Harvey Barnes: ‘Eddie Howe is Always There for Players but He Didn’t Furnish the House’

Harvey Barnes feels settled at Newcastle after a testing first season on and off the pitch. Photograph: Hiroki Watanabe/Getty Images
Harvey Barnes feels settled at Newcastle after a testing first season on and off the pitch. Photograph: Hiroki Watanabe/Getty Images
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Harvey Barnes: ‘Eddie Howe is Always There for Players but He Didn’t Furnish the House’

Harvey Barnes feels settled at Newcastle after a testing first season on and off the pitch. Photograph: Hiroki Watanabe/Getty Images
Harvey Barnes feels settled at Newcastle after a testing first season on and off the pitch. Photograph: Hiroki Watanabe/Getty Images

This time last year Harvey Barnes was a slightly anxious father-to-be with his life off the pitch dominated by the need to keep scouring Rightmove for a new home in the north-east.

Twelve months on, the Newcastle winger and his partner are parents of a soon-to-be one-year-old daughter, Harper, and finally feel settled in a new house – yet something is still missing.

Barnes remains desperate to become one of the first names on Eddie Howe’s teamsheets and is anxious to make up for lost time after a frustrating first season at St James’ Park following his £38m transfer from Leicester.

Matvey Safonov, Luis Guilherme and Rodrigo Gomes.
“When you come into a new club, you’re always desperate to make a big impression, so obviously it wasn’t the start I was hoping for,” says the 26-year-old, recalling the 11th minute of Newcastle’s 8-0 win at Sheffield United last September and the moment he somehow damaged a ligament beneath a toe before finding himself sidelined until February.

A month earlier he had marked his debut by creating one goal and scoring another in a 5-1 home win against Aston Villa but, suddenly, everything had gone wrong in the freakiest of situations.

“It was a rare injury,” he says, settling back into his chair at Newcastle’s pre-season training camp in Bavaria. “There were mixed opinions from specialists. Around 12 weeks after it happened some doctors were saying you need an operation, some were saying you don’t. That can be tough.

“As a player you want to know for sure; you almost prefer there to be only one solution. This wasn’t one of those injuries. It’s frustrating not knowing the exact length of time you’re going to be out.”

Ultimately there was no operation and Barnes was back in time to score a cathartic last-gasp equaliser as Newcastle drew 4-4 at home against Luton in February. “I found being injured tough,” says a player who, after a further absence with hamstring trouble, stepped off the bench to score twice in a 4-3 win against West Ham in March. “We’d had Harper a week before the toe injury happened, so there was a lot going on at that time.
“There were a lot of up-and-down times. When you have longer-term injuries you have long days of treatment and then you go home and you almost can’t switch off from it. You’re still icing; you’re still focused on it.

“In some ways having to switch and concentrate on our daughter was really helpful but, in other ways, it was challenging. It was a real sort of turbulent start.”

The warm sun enveloping southern Germany in gloriously dry heat seems emblematic of a brighter horizon. “I feel a lot more settled this year,” he says as he describes his goals against West Ham as marking the moment he felt he properly “arrived” on Tyneside. “My daughter’s a year old, we’re established in the house we’ve bought, all those things that were a challenge are now very settled.

“It’s probably given me a perspective on the challenges facing players coming here from abroad. I’d been on loans before but never anything as big as moving to Newcastle.”
At least Howe empathised. “He’s really good with helping you to settle,” says Barnes. “He really understands the problems players face when they’re changing clubs.

“He gets a really good understanding of each player’s family situation and he can help you with that. If there are certain things you need, he’ll always be there. He didn’t help me furnish the house but, when we first had Harper, he did have a few good conversations with me about my daughter and the different challenges I was going to face as a dad. He’s been there, he understands.”

In the past Howe has given other new fathers in his squad books about parenthood, but not Barnes. “He didn’t do that with me,” he says, smiling. “But his door’s always open. If you want a chat, he’s always there. We need those conversations; they’re important. However footballers are viewed externally, we’re all humans and have the same feelings as everyone else.”

The England team pictured before their Euro 2024 final defeat by Spain.
Howe the tactician is a slightly different proposition. “There are a lot of things to learn here,” says Barnes, nodding sympathetically at reminders that his fellow winger Anthony Gordon has said it took him six months to fully fathom out Howe’s technical modus operandi. “There are certain demands you have to meet in terms of the tactical side of things. You need to get used to the style we play.”

If Barnes would relish adding to the solitary England cap he collected in a 2020 friendly against Wales, he knows an alternative door is not quite closed. “I’m still eligible to play for Scotland,” he says. “There’s been one or two conversations, but not too much detail.”

A potential international tug-of-war is for the future though. “The main focus is to get back playing for Newcastle,” he says. “After a good pre-season I feel I’m up to speed. I’m ready.”

The Guardian Sport



'World's Oldest Marathon Runner' Dies Aged 114 in Road Accident

 (FILES) Indian-born British national Fauja Singh (C) waves a Hong Kong flag after crossing the finish line in the 10-km event as part of the Hong Kong Marathon on February 24, 2013. (Photo by Dale DE LA REY / AFP)
(FILES) Indian-born British national Fauja Singh (C) waves a Hong Kong flag after crossing the finish line in the 10-km event as part of the Hong Kong Marathon on February 24, 2013. (Photo by Dale DE LA REY / AFP)
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'World's Oldest Marathon Runner' Dies Aged 114 in Road Accident

 (FILES) Indian-born British national Fauja Singh (C) waves a Hong Kong flag after crossing the finish line in the 10-km event as part of the Hong Kong Marathon on February 24, 2013. (Photo by Dale DE LA REY / AFP)
(FILES) Indian-born British national Fauja Singh (C) waves a Hong Kong flag after crossing the finish line in the 10-km event as part of the Hong Kong Marathon on February 24, 2013. (Photo by Dale DE LA REY / AFP)

India's Fauja Singh, believed to be the world's oldest distance runner, has died in a road accident aged 114, his biographer said Tuesday.

Singh, an Indian-born British national, nicknamed the "Turbaned Tornado", died after being hit by a vehicle in Punjab state's Jalandhar district on Monday, AFP reported.

"My Turbaned Tornado is no more," Fauja's biographer Khushwant Singh wrote on X.

"He was struck by an unidentified vehicle... in his village, Bias, while crossing the road. Rest in peace, my dear Fauja."

Singh did not have a birth certificate but his family said he was born on April 1, 1911.

He ran full marathons (42 kilometer) till the age of 100.

His last race was a 10-kilometer (six-mile) event at the 2013 Hong Kong Marathon when 101, where he finished in one hour, 32 minutes and 28 seconds.

He became an international sensation after taking up distance running at the ripe old age of 89, after the death of his wife and one of his sons, inspired by seeing marathons on television.

Although widely regarded as the world's oldest marathon runner, he was not certified by Guinness World Records as he could not prove his age, saying that birth certificates did not exist when he was born under British colonial rule in 2011.

Singh was a torchbearer for the Olympics at Athens 2004 and London 2012, and appeared in advertisements with sports stars such as David Beckham and Muhammad Ali.

His strength and vitality were credited to a routine of farm walks and a diet including Indian sweet "laddu" packed with dry fruits and home-churned curd.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute on social media.

"Fauja Singh was extraordinary because of his unique persona and the manner in which he inspired the youth of India on a very important topic of fitness," said Modi on X.

"He was an exceptional athlete with incredible determination. Pained by his passing away. My thoughts are with his family and countless admirers around the world."