Steve Bruce reveals items on agenda at Newcastle United planning meetings

The club is seemingly in limbo as the Premier League considers a proposed £300million takeover.

And owner Mike Ashley has been forced into some short-term planning at St James’s Park by the longer-than-expected owners’ and directors’ test.

The takeover, if approved, could transform the club, but Newcastle’s hierarchy must plan for all eventualities in the meantime amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic which has seen Premier League football go behind closed doors.

Asked about the behind-the-scenes planning, Bruce said: “We’ve not really stopped in that respect.

“We’re all talking, and the next thing is when do we start? When do players go on holiday? When do we get them back? And then, of course, there are transfer targets. That will come into the reckoning.

“We’ve all been on hold after what has happened. The world has collapsed, practically, for the past three months, but we still have to go about our work – and that hasn't changed.”

Wigan Athletic, Bruce’s former team, have gone into administration, and United’s head coach wants the Premier League to support the EFL clubs as they deal with the financial realities of the pandemic.

“We have to find out what damage all the clubs – and I do feel that the Premier League clubs must, I repeat must, try and help and support the Football League,” said Bruce, who started his playing career at Gillingham.

“If you speak to some of the smaller clubs, they’re in a desperate situation, and my old club, Wigan ... it’s sad what has happened there.

“The impact it’s had on a really well-run club, and the supporters there, and all the rest of it.

“I really do think that all of us have got to realise that it's had a big hold on a lot of people. So we have to see what we have got and haven't got in the next few weeks."