There was an article on The Mag a fair while back that referenced two imaginary Maths teachers and their different styles and success rates, that model applied to Newcastle United and the question posed of which of these teachers was Eddie Howe as the teacher.
The thrust of the article was to claim that Eddie Howe was the nice teacher that the kids loved but would not get results, while a more steely teacher would supposedly have got better results with Newcastle United.
A proposition that was totally absurd and one-dimensional.
Well, having worked with kids for some years, I feel I can add to this debate.
More recently, Jamie Smith had an article entitled ‘Who are Newcastle United’, great considered writing and excellent points made about how we have had our hands tied by PSR or whatever it is now and the knock-on effect. Chelsea and Man City run amok with financial rules and there is no comeback.
Where does that leave Newcastle United?
Terrified by the rules that have been applied to Forest and Everton but not to the so called big clubs. Football is a results driven business. That is obvious to everyone.
In 1988, due to Thatcherite policy we saw education become a results driven business. League tables were introduced to schools countrywide. Raw data but no extenuating circumstances or contextual information applied. The measure is not the result, it is the journey and how the person has developed.
There is no doubt in my opinion we have seen players developed by Eddie Howe. Context and circumstance are massive factors and major players in how Newcastle United are being stopped from competing on a level playing field. And hence therefore Newcastle can not attract the players to lift them from the level they are at and climb up the table. Clearly emphasised by all the claims of want away players.
I grew up on the Grange Estate and went to games in the early seventies with older brothers and mates. Travelling to the Haymarket on the scary graffiti covered bus from Fawdon.
In time I saw players with talent move on to so-called “bigger” clubs because of the poor stewardship of Newcastle United at the time. Going to the games and seeing Supermac through to Gazza and beyond. A cultural awakening for me.
In education we now have a term “cultural capital” where underprivileged children can get access to what is termed and referred to as culture. But there is something bigger here. This week I will take a bunch of teenagers from an underprivileged background to the Design Museum (London) to look at the important historical design work from William Morris to Phillipe Starke. No one can measure what the kids will gain from such an experience or how much my input will be recognised. I reckon the real cultural capital though will be me and the lads from Deptford talking about Millwall and Newcastle United on the tube journey to leafy Kensington, especially when the fourteen year olds Ray and Sonny tell me how their Grandads are the original Bushwackers.