John Barnes warns Newcastle United supporters of 'pressure' to progress next season

John Barnes has given a warning to Newcastle United fans not to become carried away after a fantastic second half of the Premier League season. The club has moved from a relegation battle to the top half of the division after Amanda Staveley and the Saudi Arabian PIF fund completed a takeover of the club in October.

There are very ambitious plans for the future of the club. However, Barnes has stated that fans need to realise that progression will take time.

He told BonusCodeBets : "It’s happened a lot for Everton, for Newcastle, they’re huge clubs, when the fans feel like they should be doing better, they put a lot of pressure on them. It’s important for them to understand they’re doing well for them now, but it has to build slowly."

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However, the former Newcastle midfielder had a lot of praise for the job Eddie Howe has done since becoming manager at St James' Park. He said: "I’ve been very impressed, he’s been under a lot of pressure.

"People talk about whether he’s the right man for the job, and should he be there, and they didn’t do very well early on but they stuck together, and the fans have stayed with them. The January window was good for them in terms of signings and they’ve turned it around. They’ll grow, they’ll get better as time goes on so I think that they have done very well and next season they will get better.

"They’re mid-table now and I think that’s what they have to look for next season, depending on who they sign in the summer, if you look at the team they actually have, they still should be around mid-table. Depending on who they sign, next season, they can have aspirations to push into the top 10