Eddie Howe names his Newcastle United captain for new season and explains his choice | OneFootball

Eddie Howe has named his captain three weeks ahead of Newcastle United kicking off their Premier League season.

A lot of speculation about who it was going to be, as Jamaal Lascelles continued throughout last season as the captain but was only selected twice to start Premier League matches, named 28 times on the bench in PL games.

With five brief sub appearances, Lascelles only playing a total of 214 minutes of Premier League football last season.

A lot of parallels being drawn with Manchester United, where Harry Maguire was captain last season but only started eight PL games, with it recently announced that now Bruno Fernandes has taken over the captaincy.

Eddie Howe has now confirmed though (see below) that Jamaal Lascelles will remain Newcastle United captain this coming season.

Last season, Kieran Trippier started all 38 PL matches and was captain on the pitch when Jamaal Lascelles was named on the bench.

Both Eddie Howe and Jamaal Lascelles though explaining that captaincy and leadership is now about far more than just one player at Newcastle United and what happens in the 90 minutes.

Jamaal Lascelles and Eddie Howe talking about the captaincy issue at pre Aston Villa press conference:

Jamaal Lascelles:

“Me and Tripps (Kieran Trippier) are really good friends.

“You know, it’s not just him, we have got a leadership group where it is myself, Trippier, Matt Ritchie, Dan Burn and Callum Wilson.

“To be honest, since that formed, it has taken a huge weight off my shoulders, in the sense that you can just share the load between the five of us.

“You have got a lot of experience in that group and for myself it has just been a huge help and I’m very grateful to have that.

“I just want to get as fit as possible during pre-season, obviously we have got a game tomorrow (v Aston Villa) so we want to win that.

“I am going to give it my all, keep pushing, just see how things go.”

Eddie Howe:

“Can I just add a little bit.

“I just want to say, with Jamaal in the room, he has been an unbelievable captain for us.

“And captaincy for me, doesn’t just exist on the pitch, it has to exist off the pitch (as well).

“The two things are so intrinsically linked. So a lot of our success last season didn’t just come down to the team, it was a group of players giving everything, on and off the pitch.

“There was a group of players off the pitch who were absolutely magnificent and Jamaal was one of them.

“Now Jamaal will want to play, like every player does, but it is how you react when you don’t play that is the key and I just want to pay tribute to what Jamaal did last year and we move forward together.”

Journalist:

“Have you made a decision on who will be captain this season?”

Eddie Howe:

“Yes, Jamaal will be captain.”

It will be interesting to see what exactly happens with Jamaal Lascelles.

Since Eddie Howe’s first transfer window and the recruitment of Dan Burn (later followed by Sven Botman), Lascelles has only started seven Premier League matches.

Set to turn 30 in November and heading now into the final year of his current Newcastle United contract, will Jamaal Lascelles once again be happy to accept so little time on the pitch?

NUFC captain.