Eddie Howe breaks silence on Kieran Tripper transfer situation amid Everton links

Eddie Howe revealed that Kieran Trippier is ‘really valued’ at Newcastle United amid reports of a move to Everton.

The 33-year-old was an unused substitute in their opening weekend victory over Southampton and reports this week claimed that the defender is in talks over a potential exit to explore first-team opportunities. As mentioned, the reports came from The Athletic yesterday that a potential loan move could be agreed.

Speaking ahead of Newcastle’s trip to face Bournemouth this weekend, Howe addressed the latest transfer speculation and relayed how he was unsure where the news had come from. "The situation is business as usual. Tripps has trained really well this week. I'm surprised by a lot of the stories that have come out. A valuable member of the squad. His professionalism has been first class. He's trained really well since he came back from the Euros, I think he's only had two weeks of training hence the reason why he didn't start last week.

"He continues to be really valued by all of us. He's just trained as normal and he's been very good. I'm not really sure where this has come from. He's preparing as we all are for the game on Sunday."

Everton have made four signings this summer already and are close to agreeing a move for Asmir Begovic as well - but there is a sense that more additions are needed after a disappointing opening weekend defeat to Brighton. Furthermore, their current right-back situation is bleak given injuries to Nathan Patterson and Seamus Coleman and the suspension to Ashley Young - and Sean Dyche gave his thoughts on the situation yesterday ahead of their game with Tottenham this weekend.

“He’s one of many names that have come up here; as if by magic his name has come up when we haven’t got a right-back, it’s funny isn’t it?” He jested. “The club seems pretty steadfast with the business that we’ve done, shifting sands of football - who knows what could happen? Generally, I think it’s in a place where everyone’s said, we are where we are.

“I think it’s unlikely [when asked about more signings] we’ve brought in players who we think can develop into the Premier League, they are not all game ready straight away but we think they’re good players. If you take Tim’s [Iroegbunam] record he had about two league games’ worth of minutes last season, Jesper [Lindstrom] about eight and Iliman [Ndiaye] about 17, there’s a long way to go to get up to full Premier League speed.”