MOUSSA SISSOKO has been told to expect an offer from one of European football’s big boys this month, but summer recruit Isaac Hayden insists Newcastle United are trying to focus on improvements after an opening night wake-up call.

Sissoko was absent on Friday night when Newcastle started life in the Championship with a 1-0 defeat to Fulham and Rafael Benitez’s players were given an insight into the challenges they will face at that level.

Benitez has been left clear that his France midfielder does not want to stay in that division and Real Madrid, Paris St Germain and Juventus are all keen if the Magpies’ lower their valuation.

Sissoko said: “That’s flattering. Who would not be flattered by the interest of one of the best clubs in the world, if not the best?

“It’s simple when you are young and you start playing football, your dream is to become a professional and play for a club like Real Madrid or Manchester United. Today I worked my way up. Everything goes well and if a club like Real comes to me it will be something huge.”

Sissoko, rated at £35m by Newcastle, will be expected to work on his fitness this week, but even that might not be enough to have him included in the team while there is doubts surrounding his future.

Benitez is focused on trying to ensure the team he has assembled will gel, having witnessed a frustrating performance at Fulham which left him stating his players have “to manage the situation better”.

Hayden, arguably Newcastle’s best performer at Craven Cottage, said: "It's the first game of 46 games - we're not going to be 100 per cent as a unit and we will keep getting better.

"There's a lot of new signings who've arrived in the squad and obviously we need to get everyone playing the right chord.

"It's the first game and we wanted to play well but it hasn't worked out. It's not like we didn't create chances, I thought we had a decent few chances to score and it was disappointing that we didn't take any.

"But we gave it our all as we always do and it just wasn't meant to be in this game.”

Hayden was a £2.5m buy from Arsenal and he has the energy to be a success in Newcastle's midfield. He is also familiar with the Championship, having helped Hull up through the play-offs last season.

"There's 45 games left,” said Hayden. “Last season there were ups, downs, roller-coasters - every little thing you can think of.

"So there's going to be losses, there's going to be draws, but at the end of the day it's about how we react as squad, as a club.

"It's about how we react for the next game. We've got two home games in the league so we have to capitalise on those."

Newcastle were unbeaten during pre-season and scored goals for fun, but there were indications that things were not brilliant defensively. Hayden is confident of quick improvements, but he is also adamant that nothing should be read into what happened in friendlies.

What was most disappointing at Fulham was how Newcastle conceded from a corner, just a week after allowing Vitesse Arnhem to score twice from set pieces and spending the week addressing the issues.

He said: "Pre-season's always a little bit different to the league or competitive matches, because you have that competitive edge and mentally it's a little bit different.

"But we've had a decent pre-season, we've prepared properly for the first game as every team does, just on the day maybe with a little bit more and a couple of penalty decisions not having gone our way it's left a disappointing result.

"It's disappointing to concede from a set-piece again and we just have to take our chances. We had a few opportunities in the second half and it was frustrating not to take any of them but that's football and we have to move on.

"Obviously it was a disappointing result. We knew Fulham were a decent side and we gave them the respect they were due. As I stress, we're a team and it's about learning from this and improving into the next game.”

Newcastle have strongly refuted suggestions over the weekend that they are looking to sell Aleksandar Mitrovic this month. The Serbian is currently serving a four-match ban.