Newcastle United have paused their long-haul commercial tours this summer to focus on pre-season preparation, a decision that sporting director Ross Wilson believes will benefit new head coach Matthias Jaissle. The club's trip to La Manga in southern Spain has seen the team harness their Tyneside training set-up at the Grand Hyatt complex, with double sessions held under the German coach.
Strategic pause in global travel
In the last three years, Newcastle have travelled to the United States, Japan, Singapore and South Korea, with a post-season trip to Australia in 2024. However, this summer the club decided to pause such tours, prioritising pre-season work after a 12th-place finish in 2026. The decision was backed by departing head coach Eddie Howe and welcomed by his replacement Matthias Jaissle.
Newcastle will resume international travel next summer, having turned down lucrative trips to the US and the Far East earlier this year. Wilson told Chronicle Live: "If you ask any coach in the world what their preference would be, it would be something like this. But, equally, we’re not silly and we understand as David [Hopkinson] will talk about the need for the club to make revenue."
Staff alignment and support
Head of performance James Bunce has overseen the pre-season training programme, working closely with Jaissle after supporting Howe before his departure. Both Bunce and Wilson led the club's football staff after Howe's sudden exit last Thursday, once it became clear he did not want to go on the trip.
Wilson said: "I addressed the staff with James on Monday morning before we left. One of the things we stressed to our staff was that we genuinely feel we have built a high level of staff supporting the team behind the team. We expressed that to Matthias in our interview process."
He added: "Our message to the staff has been 'we will back you to the hilt because we feel you are top. We think you’re outstanding'. But there does come a point where we’re now saying to the staff, let’s show it now. That’s probably been one of Matthias’ biggest moments of pleasure so far in the job in the first days."
Pre-season readiness and evolution
Jaissle will have had three weeks to convey his methods to the players, but staff feel the squad will be physically ready for the opener against Liverpool in two weeks. Speaking ahead of the friendly against Valencia tomorrow night, Bunce said: "It’s not about three weeks. Every coach is technically, tactically evolving throughout the season anyway."
He continued: "It’s not just a moment in time and you then run that for 38 games in the Premier League. You’re constantly evolving, learning how the opposition want to play, so that won’t stop once Liverpool happens. The week after we will back into tactical, technical work, more physical work."
Bunce emphasised the ongoing nature of the work: "The way periodisation works, we’re still working them really hard in season as well, physically, mentally, tactically, technically. It’s not just one moment in time."
He added: "What we have now is an opportunity to see Matthias deliver the techniques and tactical infrastructures that he wants. We will see that already against Valencia based on what we have seen in the last few days. That evolution or change will happen continuously throughout the season and into Matthias’ years here."
Bunce also reflected on the reduced fixture schedule: "He will continually technically, tactically evolve. It’s never quite as easy as one game a week. It’s definitely different than last year, which we’re obviously aware of, but we’re also disappointed. We want that challenge of 58 games a season because that means we’re where we want to be. It probably helps in the coming weeks that we have an extended international break and we go from there."
