Newcastle United

Newcastle United

Premier League • England

Eddie Howe plots brutal seven-player clearout as Newcastle prepare for Champions League rebuild

Ben Stewart
Newcastle United's Matt Ritchie speaks with team mate Anthony Gordon following the Premier League match at the Gtech Community Stadium, London. Picture date: Saturday April 8, 2023.

As Newcastle prepare for life back in the Champions League next season, up to seven players are now facing the chop in a brutal summer clearout, according to a report.

Eddie Howe’s side currently sit third in the table and are in pole position to secure a Champions League spot heading into next season.

Newcastle have recruited well since their takeover and they are now preparing for the next stage of the rebuild.

Plenty of players from the Mike Ashley era are still at the club. While some of them have made an impact under Howe, several stars are expected to leave the club this summer.

Football Insider have reported that Loris Karius, Karl Darlow, Jamaal Lascelles, Paul Dummett, Emil Krafth, Matty Longstaff and Matt Ritchie are all set to leave this summer.

The majority of those players have been surplus to requirements under Howe and haven’t featured much. The likes of Darlow and Longstaff have had spells away from the club on loan this year.

Ritchie has been a dependable player at the club since his arrival from Bournemouth in 2016, but he has since fallen down the pecking order.

The 33-year-old has only 35 minutes of Premier League football during this campaign. His deal is set to expire in the summer and he will already be on the hunt for a new club.

Lascelles has featured in nine Premier League matches this season, with four of those being starts. The 29-year-old is a good player to have behind the scenes, but he will be looking for regular game time.

Newcastle have lofty ambitions

As Newcastle are expecting to be fighting it out at the top end of the Premier League for the foreseeable future, there is no room for sentiment.

Howe has given everyone in the squad a fair chance to impress and he will be keen to add to his options next season.

Superstars such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar have been linked with a move to St James’s Park, but Howe himself has been quick to dismiss those rumours.

“I think that kind of speculation has been there from day one since the takeover really,” Howe told reporters via ChronicleLive.

“Naturally everyone has then assumed the biggest names in world football will be going to Newcastle. Now we’ve not recruited that way and financially we can’t recruit that way at the moment but also we have to bring the right players into the group.

“I will say the transfer market is such a complex decision there’s a lot of thought needed. You can’t just pick a name there has to be a lot of thought going into both financially and looking into players.”

Newcastle instead have their eyes on some younger alternatives. Bundesliga pair Amadou Haidara and Dominik Szoboszlai have been linked with the club and would make sensible signings.

Howe’s squad has an average age of 27, which is the fifth highest in the Premier League. As this is the case, they will be keen on securing the next upcoming talents.

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