This 'inspiring' Newcastle United player has helped Eddie Howe get his message across

Eddie Howe’s had extra help in getting his message across at Newcastle United – from three familiar faces.
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Howe worked with Matt Ritchie, Callum Wilson and Ryan Fraser at his former club Bournemouth, and the trio have helped the club’s new head coach convey his way of working to their team-mates over the international break,

“We have our ways of working and our philosophy, and the basic core principles that we think we need to deliver to produce a winning team,” said Howe, who will miss this afternoon’s game against Brenford after testing positive for Covid-19.

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“Matt’s a very inspiring character. Having worked with him previously, he’s someone along with Ryan and Callum obviously that have a greater understanding of our work.

"It’s been great to see them again and work with them again, and try and get them to help the other players understand what we expect. I think that’s been a really useful thing for us to have at this early stage.

“I thoroughly enjoyed the work on the training pitch after the break that I had. I’ve been really pleased with how that’s gone.”

Winless Newcastle are 19th in the Premier League.

“At Bournemouth, every year we were in a relegation battle,” said Howe. “For the first four years, we achieved our objective and stayed in the Premier League.

Matt Ritchie.Matt Ritchie.
Matt Ritchie.
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“I’ve been in the position many, many times. It’s not nice, it’s not enjoyable to be fighting relegation. It’s not where I want to be, but it’s the situation we find ourselves in, and drawing on past experience is going to be helpful.”

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