Eddie Howe was driving across Interstate 10 this summer, away from Los Angeles and into the Californian desert, when he was momentarily grateful for the loss of phone signal.
In the back of the hire car were his three young sons. Their black-and-white jerseys may have been in the suitcase, but they had little time for their dad’s transfer talk.
‘The calls in the car on loudspeaker… they’re difficult when you’ve got three kids in the back — it’s absolute mayhem!’ says Howe, reflecting from the rather more tranquil surrounds of Newcastle United’s pre-season base here in the Austrian countryside.