'Really positive' - Eddie Howe confirms Newcastle United transfer talks as fifth summer signing eyed

Newcastle beat Hull City 2-0 at the MKM Stadium on Saturday in the club’s first pre-season friendly in front of a crowd. Alexander Isak and Jacob Murphy scored in a match which saw no new signings start the game and a bench largely made up of Under-21s players.

“I think it was a good game, a tough game for us,” Howe said afterwards. “I think [Hull] are slightly ahead of us physically, very different team tactically to most you see - a lot of interesting things from them and it took us probably 10 minutes to get to grips with it.”

The Magpies have signed Lloyd Kelly, Odysseas Vlachodimos, John Ruddy and made Lewis Hall’s loan move permanent so far this summer but it has been almost a month without any further transfer activity.

And Howe admitted that no signings are forthcoming at the moment despite daily conversations with the likes of Paul Mitchell and the club’s recruitment team.

Explaining the current transfer situation and whether there was any update, Howe said: “Not at the moment no.

“Of course we're having discussions every day, several times a day to try and move the squad forward and make sure we’re ready for what is a very tough Premier League season but I can’t give you false news, we’re working towards that and everyone wants the same endpoint, let’s see what happens.”

After stating he was looking for clarity over the changes at the club this summer in Germany last week, Howe stated positive talks have since taken place behind the scenes, stressing the need for everyone to work together as part of the new dynamic behind the scenes.

“It’s not about having the final say, it’s about collaboration and things have been really positive talks and we’re trying to bring in the right players for the football club,” he added. “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 for the football club.”

When asked if the summer ‘disruption’ had impacted transfers, Howe continued: “Disruption is not the right word and I’m at the end point of the recruitment work as I’m busy coaching the team.

“Of course toward the end of collating information, that’s when I have my input but there is work going into transfers throughout the year.

“[For me] a lot of hard work on the training pitch and a lot of talk about transfer targets and trying to bring players in and hopefully we get some movement on that soon.

“It’s difficult to judge [when signings will come] but when I give definitive answers you’ll hold me to it and I’ll look stupid!

“We all want players in but it’s a very slow market, it’s a difficult market where prices are high. All we can do is do our best to bring players in.”