A very different Newcastle United will head to the USA this summer

The club will take part in the inaugural Premier League Summer Series in July.

It’s a far cry from the club’s last stateside visit for a three-city tour in 2015. Back then, the club was owned by Mike Ashley and the team was managed by Steve McClaren.

There was a degree of optimism at the time during what turned out to be a big-spending summer by Ashley’s standards.

Georgino Wijnaldum, Alexander Mitrovic and Florian Thauvin all arrived along with Ivan Toney, then an unknown, before the transfer window closed.

Yet McClaren wasn’t enthusiastic about the club’s gruelling tour of the USA, which kicked off with a game against Mexican team Club Atlas in Milwaukee and was followed by friendlies against Sacramento Republic and Portland Timbers.

McClaren said: "I've done these trips before, and can you say they're ideal? No. But this is what we've inherited – and we have to make the most of it.

"It's going to be a tough 10 days in terms of games, travel, logistics, preparation and organisation. We'll do the work we need and get the recovery that we need."

Alan Pardew had faced similar challenges in the summer of 2011 during another three-game tour of the USA.

Everything that could go wrong seemingly did go wrong in Kansas City, Orlando and Columbus amid a heatwave (and beforehand, as three players were barred from travelling) – and Pardew boiled over at press coverage of the pre-season trip.

You couldn’t have made any of it up, yet Pardew’s side went on to finish fifth in the Premier League that season – and qualify for the Europa League.

Things didn’t go nearly was well for McClaren four years later, despite the summer investment in players following a 15th-placed finish the previous campaign.

The tour schedule wasn’t ideal, but the trip, at least, gave an opportunity for the club’s USA-based fans to watch their team – and for the club did get some stateside coverage. Jack Colback even had his photograph emblazoned on the front page of the Journal Sentinel ahead of the game at Miller Park, home of the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team.

That season’s failings that season were more down to Ashley’s ownership and McClaren’s management than the pre-season itinerary.

As it was, a 3-1 home defeat to Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth ended the unhappy nine-month tenure of McClaren. Rafa Benitez couldn’t stop the club being relegated for a second time under Ashley’s ownership.

Newcastle, under new ownership and management, are now in a very different place. The third-placed club, which was fighting relegation last season, is pushing for Champions League football next season.

And the summer’s high-profile Premier League tournament is very different to the club’s last two low-key tours of the USA.

It’s exactly the kind of high-profile tour the club, which will be joined on the tour by Aston Villa, Brentford, Brighton and Hove Albion, Chelsea and Fulham, needs as it attempts to play catch-up on the other side of the Atlantic.

Howe and the club’s new owners have transformed the club – on and off the pitch – since a takeover in late 2021.

And this time, United will be a much, much bigger draw when they cross the pond.