Eddie Howe admits to being frustrated by constant talk of big Newcastle United stars leaving the club

It seems that Eddie Howe is catching up to the Newcastle United fanbase in terms of being annoyed by transfer speculation.

The Newcastle gaffer always claims to be detached from the media speculation, but it's hard to be completely removed from it when journalists are constantly asking questions about transfer rumours.

Newcastle have weathered the storm of speculation around the likes of Bruno Guimaraes, Anthony Gordon, Sandro Tonali and of course, Alexander Isak, but it's a never-ending cycle.

Indeed, the latest player to be linked with a move to a "bigger club" is £32 million full-back Tino Livramento.

Eddie Howe is focused on additions to the squad, not letting players go

Reports surfaced this week linking Tino with a move to Manchester City as they look to replace Kyle Walker long-term.

When asked about it this morning, Eddie Howe admitted that he's getting sick of all the speculation around players leaving when the aim is to build a squad.

“It’s frustrating for us that we’re consistently talking about players rumoured to be leaving.

“We want to go the other way and strengthen the group. We want to make the team stronger for the future rather than lose our best players.”

The squad rebuild starts this summer

As we've mentioned many, many times, our squad is threadbare as it is, but there are still a few who we could cut from the roster.

The likes of Tino Livramento and the aforementioned big players are certainly not counted among them. The squad has stagnated for years and while there's still deadwood to set adrift, there's a lot of work to be done to build the squad up around the core of top players Eddie Howe has brought in.

Hopefully the summer transfer window will be the start of that rebuild. We'd be foolish to expect that everything falls into place in one window, but a few incomings should steady the ship and balance the squad, and more importantly, display the intent of where this club wants to go.