This season, the team with the least mentally resilient players has to be Spurs, with Newcastle United a very close second.
From what I’ve seen, sides like West Ham, Forest and even Wolves, have players who show greater mental strength and are willing to work harder for their manager.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Wolves storm straight back to the Premier League next season.
If Spurs do go down and Newcastle United carry on like this into next season, we could be in real trouble.
So what’s the solution? Who knows? But someone in the Newcastle United hierarchy has to and it has to not be a knee jerk decision.
History tells us that Bournemouth reached a peak under Eddie Howe but he wasn’t able to take them to the next level. That said, that might be an oversimplification — there were likely other factors at play.
Spurs made a decisive move by sacking their manager and bringing in Thomas Frank, which looked like a strong appointment on paper. Yet their form has carried on regardless. Chelsea have also changed managers again, with little improvement.
Ruben Amorim either refused or was unable to change his formation and was sacked. Michael Carrick has since come in and the turnaround under him speaks for itself. So a Manager with an inflexible system doesn’t help the team.
Eddie Howe won us the cup and is a very likeable, honourable, humble guy. Ange Postecoglou also won a cup but he’s a very different character. The question is: would our fans show Postecoglou the same level of faith they’ve shown Eddie if he were in charge and had achieved the same success as Eddie.
Last summer’s transfer window — particularly in attack — has been a disaster. We lost Alexander Isak and effectively wasted £125 million. We’d be lucky to recover £80 million for Wissa and Woltemade. Even now, nearing the end of the season, Eddie Howe still doesn’t seem any closer to figuring out how to get the best out of them. Could another Manager with a different system? Again an unknown!
Palace lost Eze and then Guehi mid-season, and with their manager already set to leave at the end of the season , they’re still above us in the table.
So, no pun intended, this isn’t a black-and-white decision when it comes to what happens this summer. But one thing is certain: it will be pivotal in determining whether Newcastle United will be moving forwards or backwards.