Newcastle travel plans for Southampton game upended by Storm Éowyn

Storm Éowyn has left Newcastle facing the prospect of a late arrival on the south coast for Saturday’s match at Southampton.

Eddie Howe and his players were due to fly to Hampshire on Friday afternoon but dangerously high winds forced the cancellation of a raft of flights to and from Newcastle airport. The north east is currently under an amber weather alert, with wind speeds expected to reach up to 90mph.

Newcastle’s manager admitted the prospect of the team’s charter flight to Southampton taking off as planned on Friday was highly uncertain. “Our plan is still to fly today but we’ll seek advice from the airport and the authorities as to whether it’s safe to fly,” said Howe. “If it’s not we could end up travelling tomorrow [Saturday] morning.

“We have travelled on the day of the game before, especially if the airport is close to the ground. If it’s a 5.30pm kick-off, that’s the easiest because you fly straight in and out. A 3pm kick-off is unusual but it’s something we’ll adapt to. I don’t see it as an issue.”

Howe ruled out the possibility of travelling south by road. “It’s a long journey,” he said, “and there’s no guarantees. The wind and the conditions could mean that an eight or nine-hour road trip could turn into a 12- or 13-hour journey, so we’ve got to be careful. If we can’t fly today, we’ll fly tomorrow morning.”

Newcastle hope to have Nick Pope back in the squad at Southampton following the goalkeeper’s recovery from the knee injury that has sidelined him for the past month. Although Martin Dubravka is expected to keep his place in the starting team, Pope could be on the bench as Newcastle aim to recover from last weekend’s chastening home defeat to Bournemouth.

Callum Wilson remains sidelined with a hamstring injury but Howe hopes the striker will be ready to return in early February. “Callum’s making good progress,” Howe said. “We’re trying to make sure he’s robust enough before he starts training. He seems very positive – and what a massive player it would be to welcome back.”

Despite his delight at the club’s plan to move to a new training ground, Howe will not be involved in its design of a complex set to be built either near the airport at Woolsington or near Gosforth Park racecourse. “I think I will be very much in the background,” said Howe. “Probably hearing about what the experts have planned and then hopefully looking on in awe at what we are going to do.”

Meanwhile, with Miguel Almirón’s move to Atlanta in MLS still not quite confirmed, Newcastle are expected to have a quiet January in the transfer market as they strive to comply with profit and sustainability rules (PSR).

These regulations have restricted Howe’s room for transfer market manoeuvre and the manager confirmed an assertion from the agent of Abdukhodir Khusanov, stating that Newcastle were very close to signing thecentre-half from Lens before concerns regarding PSR enabled Manchester City to step in and sign the 20-year-old Uzbekistan international for around £34m. Howe and Newcastle’s sporting director, Paul Mitchell, had done a lot of work on the potential deal before it was, in effect, vetoed by Newcastle’s Saudi Arabian owners.