Manager hints his role at St James’ Park is in the balance, saying ‘we’re in the flux of change’

Newcastle’s players have spent part of the past week helping designers at their new shirt sponsors, Adidas, test embryonic footwear designs intended to hit the high street in five years. The question of where Eddie Howe may be in five weeks, let alone five months, has provided the backdrop to the time his team have just spent in pre-season training at the sportswear manufacturer’s European HQ near Nuremberg in southern Germany.

Workers on the extensive campus set in idyllic parkland routinely travel between meetings on the bicycles stationed all over the site and Newcastle’s manager has enjoyed whizzing around its vast acreage on two wheels.