If their 2023-24 season has often felt like a slog for Newcastle United — epic moments, epic injuries, Sandro Tonali, vivid peaks and troughs — the message from head coach Eddie Howe to his players during its final international break has been positive.
With 10 games left to the summer and European qualification still to play for, an ending is in sight and there is still time to make it a satisfactory one. On training pitches in Dubai and back on Tyneside, a few buzzwords and phrases have been spoken on repeat: reset, recalibrate, and go again.
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Newcastle have needed that exhalation, that renewed sense of purpose. Sitting 10th in the Premier League, guaranteed a 70th year without a domestic trophy after losing to Manchester City in the FA Cup quarter-finals on March 16, with Dan Ashworth, their sporting director, on gardening leave and heading to Manchester United, they have been scratching around for form, respite and identity.
On and off the pitch, Newcastle have used the fortnight since that City tie to remind themselves there is a bigger picture and to trust the plan. While the squad Howe has worked with has been limited by players away on international duty and, yes, injuries — Sven Botman and Lewis Miley are the latest to be afflicted — their warm-weather training camp in Dubai was productive, beginning with some rest and rising towards a mini pre-season.
Back at their training ground in Longbenton, Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi, the co-owners, have been regular visitors, spending a couple of days a week there over the past fortnight to pick up the slack left by Ashworth’s departure. A rudderless club is an uneasy club, and their presence has provided a layer of leadership and stability.
This week, which began for Staveley with a court ruling in London ordering her to pay £3.4million ($4.3m) to a Greek shipping magnate by Tuesday, she and Ghodoussi held meetings with the heads of every football department, gauging the mood, problem-solving and keeping lines of communication open.
In the background, Odgers Berndtson, the recruitment firm, has reached out to potential candidates to replace Ashworth as sporting director. Darren Eales, the chief executive, has continued to negotiate with Manchester United over compensation and Ashworth’s potential start date at Old Trafford.
All of this has eased some of the burden from Howe’s shoulders. Without Ashworth, he has been left to deal with the day-to-day minutiae of Newcastle’s football operation, including fielding calls from agents and looking at player contracts.
Transfers have been discussed, with Howe spending much of his time while in Dubai whittling down lists of targets. The problem for Newcastle remain the profit and sustainability rules (PSR) that prevented them from spending in the recent winter window.
Getting around those, whether through sponsorship deals or potential player sales, or more likely both, has occupied directors’ minds. The controversial post-season friendlies against Tottenham Hotspur and an A-League All-Star side in Melbourne, Australia in late May — and the partnership with Quidd, an NFT marketplace — have been driven by commercial need.
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The mood has been supportive and encouraging, accepting the need for perspective and realism. Everybody knows where they want to go and still agree they will get there, but there is an understanding that the journey is going to be bumpier than anticipated.
These last 10 games are viewed as pivotal; finish strongly and, after a tough season, Newcastle will carry positive momentum into the summer and beyond. It is a nice theory. As Tonali’s misconduct charge from the Football Association for further alleged betting offences suggests, resets and Newcastle are not natural bedfellows right now.
On the plane to Dubai, there was a lingering sense of disappointment, of frustration, that despite Manchester City being among the best sides in the world and despite losing 2-0 to two deflected goals, Newcastle did not do enough in that FA Cup game to unsettle Pep Guardiola’s home team.
Two efforts on goal all night (one on target) represented the club’s lowest tally in a single match since 2015, while Howe’s decision to start with a back five for only the third time in his 115-game tenure did not produce the desired result.
A mental readjustment was required given the deflation of the latest defeat and its draining context. There was a recognition that a change of scenery was required.
Newcastle’s coaching staff pinpoint previous mid-season trips as being pivotal to their success — Howe’s side won five of their next six games after heading to Saudi Arabia in January 2022 and six out of seven following a visit to Dubai last February — and the hope is this latest sojourn there will have the same positive effect.
For the first couple of days, players and staff primarily rested, socialised together and recovered physically in the sunshine, with golf, tennis and pool-based activities on the agenda, as well as free time.
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Throughout, the squad trained: on the grass, in the gym and in the pool. The intensity of those sessions rose as the week progressed to the extent that the final couple of days represented pre-season levels of output. Howe was keen for his squad to relax, but also to ensure they could perform for the remaining 10 matches, which he views as a “mini-season”.
