Newcastle have already made plans for next year’s pre-season schedule, with reports today revealing a fixture set to take place in July 2025.
Last summer featured lengthy flights to Australia and Japan, along with a trip to Hull City’s MKM Stadium and Sela Cup home games against Girona and Brest at St James’ Park.
However, we’ll be heading to Scotland a month before the 2025/26 season kicks off in a game between Eddie Howe and the club he turned down just months before taking the Newcastle job in 2021.
Toon set for Celtic trip
As revealed by The Mail, Newcastle will head north to meet Celtic in a pre-season friendly at Parkhead on Saturday, July 19.
The two sides memorably met in non-competitive action as Alan Shearer netted for the final time in black-and-white from the penalty spot in his testimonial match in May 2006, but the two sides have far from a storied history.
Glasgow may not be the most illustrious of cities for a European away day, but it should offer a good opportunity to bring a full squad and get minutes into the legs in the seasons’ eve.
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Howe reveals truth behind Celtic offer
Howe’s place in the dugout at Parkhead may be met with a mixed reception, opting for a Geordie persuasion shortly after rejecting the opportunity to manage the Scottish giants – opening the door for Ange Postecoglou to make his presence felt in the technical area.
For the Toon gaffer though there was no bad words to say about the green side of Glasgow. “During that period that I’d had out, I’d had a few job offers, but I’d said I’m not considering anything for a year,” said Howe on the recent Up Front podcast with Simon Jordan.
“That year had passed and Celtic came up and I was immediately attracted to the job. I thought, “Wow, what an opportunity. What a football club. Great people as well. The people I met were unbelievable. So there was no downside for me, but I had to get my staff together.
“For me, if I was to go into a football club, I could have gone in on my own and worked with the staff that are there. I felt I needed to go at my strongest. My strongest would have been with my team, so that’s Jason Tindall, Steven Purches, Simon Weatherstone and Dan Hodges. These are important people to me. So I’d sort of made my decision.
“I was really keen to go. Jason had left Bournemouth, but I couldn’t get them together. I couldn’t get the team to all agree. And it wasn’t necessarily I needed every single one of them. But of course, that’s an important dynamic.
I didn’t feel that was right for me to take the opportunity. In that moment it would have been wrong for Celtic as well, I think. So I declined the offer.”