Sir Dave Brailsford visits Magpies in Lisbon

Sir Dave, who masterminded British cycling's huge success across the Olympics and Tour de France in recent years, is regarded as one of the sports industry's most innovative thinkers and has worked with some of the world's greatest athletes and teams.

Currently Director of Sport at INEOS, he contributes to elite performance across six sports, working with the New Zealand All Blacks, OGC Nice, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team, the INEOS Grenadiers cycling team, the INEOS Britannia sailing team and elite runner Eliud Kipchoge during his successful sub-two hour marathon challenge.

A long-time friend and associate of the Magpies' sporting director, Dan Ashworth, Sir Dave was invited to address the group at the team hotel on Sunday evening, and he took the opportunity to share his renowned approach to sporting culture, mindset and performance as well as taking questions from several members of the squad and backroom team.

Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe said: "I have been aware of Sir Dave's approach and his incredible achievements at the very elite level of sport for a long time, and I was delighted to finally meet him.

"He has overseen so much success in specific disciplines, but his principles are transferrable to any competitive sporting environment. It was great for him to spend some time with the group, to share his insights and to stimulate thought and discussion as we approach the new season."

Dan Ashworth said: "I've known Sir Dave for a number of years, working across various different sports and he is without doubt the best in world sport at creating high-performance culture and turning that into winning.

"There were some brilliant messages for us all and it was great to get him in at this point of pre-season."