Thomas Tuchel delivers Newcastle United title race backing with ‘huge advantage’ message
Aaron Stokes
4 minutes
SportFootball
Newcastle United FC
Newcastle United stand a chance of winning the Premier League next season, according to England chief Thomas Tuchel
Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe and (inset) new England boss Thomas Tuchel
Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe and (inset) new England boss Thomas Tuchel
The FIFA Club World Cup gets under way this weekend as 32 teams from six footballing conferderations battle it out for a truly mammoth amount of money. The winner of the new, slightly controversial summer tournament will take home around £97m – around the same as the Champions League winners – despite only playing a maximum of seven matches.
Chelsea and Manchester City are the two Premier League sides set to battle it out for the crown, along with the likes of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, just weeks after a gruelling Premier League campaign came to an end. Financially attractive it may be, there is a chance international stars will be feeling the fatigue by missing out on a proper pre-season break.
As such, England manager Thomas Tuchel believes Chelsea and City’s rivals – including Newcastle United – will hold a significant advantage in the race for the Premier League title next season. Speaking less than 24 hours after a dismal Three Lions defeat to Senegal, he told talkSPORT: “I was just aware that we don’t have a good record with England in the June friendlies before tournaments – and sadly we added one yesterday to that negative record.
“The schedule becomes very, very competitive because now they come from the Euros, they go to the Club World Cup and then enter the World Cup and then there’s one season where there’s holidays.
“I think, on the other hand, teams like Liverpool, Arsenal, Newcastle will have a huge advantage in next year’s title race and next year’s Premier League race because of this time off now. To have a decent pre-season and a plan and a build up of the physical performance of the players.
“On one hand we’re very happy if our players compete in the Champions League as long as possible but there was not enough English players in the Champions League final this year, in the semi-final this year and even the quarter-finals. So we also want them to play ion these competitions and prove their qualify in these European matches.”
Newcastle’s senior stars are enjoying some much-needed down time at present after a lengthy campaign that saw the Magpies end their 70-year wait for a trophy. The club’s pre-season fixtures will kick off in mid-July, before a trip across Asia and the latest renewal of the Sela Cup at St James’ Park.
Anthony Gordon and Dan Burn have been with Tuchel in recent days for back to back fixtures with England, while Tino Livramento is away with his country’s under-21 setup.
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