Eddie Howe drops Newcastle United transfer hint ahead of ‘difficult’ summer window

The Magpies will look to strengthen their squad ahead of their first Champions League campaign in two decades. Last summer saw them add Nick Pope, Matt Targett, Sven Botman and Alexander Isak to Eddie Howe’s squad - a quartet of signings which helped them to a 4th place finish in the Premier League.

And Newcastle will be hoping for a similar impact from their summer business this time around, however, Howe has suggested that the club may find the market ‘difficult’ to operate. Despite the lure of Champions League football, Financial Fair Play constraints linger over the club and Howe recognises the club will have to be clever in the way they conduct business this summer.

"We'll have, hopefully, our eyes and ears all over everything whether that's teams getting promoted or relegated all over the world because as I've said many times, the market is going to be difficult.

"The players we currently have, have to be fit and ready to go and they have to be ready to prove how good we are all over again. We start with zero next season, so that's a healthy way to look at it. 

“We have to prove ourselves all over again. If we can add one or two players that can make the difference in the transfer market that would be good news.”

The Magpies will also have to offload players this summer in order to make room in their 25-man Premier League squad for any new arrivals. As it stands, Paul Dummett, Matt Ritchie, Loris Karius, Mark Gillespie, Ciaran Clark and Matty Longstaff are all set to leave the club as free agents this summer.