Rafa Benitez sanctions Newcastle United's pre-season plans, with annual Irish training camp scrapped

Newcastle United boss Rafa Benitez is likely to have to scrap the club's annual trip to Ireland this summer.

The Magpies have jetted to Dublin to spend the last three summers at Carton House in Maynooth, but the trip to China - where United take part in the Premier League Trophy with Man City, Wolves and West Ham - has meant a total rethink on pre-season.

Carton House has served United very well in the last three summers with the Irish base the starting point for promotion in 2017, the top 10 finish in 2018 and this year's solid campaign.

United will report back for pre-season in early July, and put in the hard yards on Tyneside before a friendly in the UK.

They will then fly out to China in the middle of the month and play two games in the Premier League Trophy before returning home.

Ideally, Benitez would then prefer to play two friendlies that are in Europe, similar to the games in Portugal and Belgium in recent years, before finishing off with a home game at St James' Park.

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The trip to China will be far from straightforward for United with games in Nanjing and Shanghai but after pre-season campaigns in the Far East with Real Madrid and Liverpool, Benitez told the Chronicle: "We (his back-room team) have experience in China and Asia and we know what we have to do to maximise the time we will be there.

"It is important to have competitive games.

"The way we prepare, we choose the level of the teams and when we want to play.

"We have difficult games already now.

"But we have that experience with Liverpool and Real Madrid.

"We are used to it and have to manage in the best way possible."

When asked about Ireland, Benitez said: "I don't think so because we won't have much time.

"We don't like to keep the players away from their families too long.

"It'll be long enough and we have to manage here."

Next year's Premier League kicks off on August 10 and United will announce the rest of their pre-season programme in the coming weeks.

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