Given the club’s ambitions, Eddie Howe thinks it is not too soon for Newcastle to compete in the Champions League and admits that the idea of increasing the transfer budget has been brought up.
The head coach spent a part of the team’s recent break in Dubai working on a list of targets for the summer, with 3 separate scenarios identified based on their league finish.
Newcastle are now third in the Premier League and are favored by bookmakers to qualify for the Champions League for the upcoming season.
Howe has been coy about such talks, at least in public, but claims that internal planning has taken into account all possibilities, with the Conference League and Europa League as backup plans or, in the worst case, failure to qualify for Europe.
However, when asked if he agreed with the opinion that Newcastle should not compete in the Champions League so soon in their campaign, Howe responded, ‘It would be dangerous for me to say that to anyone (it is too soon).
‘We want to achieve whatever we can and push as hard as we can.
‘There is no part of us that is trying to keep anything down, that goes against my internal beliefs. We are going for everything. I never put a ceiling on what the team can deliver.
‘We’re on a mission to try and win and to achieve and be the best we can be. I’ve sensed that from the players this season. There is a real inner determination, a steel that we are not here to waste time.
‘We need that to unite us right to the end of the season.’
What Else Did Eddie Howe Say?
Howe has long since stressed that Newcastle are restricted by Financial Fair Play, having spent £250million on new players over three transfer windows under Saudi-led ownership. A top-four finish, however, would allow for a much greater budget.
‘That would be an outcome, yes,’ said Howe. ‘I can’t think about the outcome, I have to think about how we get there.
‘That is what we’re working towards. But definitely, where we finish, that will dictate to a large part of what we can and can’t do in the summer.’
He added: ‘I think we need all eventualities covered so we’re not behind the curve, depending on what happens. We’re in the process of doing all that work now.
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‘There is a huge amount of work for us to do (in the summer), on every level. Football never stands still. The teams competing with us will all try and do the same thing.
We need to be smart with what we do and we are on a journey that is accelerating very quickly, and we need to match that with our decision making.
‘I think we’re aligned all through the football club (on ambition). There is a big determination to do as well as we can, in the short term and the long term.’
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