Eddie Howe denies feeling ‘pressure’ after Amanda Staveley’s bullish Newcastle title claims

NEWCASTLE: Eddie Howe said on Friday that any talk of Newcastle United winning the Premier League and the Champions League are long-term goals, and he does not feel any added pressure as a result of recent, very public title predictions of title successes by Amanda Staveley.

After the 2-0 defeat by Manchester United in the final of the Carabao Cup last Sunday, Staveley, a member of the club’s board of directors, shared an emotional momAent with the players in the royal box at Wembley. Then, on Monday, she made some bold claims during an interview with radio station TalkSPORT.

“We will win the Carabao Cup, we will win the FA Cup, we will win the Champions League and we will win the Premier League,” she said.

While many of the Newcastle faithful took her comments in a buoyant, positive spirit, it did cause some to wonder whether it had put the pressure on Howe to deliver such success.

However, the head coach believes such positivity in the boardroom is no bad thing, although he pointed out that such title-winning goals are not short term in nature.

“I love Amanda's positivity, I love her outlook,” he said. “I’ve got no issue with it, with the statements.

“All I’d say is, from my perspective, there’s no time limit on that because if we set targets that are maybe too short term, that can have a negative effect and it can build external pressure that the players don’t need.

“I want the players to play free and not really think too much about the consequences. In order to do that, it’s my job to try to take the pressure off them, so that’s what I’ll try to do.”

Staveley doubled down on her comments at the Financial Times Business of Football summit in London this week. During the event she also talked about the