Eddie Howe has opened up on Newcastle United's summer transfer needs for the first time as the club close in on the Champions League places.
The Magpies head coach is closing in on a top-three finish with qualification for the group stages imminent. Howe - who had his recruitment scouts in the room at the press conference - acknowledged the struggles of other teams in the Premier League involved in European competition. Howe, speaking at his press conference today, said: "It’s a good question. We need to figure that out.
"If you have a strong squad, the rotation will be important. Rotation is going to be important, utilising the whole squad is going to be important.
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"We haven’t felt the necessity to necessarily do that on a consistent basis because we’ve been in one competition – of course, we had the cup run. "We have rotated to a degree, but maybe not in the numbers that we might need to next year.
"If you’re going to do that, then the squad needs to be strong enough, so if you put out two XIs, they’re of equal strength."
Howe is hoping that Joelinton will be fit for the clash against Leicester on Monday after already accepting that Joe Willock and Sean Longstaff will be missing. But he has tipped him to battle on, the Toon boss said: "He’s a machine. He’d literally – it’s a well-used phrase in football – run through a brick wall for the team, the club and I think he does every game.
"He succumbed to that brick wall last night, it seemed to hurt him, but we hope he’s okay. He’s just been incredible for us this year."
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