Visitors to Newcastle’s training ground are greeted by a vision of organised chaos. While bulldozers, diggers and cement mixers jostle for space with four-wheel drives, VIP parking bays are temporarily covered by giant piles of sand and hard-hatted contractors clock on for work alongside multimillionaire Premier League footballers.
It is all part of the significant upgrading of a facility undergoing the sort of expensive facelift designed to attract some of Europe’s leading players this summer. Eddie Howe’s only problem is that in order to hire the very best – West Ham’s Declan Rice rather than Manchester United’s Scott McTominay, say – his side need to finish in the Premier League’s top four next month.
It explained why, early on Friday morning, Newcastle’s understated manager seemed overcome by a rare attack of something approaching hyperbole. He readily agreed that Sunday’s match against a fifth-placed Tottenham side three points and one place behind Newcastle represented “a big moment in our season”.
At one point he even claimed the fixture’s importance ranked “right up there” with Newcastle’s appearance in February’s League Cup final at Wembley.
They lost that to Manchester United but cannot afford to stumble against Spurs – even though they have played a game more – and allow a Champions League place to slip through their fingers. “We’ve got an opportunity to achieve something really special,” said Howe.
Qualification for Europe’s premier club competition would not merely earn Newcastle a minimum of £25m for reaching the group stage alone, but attract the sort of prestigious commercial deals that should enable the Saudi Arabian-controlled club to remain on the right side of the financial fair play rules restricting their room for transfer-market manoeuvre.
Drop to fifth, sixth or even seventh and the consolation prize of Europa League or Europa Conference League football would raise negligible sums by comparison. Worse, it might leave the squad overstretched and under‑equipped for juggling a Premier League programme with Thursday night trips to European outposts.
Small wonder Howe initially attempted to change the subject when someone asked if he feared his team emulating Europa Conference League participants West Ham and ending up in a relegation struggle next season. “It’s a relevant question … in terms of the struggles and the changed dynamic,” he eventually said.
The surprise that greeted Newcastle’s 3-0 defeat at Aston Villa last Saturday, their “worst performance of the season” according to Howe, served as a reminder of precisely how far and fast this club have travelled in the 18 months since the buyout.
Coincidentally, in the first game under the new regime Newcastle, under Steve Bruce and in danger of a long relegation battle, lost 3-2 at home to Spurs. Back then even those Tynesiders who bought into takeover-fuelled optimism by turning up in full Arab dress and clutching toy camels could not have envisaged the team rising so high so quickly.
Howe’s swift installation and stellar coaching allied to some smart player recruitment – most notably the acquisition of midfielder Bruno Guimarães, the defender Sven Botman and the right-back Kieran Trippier – have altered the club’s topography to the point where Newcastle’s boardroom model appears an effective antidote to the type of chaos engulfing Spurs.
“We’ve been stable and very well run from above,” Howe said. “There has been clarity and there has been a vision. It’s rare to have that stability at a Premier League club because the pressure you’re working under is so high, but that stability and trust has enabled us to be successful. Hopefully that can remain for as long as possible.
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“This club has changed a lot, there’ve been huge improvements and sometimes, for a split second, it’s good to reflect and be proud of where we’ve come from and the speed of our journey. But only for a split second because it always has to be about what’s in front of us.”
The sometimes dizzying effort involved in gatecrashing the Premier League’s top four – and endeavouring to stay there – features the Saudis looking at buying the Belgian second-tier club KV Oostende for about £10m as part of a plan to copy Manchester City’s multi-club model and begin purchasing satellite or feeder teams.
Accordingly, Howe accepts the first-team squad will probably be altered significantly by this time next year. “No decisions have been made either way yet to whether players will stay or leave us,” he said, carefully. “They can still show why they should be part of our long-term future.”
Amanda Staveley, Newcastle’s co-owner and director responsible for the club’s day-to-day running, recently said financial fair play dictates that they cannot afford to buy any transfer market “duds”, unlike more established rivals.
“My intention has never been to sign any duds,” Howe said. “But recruitment’s such a difficult thing. The work going into every signing is exhausting. It’s a long process and that has to be the way here because it’s so important.”
He knows he is flying perilously, if thrillingly, close to the sun, but Howe has no intention of permitting his wings to melt.
