Eddie Howe reveals Newcastle United ‘disruption’ helped decide Austria visit

Eddie Howe has explained why Newcastle United decided to make the trip to Austria as part of their pre-season schedule.

The Magpies travelled to their state-of-the-art training facility on Sunday evening and have quickly been put through their paces.

There has been an element of fun and team bonding to the trip also, with the squad Go-Karting around the Austrian mountains.

After competing in friendlies against 1860 Munich (Friday) and Mainz 05 (Monday), United will then head to Portugal to face Benfica.

It means Newcastle will spend the majority of pre-season abroad and Howe revealed that is due to improvements currently taking place at the training ground.

Eddie Howe explains Austria trip

“Austria will be an important time for us,” Howe told admitted. “We’ve got a lot of work to cram in, in a short period of time.

“The lads will go there and enjoy the week to 10 days. Then, we’ll be a lot further forward with our preparations.

“The games are really important. This training now is about trying to develop the team, and how we want to play the game.

“The schedule’s based, in part, around our training ground, which is having a lot of work around it currently.

“The two trips away, we probably normally would only have one. We’ve gone for two just to stay away from the disruption of the changes.

“The games, we tried to get really competitive games. We want to be tested. I think the games scheduled will be tough. I think that will make us ready for the league.”

Minutes for new signings Sven Botman and Nick Pope

Included on the trip to Austria is summer signings Sven Botman and Nick Pope.

Neither player featured in the 5-1 win over Gateshead on Saturday following an extended break after international duty - but are expected to get their first minutes in the upcoming games.

Howe said: “With those lads, we didn’t want to push them too quickly. We wanted to give them a little more time because they’ve had reduced training time.

“We’re being careful and making sure we keep the majority of the squad fit.”