Newcastle United rumours: Magpies join race for big-money ex-Ligue 1 star, Southampton chase clinical striker

The Magpies head into the game looking for their first win of the season, and new manager Eddie Howe will be desperate to get off to a flying start as the club look to bridge the five point gap to safety outside the relegation zone.

Meanwhile, ex-Newcastle manager Steve McClaren has given an insight into his time at the club, and revealed: “Going into Newcastle, I never met the owner, so I didn't really know what the vision was.

“I didn't really know what success looked like on and off the field. I just wanted the job. I made a big mistake. "I just wanted the job, and didn't find out the real vision, direction, what success looked like, what I needed to do on and off the field, and how I was to communicate with the owner, who's the most important person at a football club.

“Usually, you communicate, not in pairs, but in threes so it's always, say, myself, the CEO and the owner or myself, the technical director/sporting director and the owner. I never had that, and that was a massive thing that I didn't really know the vision.”

He added: “So meeting the press, and trying to influence the press, was difficult, because for my first press conference, one member of the press was allowed to interview me and one person from Sky, so there were 26 other people from the media outside the stadium not allowed in - this is my first day.

“I knew a few of them, and a few of them phoned me up and said 'Steve, you've just made the biggest mistake ever on your first day of the job by excluding the press’. I apologised.”

Take a look at today's biggest stories from the Premier League, as the tier sides gear up for the competition's return this weekend: