Eddie Howe has insisted the weather which delayed Newcastle’s arrival in Italy will not derail their Champions League adventure.
The club’s latest European mission hardly got off to the most auspicious of starts when, having been given special dispensation to train on Tyneside on Monday morning rather than at the San Siro later in the day, they remained on the ground for more than two hours.
However, speaking at a press conference which finally got under way at around 9pm local time when it had initially been scheduled for 7pm, Howe was adamant preparations for a tough opening encounter with AC Milan would not be hampered as a result.
He said: “It’s just part and parcel of the job that we do. It’s not out of the normal that that can happen. This was a weather problem, but we’ve been in similar situations. “It’s something we’re used to, although it’s a slightly later arrival time than we would have liked for the players.