Strikers the target in the summer transfer window for Newcastle boss Howe

NEWCASTLE: Eddie Howe has revealed his Newcastle United transfer priority this summer, with the head coach keen to add goals to his Magpies XI.

Despite missing four months of the Premier League season through injury, striker Callum Wilson remains United’s top scorer with six goals.

And although Wilson is now back and likely to start against Arsenal on Monday night in the penultimate game of the top flight season, Howe knows getting support for his frontman is paramount in the summer transfer window.

Howe said: “My aim is to, of course, bring more goals to the team but concede less. It’s creating players that can do both.

“We’ve sat down, discussed the squad and we’ve got a vision of where we want to take the team. Now the hard part comes where you have to reshape the squad, both ins and outs, and come back with a better squad.”

Rumour and conjecture is part and parcel of Premier League football and speculation about what the club will spend in the summer, under the majority ownership of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, has been rife.

Howe has consistently talked of a period of evolution not revolution on Tyneside this summer, especially after Chelsea’s win at Leeds United on Thursday evening secured the Magpies’ top flight status for another year.

And while the public message is of prudence, there is a behind-the-scenes acceptance that a significant transfer spend, boosted by sponsorship deals and outgoings, will be sanctioned.

Howe knows he must strike the right balance with any business done in the window.

“With Financial Fair Play, we have restraints and we have things that we have to work within, so we can’t just go out and spend money on players like maybe teams could have done in the past and