Eddie Howe pictured with Paul Mitchell as Newcastle United enjoy boxing night out

Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe and sporting director Paul Mitchell sat side by side in Riyadh last night on a club night out.

The Toon boss has played down any talk of unrest between the pair since a summer interview when he spoke about "boundaries" and during the trip to Saudi Arabia, CEO Darren Eales, Mitchell and Howe were seated alongside each other at a boxing event. United have been in Riyadh for warm weather training and held an open training session on Saturday morning.

The squad then headed back to the hotel to spend time using the leisure facilities before their evening at the boxing. As Chronicle Live reported on Friday, Newcastle's Saudia Airlines flight also had sporting director Paul Mitchell and commercial chief Peter Silverstone on board. Speaking about the trip in his press conference after the 3-1 win over Nottingham Forest, Howe said: "We probably don’t want one [an international break] at this moment in time but it’s there.

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"We’ve got an extended break as well because we play on the Monday so players will go away, we go to Saudi Arabia and come back.

"We will try and keep the feeling we have now because we know we’re in a good position and building our season but we have some key games to come."

Newcastle's visit to Saudi Arabia will not involve any friendly games unlike their trip to Riyadh in 2022 when they played Al Hilal and triumphed 5-0. United's senior squad members Lloyd Kelly, Nick Pope, Dan Burn, Sean Longstaff, William Osula, Matt Targett, Joelinton, Fabian Schar and Joe Willock were all afforded a rousing reception amid temperatures of 29 degrees in the Middle East. Head coach Howe has also taken youngsters such as Ben Parkinson, Ellis Stanton and Jay Turner-Cooke over to Riyadh.