pm – St James’ Park.
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Dwight Gayle? oh dear!
We’re going to have to rely on him scoring goals,if Callum Wilson gets injured???
relegation anyone? ?
Steve(Quote)