Eddie Howe urges his Newcastle squad to enjoy life away from football

Eddie Howe has told his Newcastle players to ensure they have a life away from football to help manage the pressures of the game.

The 47-year-old former Bournemouth defender freely admits that is something he did not do as a young player and as a result found himself embroiled in the game 24 hours a day.

As a father of three sons, Howe now has a much better balance between work and his home life, and has urged his players to do the same as they attempt to build upon their Carabao Cup success to secure Champions League football for next season.

Speaking ahead of Monday night’s Premier League trip to Leicester, he said: “I think it’s massive because if you don’t have that escape – which at times in my life, I haven’t…

“Obviously before kids, before you build your life, all I had was football. I’d play, I’d analyse myself and be thinking 24 hours a day about maybe mistakes I’d made or areas that I could improve, and I don’t necessarily think that was too healthy for me as a player.

“I encourage the players to have lives outside the game, build a distraction, build a time in your life when you’re not thinking about football because it can become all-consuming, especially with social media these days.”

He added with a smile: “I think that definitely helps me now in the job that I’m in, being 24 hours a day thinking about football – which is probably 23 hours a day for me at the minute. I do have an hour to switch off.”

Howe is notoriously committed to his pursuit of success, arriving early at the club’s training ground each morning and remaining there long after the players have departed, and his industry has now been rewarded with tangible success – Newcastle’s first major domestic trophy for 70 years.

That could hardly have been further from his thoughts when he was appointed in November 2021 with the Magpies entrenched in a fight for top-flight survival.

He said: “If you go back to that first interview, the only thing on my mind was trying to stay in the league, so I didn’t really think beyond that. I think it would have been foolish to do and a waste of time.

!It was a case of right, we had January coming up, we had a big, big window and we knew we needed some good players to help us, so that was the only thought when I first arrived, achieving step number one.

“Step number two could wait.”