Eddie Howe and his coaching team were standing at the top of the meeting room. It was the quintet's first day at Newcastle United and Howe wanted to properly address his players at the training ground before taking them outside for a gruelling session that left some members of the squad on their haunches while others even had to go to bed early.
As well as outlining their vision and their immediate short-term aims that day, Howe and his staff made it clear in the meeting that they were all in. Howe, assistant Jason Tindall, first-team coaches Stephen Purches and Simon Weatherstone and head of performance Dan Hodges had left their loved ones behind on the South Coast and, to paraphrase the words used that day, this was their family now.
Aside from the odd trip to Tynemouth Park with his wife and sons, when they have been up visiting, the football-obsessed Howe has rarely been seen out of his club tracksuit on Tyneside or been spotted away from the training ground for that matter. Security staff quickly noticed that Howe was an early riser, getting to the club's Benton base when some of his players were still asleep at 6.20am, and the Newcastle boss' black Range Rover is typically the last out in the evening.
