Matthias Jaissle says he arrives at Newcastle in an “ambitious” frame of mind, though warned progress “will not happen overnight” after succeeding Eddie Howe at St James’ Park.

It follows a testing summer on Tyneside as Howe ended his four-and-a-half-year tenure, coinciding with the sales of captain Bruno Guimaraes, fellow midfielder Sandro Tonali and key forward Anthony Gordon.

Newcastle’s shift in recruitment policy towards talented youngsters rather than established players means that recent outfield signings – Bazoumana Toure, Sean Steur and Aladji Bamba – are all under 22.

While the upheaval leaves the squad lacking experience, Jaissle – who guided RB Salzburg to back-to-back Austrian titles and Saudi club Al-Ahli to consecutive Asian Champions League crowns – remains upbeat.

At his official unveiling at St James’ Park, the 38-year-old German boss said: “We are ambitious. That’s the most important thing, also why I decided to come here. But this will not happen overnight.

“The players who left the club, they were great players, great characters, experienced players and this is now a vacuum. Other players need to step in.

“It’s a big challenge, always when there’s a transition period, but it’s no time to complain. It doesn’t make sense to see the negative things. We want to see the chance in that situation and that’s our approach from day one.

“I’m long enough now in the industry that you cannot promise anything, it makes no sense to promise things now because I don’t know how things look in half a year or in one year. What we can control, we will control.”

Jaissle’s initial order of business was a training camp in La Manga, Spain, while his new-look side claimed an encouraging 2-1 win in Valencia before he arrived in Newcastle over the weekend.

He will now turn his attention to Wednesday’s friendly match against Everton in Edinburgh and securing reinforcements, with Marseille captain Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg heavily linked with a move to St James’ Park.

Jaissle, who noted he has not decided who will replace Guimaraes as captain, said: “We are all optimistic. I am here for 36 hours in Newcastle, I’m also really happy now to be home, I had a bit of time in La Manga already to get the lads better. We work on it, that’s all I can say.

“Other players need to step in. Either we adjust something in the squad, by signing these players, these profiles, or other players need to step up and fill these positions, these leadership roles.

“So I am quite optimistic, we can work in both scenarios. My job is to do the best out of it.”

Alongside prospective transfer additions, Jaissle, who opened his press conference by personally shaking hands with reporters in the room, will look to extract the best out of the squad he already has.

Nick Woltemade arrived 12 months ago for a record £69million but despite starting with five goals in his first eight appearances, he faded thereafter in a frustrating first season.

Jaissle added: “I saw that he had a difficult period. From the first day, we talked a lot, he should leave the past behind. It’s something he cannot change. We are just looking forward.

“We find solutions, we do our best. Not only with Nick, with all the other players as well.”

Former cricketer Subramaniam Badrinath made a huge statement on Indian superstar Hardik Pandya’s trade deal ahead of IPL 2027. Several reports have linked the star all-rounder to Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

However, it is being said that Hardik would move to any franchise only if he was offered captaincy. That said, Badrinath reckoned that it would be unfair on current CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad if Hardik came in and took away the leadership. He reckoned that the current skipper should be given at least another year.

“If Hardik comes, you will take the captaincy from Gaikwad and give it to Hardik? I will not agree with this. It will be very harsh on [Ruturaj] Gaikwad. They gave him captaincy in 2025, but he got injured and did not play the majority of the season, and MS Dhoni led in that season. 2026 was the season where he fully led as captain. Yes, he did not do as great, I agree. He did lead in 2024 too, but I feel he should get one more season as captain. I think CSK will also do that,” he said in a video on his YouTube channel.

CSK have failed to make the playoffs since 2024. While Gaikwad played only five games in 2025, he returned as captain last season, where they finished eighth on the table. Badrinath added that with one more year left for the mega auction, the five-time champions could give Gaikwad one more season as captain.

“There is one more year in this cycle before the mega auction so probably CSK will give him one more year. Gaikwad the batter is someone I really like and I have said it before too. We don’t know who the new coach also will be. So we have to wait and see.”

Gaikwad’s form with the bat was a bit of a concern last season, though. He scored 337 runs from 14 games at an average of 28.08 and a strike rate of 123.44 with just two half-centuries. Overall, he has played 85 games for the franchise, scoring 2839 runs at an average of 38.36 and a strike rate of 135.64 with two hundreds and 22 fifties.

S Badrinath picks former champions as another franchise Hardik Pandya could go to

While rumours and reports have it that Hardik Pandya is likely to move to either Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) or CSK, Subramaniam Badrinath picked IPL’s inaugural champions, Rajasthan Royals (RR), as another option for Hardik.

He took a dig at RR skipper Riyan Parag, stating his captaincy was not as great and impactful.

“Rajasthan could also be an option, as Riyan Parag did not have much impact as captain. Tell me what he did as captain? Is he MS Dhoni or Rohit Sharma? Is his captaincy of that level? Records are in front of you. I have nothing against any player personally,” Badrinath said.

Riyan Parag has led RR in 22 games so far with 10 wins, 12 defeats and a win percentage of 45.45. That said, they also finished fourth last season and made it to the playoffs, eventually losing to the Gujarat Titans (GT) in the second qualifier.