Eddie Howe has defended Newcastle’s second trip to Saudi Arabia and insisted the club’s owners are “outstanding”.
The Tyneside club will spend a week in the Gulf state in December visiting capital city Riyadh for training and a friendly against Saudi Pro-League champions Al-Hilal.
The Saudis are keen to showcase their football facilities as they are in pole position to host the 2030 World Cup with Greece and Egypt. Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman, chairman of Toon ownership company the PIF, is reported to have signed off their nomination form this week. Newcastle are also seeking new Saudi sponsors. Chief exec Darren Eales has confirmed multi-billion dollar businesses controlled by the Saudi Public Investment Fund are potential future sponsors in a bid to hike their commercial income and transfer spending power.
The last time Newcastle visited in January they trained and stayed in Jeddah, and returned home to go on a relegation-avoiding winning streak. Howe warned yesterday ahead of the visit to Spurs that the club could not repeat their £210m spend of the last year when the January window opens.
Instead he will use the Saudi trip, between December 4-10, to kick start the season after Christmas and said: “We've made a football decision. We've looked at the World Cup break, what's the best thing for the team. The best thing for the team, I believe, is to take the team away like you would in pre-season, away from distractions, a chance to really train the group, enhance the team spirit with hopefully some good weather, so that's what we've done.
"We've made it from a purely footballing backdrop. When you look back to last year, our decision to go there and the benefit it had for the team and the results on our return were really good. So we got a few positive connotations from that.
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“Going back to our trip last year, the weather was very good, the facilities were first class, we were able to spend some quality time together to bond the group and really focus our energies on our battle to stay in the division. The team spirit off the back of that trip was very, very good. Obviously we have that positive experience to fall back on and it's helped with our decision this time. We are going to play one game at this moment."
Newcastle could be missing players like Kieran Trippier, Nicky Pope, Bruno Guimaraes, Fab Schar who will be playing in Qatar at the World Cup. Saudi outfit Al Hilal has seven stars representing Saudi Arabia at the World Cup. Asked if he backed the Saudi World Cup 2030 bid, Howe replied: “I didn't know they were bidding for that World Cup, so I don't know, it's not a question I can really answer. These are questions I don't know the answers to, I'm afraid.”
And asked if Newcastle would do any promotional work for their hosts, Howe added: "I have no idea on any of that to be honest." Newcastle are sixth in the Premier League and building a fine season so far, with hope they might add to their squad in January. But asked about having more millions to spend, Howe warned: “I do think that’s unsustainable. No two windows are the same. We know we will have to control that spending, for sure. The fans have a level of understanding.
“Financial fair play is mentioned a lot, but that will guarantee it. We have to be mindful of that fact. That is where we need to improve all aspects of the football club to make sure we don’t have to go into the transfer market and spend that money. Can we produce more of our own players? Can we improve everything we deliver so we are not so reliant on huge transfer fees because it is going to be very difficult for the future for all clubs to spend that kind of money on a consistent basis.”
