Howe shuts down hare-brained Richard Keys scheme to increase allure of Newcastle

Will Ford

Richard Keys knows to make a move to Newcastle more alluring for top players but Eddie Howe has immediately dismissed his scheme as nonsense.

Keys reckons the Magpies will struggle to attract players to play for Newcastle as they would have to live in or around Newcastle.

The beIN Sports presenter reckons the club should consider moving their training ground to London to make them a better prospect for potential signings.

“Players want to be close to London, closer to London was the attraction,” Keys said. “If you offered a player £40,000 a week at Newcastle, or £30,000 a week at Brentford, they would go to Brentford even on less money.

“Everything connected with that football club (stadium) stays on Tyneside. But you don’t see the first 25 (first-team squad) out on the town these days, so what difference would it (moving to London) make?

“They’re in a plane probably two, three days a week, travelling to different places. For the family, it (London) offers enormously more. The capital is a place where players could lose themselves… where there is a lot more privacy.

“There’s so much more. Entertainment, meals, restaurants… Outside of the capital city, the facilities aren’t perhaps as grand or appealing.”

But Howe insists he and the players are “very proud” of where the club is based as Newcastle is “a brilliant place to live”.

“[Moving the training ground?] Absolute non-starter,” Howe said at his press conference on Friday. “We’re playing for Newcastle, working for Newcastle. We will be in Newcastle and that’s how it has to be. We are very proud to be associated with the city. It’s a brilliant place to live”

Reflecting on a week which say Newcastle beat Tottenham and Everton, and draw with Manchester United, Howe says confidence is high among the players.

He added: “We’ve learned that we have good resilience about the team at the moment. Good feeling about attacking the challenges in front of us.

“It was a really difficult three game week. Two difficult away assignments but our commitment was at the highest level.

“Big confidence boost for the players and evidence that we can compete against anybody when we’re at our best level.”

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