EDDIE HOWE has admitted Newcastle United will have to improve the depth of their squad to ensure they are able to cope with the demands of European football next season.

The Magpies are already guaranteed to be playing in one of the European competitions next term, and will secure a return to the Champions League for the first time since 2003 if they win either of their remaining fixtures against Leicester City and Chelsea.

This season, a series of blank midweeks have enabled Howe to keep his changes to a minimum, and have seen the Newcastle head coach fielding an unchanged starting line-up for a large number of games.

That will be much more difficult with European matches packing out the pre-Christmas fixture schedule next term, and Howe accepts it will be important to strengthen the squad when the transfer window reopens later this summer.

“I think if you have a strong squad, rotation will be important,” said the Magpies boss, whose side play their final home game against Leicester on Monday evening. “Rotation is going to be important, utilising the whole squad is going to be important.

“We haven't felt the necessity to necessarily do that on a consistent basis (this season) 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.

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“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.”

While Newcastle’s supporters are understandably thrilled at the prospect of returning to European competition, the last couple of years contain plenty of examples of English clubs who have struggled to cope with the twin demands of continental competition and the Premier League.

Last season, Leicester City were competing in a Europa League group that featured recently-crowned Italian champions Napoli, but their domestic form began to dip – they eventually ended the season in eighth position – sparking the more dramatic decline that could see them relegated on Tyneside on Monday night.

West Ham are heading into the final of the Conference League after a hugely successful European campaign that culminated in Thursday’s semi-final success over AZ Alkmaar, but David Moyes’ side have struggled domestically and head into the final two games of the season still not mathematically safe from the drop.

“The potential pitfalls that we face next season will be expectation, and what you can’t underestimate is the demands that Europe will place upon us, whichever competition we are in,” said Howe. “That is going to be very, very difficult and it is going to be new to us so that is a huge challenge for us.

“You look at Leicester’s example and you can never underestimate what that takes out of the squad in terms of the demand of Premier League to Europe to Premier League. West Ham this year would be another example. They have done brilliantly in Europe, but probably because of those demands, their Premier League from has suffered a little bit, so it’s something we are going to have to think long and hard about.”

While Newcastle might have filled their Premier League squad list for the second half of the season, Howe feels the failure to replace Jonjo Shelvey in the January transfer window has left a weakness in midfield. Successfully addressing that will be a key priority this summer.

“Losing Chris Wood and Jonjo Shelvey in January was a blow to us in terms of our overall strength,” said Howe, who has already confirmed that the out-of-favour Ryan Fraser will be moving on this summer. “I know we brought Anthony (Gordon) in, but Jonjo’s departure left us light in midfield.”