00:00Now, Newcastle United begin their Premier League campaign on Saturday lunchtime
00:04with a trip to face Aston Villa at Villa Park.
00:08As first games go in the Premier League season, it is pretty difficult indeed.
00:13Of course, Newcastle did face Aston Villa on the opening day at St James' Park a couple of seasons ago
00:18and Newcastle on that occasion ran out as 5-1 winners, but Aston Villa went on to qualify for the Champions League.
00:24And then last season, Newcastle defeated Aston Villa 3-0 at St James' Park before Aston Villa defeated the Magpies by 4 goals to 1 at Villa Park.
00:33So certainly the two sides trading punches in terms of the scorelines in recent times.
00:40Newcastle, of course, coming into this fixture with a lot going on off the field regarding the Alexander-Ezac situation.
00:47That still remains unresolved, but the striker will not play against Aston Villa because of the uncertainty regarding his future.
00:56It's unlikely he'll probably play at all in August whilst the transfer window is still on.
01:02So where does that leave Newcastle?
01:04Well, to be honest, apart from the obvious omission up front, Newcastle are in pretty good shape.
01:10There are no obvious fitness concerns apart from Joe Willock, who picked up an injury during pre-season.
01:14But even Eddie Howe admitted that he is not too far away from being fit once again.
01:19Apart from that, Newcastle have pretty much a full bill of health.
01:23So they have a lot of options to pick from.
01:26And of course, despite what some have painted as a negative transfer window so far because of rejections and the Ezek saga,
01:33Newcastle actually have brought in a lot of good players so far to help bolster their ranks.
01:38They brought in Malik Chau from AC Milan, Aaron Ramsdell on loan from Southampton,
01:43and of course, Anthony Alanga from Nottingham Forest.
01:46They're also set to add Jacob Ramsey from Aston Villa, but he will be unlikely to be available against his former club,
01:53having just moved up to the North East because he will likely miss the deadline for registration to be involved in time in the fixture.
02:00But let's hear now from Eddie Howe, who spoke following the club's final pre-season friendly against Atletico Madrid,
02:09which was last weekend, to hear his thoughts ahead of the new season and how he thinks it will shape up.
02:14And how sometimes adversity with regards to the transfer window and indeed Alexander-Izac's situation can actually create positive outcomes.
02:22I think the players have worked incredibly hard during pre-season.
02:35It's been a challenging pre-season. The games we've had have been very difficult.
02:38And as I said, the last couple of days, at the moment, we don't have 20 players or 22 players that we can put out that gives a really balanced display to both teams.
02:50You had Arison Ashby today playing.
02:52And playing well is a No. 8, but it's not his preferred position.
02:55And I think it's always been the case in the teams that I try to build.
02:59I think if you have an area of the team that's not quite functioning as it needs to and no criticism of any individual because the team needs to function in a certain way for it to perform at its best.
03:13We couldn't do that with 2-11s.
03:14So we had to try and get the best out of the two games.
03:17I thought we've done that.
03:18But now the priority is just Aston Villa and we're putting out 1-11 and a squad, hopefully, that can win the game.
03:25I think any season can go one or two ways.
03:27I think it's, I understand the question.
03:32I always try to keep a very balanced view on things.
03:36It's never as good as you think it is when you feel good and it's never as bad as you think it is when you feel bad.
03:41At the moment, I'm very sort of neutral.
03:44I've seen the challenges.
03:45I know the challenges that we face.
03:47This is a new territory for us.
03:50But I also believe from those tough moments that you can actually build something even more special if you come out the other side.
03:56And that's a big if.
03:57So for me, the priority now is the players that we have fit and available and making sure that they're fully understanding of what's expected of what we need to do.
04:07And making sure we're resilient enough to deal with a lot of outside noise, a lot of speculation on us, which through no fault of our own is negative.
04:14And we need to cut that out and unite even stronger.
04:19I think everything's at play because I think I've said many times he is contracted to us.
04:24He's our player.
04:26The club basically make the decision on his future.
04:30I don't know what that will be.
04:32Of course, I have a preferred outcome.
04:34I want the best and strongest squad possible.
04:36But also, I want players that really want to play for this football club.
04:40I want players that really want to play for this football club.
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