Newcastle United’s summer transfer plans revealed as club target both on and off field additions

All eyes will be on Newcastle’s summer transfer business as they look to improve their squad.

Their business in January was not completed in ideal circumstances - without a director of football and with the team spending part of the last week of the window away in Saudi Arabia.

However, their recruitment turned out to be a revelation with every signing contributing immensely to their turnaround in fortunes.

Every signing they made added quality and depth to a squad that looked fragile - so what can they learn from their successes last window to ensure they have another good showing in the transfer market?

Well, as Howe has recently revealed, it is important for the club to ensure the characteristics of each player can mesh and mould with the group, rather than just the ability of the individual alone - something that can prove to be ‘difficult’ to judge when targeting players:

“Personally, I don’t know what you’d call it, but I’d give that [searching for a good character] the highest ‘rating’, United’s head coach said. “It’s so, so important that you get good people in the dressing room and all the characteristics that go into making a good footballer and team player.”

Howe continued: “It is probably the most difficult part of recruitment because you can see the player and you can see everything you need to see from him on a video or being live at the game. But the person, what they’re like away from the pitch, you can’t see.”

“There are various methods and means that we will try and do our research and homework to make sure that we find out everything we can about the person.

“But even then you are still taking a slight leap of faith in terms of how they’re going to be when interacting with their new teammates and how those relationships will form.”

However, it isn’t necessarily just the first-team squad that will see some additions this summer.

United’s search for a CEO and a Director of Football has been well-publicised and according to Howe, the club will leave no stone unturned in looking for ways to help get the most out of his players on the pitch:

“I think we need to produce a higher level of everything right across the board.” Howe said.

“We need to give the players the tools they need to produce their best performances on a consistent basis.

“So whatever area of the club that is, whether it’s analysis, food, sleep, we need to try and educate the players as best we can. I think we will only do that with the best staff.

“I don’t quite know what areas we will be looking to improve our product in, but certainly that quest will never cease for me, it’s always trying our best to help the players in any way that we can.”

“I think the margins of success and failure are so small, anything you can do to try and help the players is key.”