Eddie Howe has admitted it has been a 'disappointment' that the focus on Newcastle United's spending has taken credit away from the players he inherited.
After years of cutting their cloth in the Ashley era, Newcastle have spent around £210m on eight new faces since the club's owners bought the club little more than a year ago. Howe, as a result, has been able to bring in quality new additions such as Bruno Guimaraes, Kieran Trippier and Sven Botman, who would have been unimaginable signings under the previous regime.
However, it is worth noting that eight of the 14 players who featured in the win at Spurs last week were players already at the club before Howe took charge last November and six of those were starters. Miguel Almiron, Joelinton and Fabian Schar are just some of those individuals who have looked reborn under Howe so has the Newcastle boss found the talk surrounding the club's outlay disrespectful?
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"My disappointment when it's just 'purely about money' will be that it takes away the credit from the players and I would want a lot more focus to be on my players and how well they have done," he told reporters. "The players you have mentioned have done brilliantly for us and they weren't bought by me.
"The contribution that they have given should not go unnoticed and, of course, the players that you do bring in, money doesn't buy success or guarantee success. It certainly helps but it does not guarantee anything.
"You can recruit very badly and, these days, that will cost you a huge sum of money. It's about a mixture of things, but I always want my players to be recognised when they do well."
Tim Sherwood, who worked with Howe as a pundit for Premier League Productions, said earlier this week that some of the comments made about the Newcastle boss and the club's spending 'have been really disrespectful'. Sherwood even went as far as to say that Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp's dig about there being 'three clubs in world football who can do what they want financially' when 'other clubs have ceilings' was 'rich'.
Klopp, of course, sarcastically congratulated Dan Ashworth after the Newcastle sporting director declared there was no ceiling for the Magpies earlier this month. Ashworth was speaking about Newcastle's ambitions rather than the amount the club can spend, but Klopp did not interpret it that way.
Regardless, it is clear that clubs are sitting up and taking note of Newcastle, who moved into the top four with the aforementioned 2-1 victory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last week. The Magpies are unbeaten in seven games after losing just one match all season and no side has conceded fewer goals in the top-flight.
There has certainly been no back-patting at the training ground this week, though. Quite the opposite, in fact, ahead of the visit of Aston Villa to St James' Park. Newcastle know they will stay in fourth with a third consecutive victory on Saturday and Howe is not putting any limits on what his side can achieve this season.
"I've never put any pressure on timescales or targets," he added. "That's not how I work. I suppose I'm lying slightly because the first target we had [last season] was a clear goal: to stay in the Premier League. Once we did that and achieved that aim, then, it was about growing the team, a style of play and a method of work that the players are consistent with.
"In terms of targets off the back of that, I've not done that even internally with myself or with the players. We're analysing our performances and trying to win every game. That's how we are working at the moment."
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