As revealed by The Mail’s Craig Hope, an absent Eddie Howe will FaceTime every player in the Newcastle United squad before and after today’s crucial clash with Brentford.
It was confirmed last night that the 43-year-old will be forced to miss his first game as manager after testing positive for Covid-19 on Friday, meaning assistants Jason Tindall and Graeme Jones will take over touchline duties.
However, it seems Howe has left no stone unturned and will still play a big part today, with The Mail claiming that he’s had an ‘action plan’ in place since March for an eventuality like this.
It’s also been revealed that he’ll be in ‘constant communication’ with his coaches as he watches the game remotely.
So, it seems he’ll not only be picking the team while isolating in a hotel room on Tyneside, but giving team talks over FaceTime to the entire Newcastle United squad.
Here’s a snippet from Craig Hope’s latest piece:
‘Howe remains focused. He will FaceTime each player before the game and will be in contact with his backroom staff throughout.
‘In fact, he has had a plan in place for this eventuality since the outbreak of the pandemic in March of last year.
‘That does not come as a surprise given the noises that have emerged about Howe’s impact since his arrival last week.’
If anything ever summed up how meticulous our new manager is, it’s that second line.
Hopefully this sort of hard work and attention to detail has already rubbed off on the players. OK, they’ve only had around 10 days of training with the new boss, however they now have even more motivation to put in a big performance for him.
HWTL.
