“Relaxed”, Eddie Howe isn’t worried about the recent vote on whether Premier League teams should be able to loan players from other teams they’re associated with as “It’s the same for everybody” he claimed.
Clubs voted 13-7 in favour of the ban – the threshold to pass it was 14.
“I think it’s the same for everybody, I understand the focus being solely on us but it’s not solely on us, this is a vote for all Premier League clubs… we’ll be allowed to potentially recruit from a league like every other Premier League club can as well.” Howe explained during his press conference.
“Newcastle as a club had a view and we voted our way, in the way that we’re allowed to and the vote came out on the side that it did and from my dealings with it we’re very relaxed on it.”
This means that Newcastle, who are 80% owned by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF), have the option to loan players from teams in the Saudi Pro League that are under ownership of PIF; Al Nassr, Al Ahil, Al Ittihad, and Al Hilal.
Al Hilal’s Ruben Neves is a player that Howe has had a keen eye on, and could be a short-term fix to the sidelined Sandro Tonali.
The other clubs that voted against the ban also include; Manchester City, Chelsea, Sheffield United, Everton, Wolves, Nottingham Forest, and Burnley. All these sides are associated with at least one other club, Manchester City is associated with 12 other clubs which make up the City Football Group.
