The challenges ahead: Excitement builds in Newcastle for next Premier League season

NEWCASTLE: Excitement for the new Premier League season is increasing on Tyneside. As is the to-do list for Newcastle United’s owners. Less than two weeks away from the return of the first-team squad to the club’s current ‘under-development’ training facility in Benton, North Tyneside, next season’s top flight fixtures have been released. Newly-promoted Nottingham Forest, back in the top division for the first time in more than two decades, are first up at St. James’ Park, while a tough first month also sees Manchester City visit Newcastle, as well as a trip to Anfield to face Liverpool. Head coach Eddie Howe is keen to hit the ground running in the coming season, in stark contrast to the debacle overseen by Steve Bruce at the start of the last one. Pre-takeover, and in the first few weeks after the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia swept through the doors, Newcastle failed to win any of their opening 14 games of the 2021/22 season — the worst start of any team in Premier League history to have subsequently avoided relegation. And Howe is keen to avoid any such issues this time out as he looks to build a squad capable of flirting with, if perhaps not yet reaching, the Premier League’s European places. But what is required this summer to even get close to that? Here, we take a look at what Howe, co-owner Amanda Staveley and newly-appointed sporting director Dan Ashworth need to prioritize before the new season kicks off.

An injection of goals needed One thing Newcastle United seriously lacked last season was goals. Only the bottom six plus Brighton and Wolves scored less in the 38-game campaign. And one of the biggest headaches for Howe — and Bruce before him — last season was the fitness, or lack of it, of center