Martin O’Neill is not happy with what Newcastle United are now planning to do at the end of the current season.
News emerged just yesterday that Newcastle are planning on travelling to Australia just three days after the Premier League has finished to face Tottenham in a friendly match.
Speaking on talkSPORT, O’Neill was amazed that this had even been considered by the two clubs and couldn’t understand why the players would want to travel all that way after such a hectic year.
O’Neill is baffled by Newcastle’s latest decision
Newcastle have had one of the busiest season’s in the last decade having qualified for the Champions League last year and it’s really taken a toll on the players with the amount of injuries piling up.
Back in December Newcastle were playing pretty much every three days and their form started to suffer because of it as they were knocked out of Europe as well as the Carabao Cup in a matter of days.
Now, with a European Championships to prepare for in the summer as well surely the last thing you want after a busy league campaign is to be flying halfway around the world for a friendly match.
At least that’s the view of O’Neill who simply can’t wrap his head around why Newcastle or Tottenham would even be entertaining this idea in the first place.
On the game, O’Neill said: “It’s a nonsense. It’s three days after the Premier League is over. The last thing you are thinking about is forgetting your bags. But also there’s a possibility of players being involved in the competition, the European championships.”
Simon Jordan: “They may well be excluded. If they are the argument becomes slightly more moot.”
O’Neill: “I will take that point. Personally as a manager I wouldn’t mind a trip to Australia! But my talk about it is that it’s three days after the event [the season].”
The Magpies could be set to leave out key stars
With Newcastle set to end the season away to Brentford on Sunday May 19th, they would then travel for the game on Wednesday May 22nd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
It’s difficult to imagine that those who feature in the game at London and who have featured heavily throughout the season, the likes of Bruno Guimaraes or Anthony Gordon, will be really involved in the friendly unless they are keen to play in a new environment.
It’s likely that we could see either some academy talents travelling to have some first-team experience or some of the fringe players in the squad who could be moved on in the summer getting one last outing in a black and white shirt.
For Eddie Howe it’s one last look at his players before what should be a hectic summer window, so he’ll be taking in all the information he can as he makes plans for the new campaign and pre-season.
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