A strange follow on to a very disappointing Newcastle United season.
Anthony Gordon off to Barcelona and Sandro Tonali off to Spurs. Other players such as Kieran Trippier also off but that was expected.
I understand the Gordon move and looking back at the last games that the former Everton winger played, he was already gone.
Money in the bank. Thanks FFP, PSR, SCR…
Sandro Tonali has gone for the money, pure and simple.
The purchase of young lads as replacements, or simply players to bolster the squad, is ongoing and it is obvious that everything the club does is strictly with one eye on our financial situation.
We all know that the Premier League would love Newcastle United to mess up so they can hammer us and so divert their incompetency in their handling of Chelsea and Man City.
The loss of star players has created a strange atmosphere regarding Newcastle United’s progress.
And of course once again some people are doubting Eddie Howe. “He has taken us as far as he can” is a common refrain from some people I know, including my daft son.
Well, I will stick my neck on the line here.
We do not need an elite manager (whatever that is), we need to back Eddie Howe, who has had his hands tied.
He was given the opportunity as a young manager at Bournemouth. With my teacher hat on, I know that when you start in teaching you need to get the kids onside and Eddie Howe did that at Bournemouth.
Appointed on 31 December 2008, Eddie saved them from what had looked sure to be a drop into non-league football, before then guiding them out of League Two.
He was then given time to develop as young teachers are encouraged to do and unbelievably took Bournemouth all the way through to the Premier League by 2015, Though with a blip in the middle of that, where he annoyed my mate Burnley Jon by a stint there. All part of the learning process as we all make mistakes.
After his spell at Burnley, Eddie Howe returned to the Cherries in October 2012 and led Bournemouth out of League One, and then on to the Premier League. The analogy I gave to Eddie being a teacher (sorry, stolen from previous articles on The Mag) is he has followed that teacher path. You learn on the job.
You need to be given the chance, then you can develop, but you need time. But not just that, you also need trust from the people above you.
The notion that some teachers are better at teaching certain kids is bogus. You can either teach or you can’t. You either have the kids with you or you don’t.
Eddie Howe has now got more youngsters in his squad and needs to use his years of experience which he now has, to take us to the next level. Can I remind people of the Alan Hansen quote back in 1995 “You can’t win anything with kids.”