Eddie Howe has held “positive talks” with Newcastle United’s hierarchy and has reiterated that he wants “collaboration” on transfers, rather than the “final say”.
The 46-year-old is among the favourites to succeed Gareth Southgate as England manager but he has not received an approach from the FA and is focusing on trying to reinforce his Newcastle squad.
However, Newcastle are not close to making any further additions, despite Howe seeking a centre-half and a right winger as priorities, with the Premier League opener against Southampton on August 17 just three weeks away.
Following the summer restructure at St James’ Park — Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi have departed as co-owners, while Paul Mitchell and James Bunce have joined as sporting director and performance director respectively — Howe went public with his concerns about “boundaries” and how much influence he would still hold.
But, following his media briefing in Germany, Howe has held encouraging discussions with his superiors.
“It’s not about having a final say (on transfers),” Howe said following Newcastle’s 2-0 pre-season friendly victory over Hull City. “I’m not going to say anything different to what I said before: collaboration.
“We’ve had really positive talks and we’re trying to bring the right players for the football club. But it’s never about one person’s decision and neither should it be. It’s about a group of people coming together and making the right decisions, all for the benefit of the football club.
“Towards the end of collating information, that’s when I’ll have my input. There’s a lot of work going on always through the year in terms of trying to bring players in.”
Asked whether he has received any specific assurances from above, Howe said: “I’ve just been working every hour to make sure we’re ready for next season.”
Newcastle fly out to Japan for two pre-season friendlies on Sunday and Howe had hoped for further signings by that trip.
Bruno Guimaraes, Fabian Schar, Martin Dubravka and Miguel Almiron will join up with the squad in East Asia, while Joe Willock and Lloyd Kelly are close to featuring, but there will be no new additions before then.
“There’s been a lot made of it (what I said last week), but we’re just working normally as we would do towards the new season. It’s no different,” Howe added.
“I can’t say that my week is any different from a normal pre-season. A lot of hard work on the training pitch, a lot of talks about transfer targets and trying to bring players in. Hopefully we get some movement on that soon.
“We all want players in now but it’s a very slow market, a difficult market. Prices are high. All we can do is do our best to bring players in.”
Callum Wilson, meanwhile, is set to miss the start of the start after having an injection in his back, having suffered from a bulging disc.
(Nigel Roddis/Getty Images)