His repeated mantra has been for his players to “attack” these games, to try to secure European qualification again for next season after this term’s Champions League adventures.
Yet while there is a firm belief that this international break came at an opportune moment, it has not been without its challenges.
With the international players away, less than half of the expected starting XI for the home match against West Ham United tomorrow (Saturday) were in Dubai. Martin Dubravka, Fabian Schar, Bruno Guimaraes, Miguel Almiron, Anthony Gordon and Alexander Isak were not able to take part in the majority of the sessions, meaning training exercises were conducted with makeshift sides.
Coaching staff recognise that if Newcastle are to succeed in the coming weeks, they require their star internationals to perform and lead the way.
While Gordon impressed on his senior England debut and Schar excelled for Switzerland, Guimaraes showed mixed form for Brazil and Isak was used as a left-winger and, more puzzlingly, as an attacking midfielder by Sweden so did not get a runout in his preferred strike role. Dubravka, meanwhile, withdrew from the Slovakia squad earlier this week due to unspecified “personal reasons”. Almiron was also back sooner than expected after Paraguay’s friendly with Russia was cancelled following the terrorist attack in Moscow.
More worryingly, there were two fresh fitness blows to continue the theme of a wretched, injury-ravaged campaign.
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Botman re-injuring his anterior cruciate knee ligament against Manchester City, ruling him out for between six and nine months, feels particularly damaging. Miley’s back problem, which flared up on England Under-20s duty and is still being assessed but could sideline the 17-year-old for around six weeks, is a reflection of the significant workload he has had to bear this season given Newcastle’s dearth of available midfielders.
Tonali continues to take part in sessions — with his quality said to be impressing team-mates and coaches alike — but, frustratingly, he cannot feature until his 10-month ban for gambling offences concludes in August, and even that is now in question after Thursday’s events.
Joe White, a 21-year-old midfielder recalled from a loan spell at League Two side Crewe Alexandra in January, will likely get additional first-team opportunities while Miley is out. When Newcastle returned from Dubai, Alfie Harrison, the 18-year-old attacking midfielder who joined from Manchester City in January, and Ciaran Thompson, a 19-year-old defender, were among the youngsters drafted in to bolster numbers in training.
Mercifully, Elliot Anderson has enjoyed another fortnight of training, having returned in February following four months out with a back injury. Anderson, like Joe Willock and Matt Targett, who have also spent significant periods on the sidelines, has benefitted physically from these two weeks. Tino Livramento, Kieran Trippier and Harvey Barnes have also undergone further rehab and could be involved tomorrow.
The back-to-back home matches against West Ham and then 16th-placed Everton on Tuesday will set the tone and Howe knows how important those fixtures are for the run-in overall.
If Howe’s primary focus is on the short term, with his aim to revive Newcastle’s flatlining season, he also recognises the importance of this year’s summer window. The transfer business conducted then is critical in getting Newcastle back onto an upward trajectory.
Steve Nickson, the head of recruitment, and Andy Howe, his assistant — who holds significant influence in transfer discussions due to his understanding of the head coach’s exacting requirements from players, having previously worked with his uncle at Bournemouth — have worked continuously since the winter window ended at the start of February. They, alongside their scouting team, have travelled to watch players first-hand and tracked countless matches remotely.
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There has been a keenness to crystallise the blueprint for the summer; that does not mean exact targets have been determined, but rather that key positions and strong potential options have been selected. A striker, a right-sided forward and a midfielder are high on the agenda, while another left-back may be wanted. A centre-half was already being sought, but Botman’s surgery means this may not necessarily be the right-sided target previously expected. More uncertainty about Tonali’s availability adds further complexity.
Howe has insisted publicly that an “overhaul” is not possible within the financial fair play (FFP) landscape, but significant movement is expected. The desire is to bring in reinforcements who enhance the first XI so the squad improves as a result. For now, however, solutions must be found internally.
If there is an internal acknowledgement that the larger, club-wide reset must wait until the summer, there has been a determination to force a mini reset during this international break.
If their recalibration sticks, Newcastle can still salvage something tangible from a tumultuous season.
(Top photo: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)