I worked with just 13 Newcastle United stars in Saudi Arabia - we had to change training

A first-team squad of 13 non-international players bolstered by Under-21s players spent Friday to Monday in Riyadh for some warm-weather training and fan engagement events. On Saturday, Newcastle held an open training at Al Nassr’s Al Awwal Park where supporters were able to watch and meet the likes of Joelinton, Fabian Schar, Harvey Barnes, Joe Willock and Sean Longstaff.

Temperatures in Riyadh have been over 30°C over the weekend while back in Newcastle it has been barely above freezing.

Assessing the trip, Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe told the club website: “Very hot which is a big contrast to home, but nice to be in the sun and to share the experience with a lot of local people who came to watch us.

“We had a good training session [on Saturday] and came through it with no problems so all good. Firstly you get a benefit of being together and sharing time together away from the usual routines that we have day to day, it's always beneficial.

“I think every experience you get is slightly different, whether it's culture, an activity, a place you've never been before, it's always rewarding and we're very lucky to be in this privileged position.”

Newcastle were without several key first-team players with Anthony Gordon, Lewis Hall, Tino Livramento, Bruno Guimaraes, Sandro Tonali, Alexander Isak, Miguel Almiron, Martin Dubravka, Lewis Miley, Alex Murphy and Odysseas Vlachodimos all on international duty. But the squad will join up later in the week back at Darsley Park in preparation for Monday’s return to Premier League action against West Ham United at St James’ Park (8pm kick-off).

“We acknowledged that we're missing quite a few players so it's about maximising for the players who are here individually what they need,” Howe added. “Whether it's fitness work or an individual part of their game we're looking to develop while always [working] around our principles and making sure that if we can put a team together in training we can work together on different aspects for our next game. 

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“After training, we had a meeting with people who wanted to be met and a chance to have a very quick conversation and chat. You could see the passion for Newcastle and football coming through and it was great to see a lot of Newcastle shirts in the crowd watching us train so really good if we can help promote that. 

“It's part of why we're here, to make people aware of who we are and if we can capture a few more lifelong Newcastle supporters, that's beneficial. A lot of the players are popular here which is great to see and it's always great to meet new people.”

Newcastle head into the West Ham game on the back of three consecutive wins in all competitions and will be eyeing a fourth for the first time since the 2022-23 campaign.  

“Confidence is building,” Howe admitted. “We were in a really difficult period but I thought our performances were improving.

“The Brighton game I thought was our best performance of the season until that point even though we didn't get the result but I always believe that you get rewarded in the end and I think we've been rewarded the past few games.”