Newcastle United will hope to secure European football during the final weeks of the Premier League season.
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher believes Newcastle United may have to move on from the side that guided them to a Carabao Cup final win against his old club during a summer of potential change at St James Park.
Eddie Howe’s side ended the Magpies painfully long wait for major domestic silverware with a 2-1 Wembley win against the Reds last March and a memorable season was then rounded off in style as Newcastle qualified for the Champions League for the second time in three seasons. However, the current campaign has been one of struggle with the departure of Alexander Isak to Liverpool playing a disruptive role in United’s attempts to build on the momentum gained by a historic season.
With a return to European football’s top table now looking increasingly unlikely, the Magpies will hope to secure a spot in either the Europa League or Europa Conference League during the final games of the season - and Carragher believes that will boost their hopes of adding genuine quality to their squad should the likes of Sandro Tonali and Tino Livramento move on during the summer transfer window.
He told Sky Sports: “The thing with Newcastle, a big thing for them would be getting into Europe this year. I feel like the team Eddie Howe has built these last few years, they might need to move players on and to bring some money. It might be a case of moving on from the team that won that trophy and got into Champions League positions. There’s talk of Tonali and other players in the squad moving on and it will start to have a different feel to it now with this team over the next 18 months to two years. Getting European football will give them a great opportunity to bring more quality in with those finances and I do think there will be a lot of change at Newcastle in the summer.”
Focus
Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howeplaceholder image
Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe | AFP via Getty Images
Former Sunderland star Darren Bent also had his say on Newcastle’s hopes of landing a place in Europe for the third time in four seasons and insisted their Champions League exit at the hands of La Liga giants Barcelona can help Howe and his players ‘focus’ on the challenges that lie ahead over the rest of the Premier League season.
The former England striker said: “They aren’t that far away and I know this season people have spoken about Newcastle being below-par - but there are a number of factors to that. You don’t want to go back to it but the Isak situation, the recruitment being late with two strikers that don’t fit the profile in the way they want to play - but they still have more than enough time to get themselves into that European picture. Going out of the Champions League, although the manner of it wasn’t great, now with the squad they’ve got, it’s not the biggest in the Premier League, but they can focus on this one competition, they can rotate and bring some freshness to it.”
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