After it was revealed earlier today that Eddie Howe has held constructive talks with the club about the new recruitment setup involving Paul Mitchell, some more encouraging updates have emerged this evening.
Starting with Mark Douglas at the i, he reveals that Howe took part in “positive” talks over the weekend over our pursuit of a right-winger and right-sided center-back, with the club eager to recruit both before our opening game of the 2024/25 season in just under four weeks time.
It’s believed Mitchell has ‘no intention’ of dictating who the Newcastle boss must sign and it appears that discussions over our final shortlist of targets headed in the right direction over the past 48 hours, suggesting moves could be made soon.
Eddie Howe has also issued a positive update on Anthony Gordon after the winger was linked with a shock move to Liverpool over the final days of the ‘PSR deadline’ in June. He described the 23-year-old as “integral” to his plans, rubbished suggestions we looked to sell and seemed confident he’ll be going absolutely nowhere.
When asked if Gordon will need any reassurances over his future, Howe said: “I’d welcome him back with three arms if I had them. He’s such an important player for us, we didn’t want to lose anybody.
“Why would we want to lose our best players? We fought really hard to make the right decisions. In those last few weeks, it was very, very difficult.
“He’s an integral part of what we’re doing. He needs a bit of a break, he’s a had a really long season and the Euros will have been emotional for him as well. I’m confident he is OK. I think you can only judge Anthony on what he has given Newcastle on the pitch. He’s been committed.
”We’ve had no conversations over the summer where it has been fractious or negative. He’s always been the Anthony Gordon who has given absolutely everything to Newcastle and I want to make that clear to all our supporters.“
Howe also discussed when some of our international stars will return to pre-season training, admitting that it’s vital the likes of Guimaraes, Gordon and Trippier are given extended breaks:
“They’ll be back at certain times. I do feel it is important for players like Bruno, Anthony and Kieran that they do get some time away.
“The biggest danger for them is you bring them back too early and there’s no freshness to them and I think that can really damage their season, so we have to get that right.
“But we have a game looming very large against Southampton that we have to get them ready for as well, so it’s a very delicate balance.”
