EDDIE Howe has advised his Newcastle United players to stay away from the city centre in the early hours after club captain Jamaal Lascelles was attacked last month.
The defender was caught up in a violent incident in which he appeared to be acting as peacemaker in the early hours of August 20 after Newcastle's players had been given two days off following the defeat at Manchester City.
Lascelles was forced to step in to defend his teenage brother and while Howe says his defender was an innocent party in the incident, he's reluctantly told his players that the city centre on a night is a no-go zone.
He said: "Firstly, the club will be dealing with everything internally. A couple of things really, the first thought was Jamaal’s safety and the safety of his family was absolutely paramount to us.
“We believe he was sort of an innocent in the starting of what happened and was acting as a peacemaker. The other thing to say, on that, is we’d prefer our players aren’t out in the city centre in the early hours. I think that’s natural from my side, but going back to the first point, the safety of Jamaal is paramount. He’s okay and his brother is okay.”
Asked whether his players should stay away from the city centre at night, Howe said: “Unfortunately probably yes. In this day and age with the amount of games we have anyway, l’m not sure that’s where we should be as a group of players and staff.
“So, probably, you’re right and l would probably say no. It would be nice, in theory, for us to be in the city centre with our people, but the reality is it’s probably not the best place for us to exist late at night.”
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Meanwhile, Howe has told his Newcastle players they have to believe they can top their Champions League group after being pitched into battle with three of Europe’s giants.
The Magpies, who will play in the competition for the first time in 20 years this season, will face French champions Paris St Germain, seven-times winners AC Milan and 1997 champions Borussia Dortmund as they attempt to reach the last 16.
Nevertheless, TV pundit Owen Hargreaves, a Champions League winner with both Bayern Munich and Manchester United, insisted after the draw the Magpies could emerge from Group F as winners “if they get it right”.
Howe said: “You have to believe that, yes. I’m not necessarily sure that should be the expectation, but I think we can.
“I’ll let other people talk about what can and can’t happen. All I’m really focused on is what we can do internally, and that’s be our best.
“Going back to the Liverpool game, for a long part of that game, I thought we were really, really good and you can still lose the game against high-quality opposition if you switch off for a couple of moments like we did, so we’re going to be feeling those effects again against elite teams.
“We’re going to have to be concentrated and at our best right through the game to win.”
Howe watched Thursday evening’s draw, which handed summer signing Sandro Tonali a return to former club Milan, with his staff and while there was a realism in their reaction, there was excitement too.
Asked what their response had been, the 45-year-old said with a smile: “There was a bit of silence… for about an hour. No, there was silence for about 10 seconds.”
He added: “When the dust settles down, you look at it with pure excitement, really. There’s no negativity from any of us internally towards the draw.
“When you add it all together, I think it’s been a great thing.”
For all the understandable excitement on Tyneside, Howe will push the Champions League to the back of his mind in the short term at least with important Premier League fixtures to come at Brighton on Saturday (5.30pm) and then against Brentford at St James’ Park after the international break before the Magpies launch their European adventure.
He said: “I don’t want to dampen it down, but the Premier League is huge for us and we still have games before the Champions League starts, so the Champions League will only really come into my focus when it’s our next game."
Newcastle could be without Sven Botman at Brighton after the defender was forced off late on against Jurgen Klopp's side. Joelinton is also a doubt.
Howe said: “Sven has had a scan. The scan doesn’t appear too good so there is definitely an injury there, but actually it presents OK, it’s not presenting too bad.
“It’s very bruised, a little bit swollen, so he’s been very lightly jogging this week. We’re going to see how he is today and make a decision for this weekend.”
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