Eddie Howe is past his sell by date. According to some.
Me? I doubted the bloke when he first arrived on the scene in the Autumn of 2021 (would have preferred Unai Emery) and again in the Autumn of 2024 after a defeat at Stamford Bridge where we were awful. “Taxi for Howe” was my instant match reaction which the Editor (rightly) suggested I tone down with something less emotive and more measured.
Whatever I ended up saying, I was still quite scathing and didn’t realise what the man would go on to deliver a few months later when Bruno Guimaraes, Kieran Trippier and Jamaal Lascelles hoisted that elusive silverware high into the night sky at the National Stadium on the 16th March 2025
“Eddie Howe walks on water” is what I’ve proclaimed since, and I’m not doubting him for a third time, although I do accept some of the arguments being propagated in regards Eddie’s recent performances – twenty five points dropped from winning positions, not knowing what his strongest first eleven is, half-time team talks that inexplicably turn winning margins into defeat, some players looking demotivated etc.
Then there’s the signings made amidst the Alexander Isak nonsense in the summer of 2025.
I am confident that Eddie Howe had more than a passing influence on who came into St James’ Park last year. I am equally confident that Eddie didn’t say from the outset that he would like to sign Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa in the very final stages before the window slammed shut. In fact, it’s clear that Eddie was very interested in signing one of Hugo Ekitike or Joao Pedro, both of whom decided to ply their trade elsewhere. You can add James Trafford to that list if you like, and perhaps Benjamin Sesko as well, who traded the lure of the Champions League for the ignominy of crashing out of the League Cup at a windswept Blundell Park.
Eddie had also been a long-standing admirer of Malick Thiaw and of all our summer outlay, in my opinion the German defender has been our best acquisition. Okay, he might be prone to the odd error, but he’s been overplayed really, and he’s also had to accommodate being paired with other central defenders throughout his short tenure as Eddie has often been forced to shuffle the pack.
Eddie Howe had also wanted to sign Mark Guehi and Abdukodir Khusanov to Newcastle United. I wonder how they’d have performed in the black and white stripes?
Borne out of necessity, I believe the summer transfer shenanigans were fronted by and orchestrated through Eddie Howe. The club had recently jettisoned Paul Mitchell, its second sporting director in a matter of months, and I’m supposing Darren Eales wasn’t firing on all cylinders given his health issues, poor guy. So, it was largely left to Eddie, who amongst other things was trying to prepare Newcastle United for a second tilt at the European Champions League in three years, become the first club since Manchester City to successfully defend the League Cup, as well as attempting to finish in the top five of the Premier League once again. Surely not easy, juggling all of those competing demands?
Then there is this. Newcastle United has recently published their 2024/25 financial accounts. They reveal that they sold the leasehold at St James Park to themselves in June 2025, generating a £133.2 million accounting profit to ensure compliance with PSR regulations.
I question the logic of doing this in June 2025, as opposed to June 2024. Had this transaction taken place shortly before the end of the 2024/25 accounting year end, it might have made Eddie’s job some twelve months later a tad easier. If you care to cast your mind back to June 2024, you’ll recall this was a time when Newcastle United was sailing so perilously close to the PSR regulations, that the good ship Magpie hit the buffers and with that, came the loss of two very talented youngsters.
Fast forward to the summer of 2025 and I’m thinking Anthony Elanga isn’t required because we have Yakubu Minteh. In addition, maybe we don’t need the services of Jacob Ramsey either, because Elliot Anderson is still on our books. Arguably, Ramsey has grown into the role and might still prove a shrewd buy but Elanga, despite his brace in the Nou Camp, has not. Whatever the weather, that’s nigh on £100 million that might have been defrayed elsewhere, either at the time or since.
In my view, this is another example of the inner workings at the football club at worst letting Eddie Howe down, or at best, just making his life more difficult than it should be.
So when those of us who are quick to shout, “Get rid”, maybe it’s worth pausing for a second and reflecting on stuff like this. After all, context is everything.