The Newcastle United bench on Sunday raised a few eyebrows at Selhurst Park.
As of course did the actual Newcastle United chosen eleven against Crystal Palace.
Eddie Howe with more than one or two surprises, when the team and subs announcement was made some 75 minutes ahead of kick-off.
There were six changes from the ten outfield players that started in the 2-1 defeat to Sunderland in the previous match.
As well as keeper Aaron Ramsdale, the outfield players to keep their places were Sven Botman, Lewis Hall, Joelinton and Anthony Gordon. Though even then, Gordon was moved to left wing from the centre-forward position he had started in against Sunderland.
This Crystal Palace match came after a much-needed and awaited three weeks break.
A chance at last for Eddie Howe to get his players together and prepare properly for the next match, rather than the never ending cycle of play-rest-recover-play every few days.
Ahead of the Palace match, Eddie Howe himself said that this was the first time since August he’d had as many as 20 players to work with on the training pitch. The late summer 2025 signings and then terrible luck with injuries having prevented this happening for so long.
Emil Krafth is out for the rest of the season, Bruno Guimaraes and Fabian Schar had experienced setbacks in their recoveries from injury, but other than that Eddie Howe had a full squad to choose from for this Crystal Palace game.
So when the team and Newcastle United bench were made public on Sunday, it was an ‘interesting’ one.
It didn’t take a genius to realise that if this all went wrong in South London, questions would be asked of the United boss.
Sure enough, when Newcastle United yet again hit the self-destruct button and turned a dour 1-0 away win into a gift of three points to Palace via two late goals, we all know questions were going to be asked.
The Head Coach quizzed at the post-match press conference on the decision to play Will Osula ahead of Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa.
Eddie Howe replying: “I don’t pick the team based on transfer fees. I have to pick the team based on what I see. I thought Will Osula had trained well. I think he deserved to start today.”
The fact is that Will Osula played okay, scored a goal, worked hard in a largely isolated role. So for the media to concentrate on who played as the main striker on Sunday, wasn’t really the best line of attack for them. Eddie Howe could point to what Osula had contributed and the Head Coach feel vindicated, up to a point anyway.
I think it was of far more interest the team selection overall, rather than the centre-forward debate.
The team that Eddie Howe had decided to start with after having the luxury of so much time on the training pitch with so many players.
The most expensive Newcastle United bench in the club’s history
Using rough figures, those generally claimed for the various signings, this is how much the NUFC team and bench cost, that were named against Crystal Palace.
Newcastle United team v Crystal Palace:
Ramsale £4m loan fee, Livramento £38m, Botman £35m, Thiaw £32m, Hall £28m, Joelinton £40m, Tonali £55m, Miley £0m, Gordon £45m, Murphy £15m, Osula £15m (A total of £307m)
Newcastle United bench v Crystal Palace:
Pope £10m, Trippier £12m, Burn £13m, Willock £25m, Ramsey £38m, Barnes £38m, Elanga £52m, Woltemade £69.5m, Wissa £55m (A total of £312.5m)
The reality is that when it comes to transfer fees, the nine players on the Newcastle United bench yesterday, cost marginally more than the eleven players who started.
(My guesstimate as well is that when it comes to wages, I would be pretty sure that the nine subs are collectively paid more than those 11 starters.)
Krafth and Schar cost around £7m between them in transfer fees and so it is only the £41m paid for Bruno Guimaraes that was really missing yesterday, in terms of availability from the circa £700m this squad had cost to put together in transfer fees (you also have the £20m paid to Forest for Vlachodimos (on loan at Sevilla) in the PSR double deal, when Anderson went the other way).
What does the most expensive ever Newcastle United bench tell us?
One of the many things I like about Eddie Howe, is that he does what he thinks is right, including team selections. He isn’t swayed by what the media say, nor any fans.
With ten minutes of normal time remaining, Eddie Howe was getting the win against Crystal Palace. Then individual decision-making and mistakes from certain players gifted the two Palace goals.
Does this mean that I think Eddie Howe got his team selection and use of substitutions right? For what it is worth, I would have picked a different team and I would have used the bench in a different way. That is the right we all have as fans, it is the very basics of supporting your club, the debate before and after any match as to what you would have done compared to the manager.
Reality is that nobody knows for sure what would have happened if a different team had been selected, if the bench used differently and so on. This is where I think some fans go too far, nothing wrong with having your own views on which team should have been picked but giving Eddie Howe abuse and going on like he is an idiot who hasn’t a clue, is not acceptable. He is the same Eddie Howe who has proved what a brilliant manager he is, both in saving Newcastle United from what looked inevitable relegation when arriving mid-season, then rebuilding and revitalising the squad (especially players he inherited), delivering Champions League qualifications and playing great attacking football. It was just like Kevin Keegan back in the day, only things are even more competitive at the top end of the Premier League these days and the rules dictate that those with the biggest revenues are going to continue with that dominance. The other difference of course to the days of Kevin Keegan (and Sir Bobby Robson) is that Eddie Howe has won a trophy.
Yesterday at Selhurst Park was like so many matches we have seen there, it is very rarely a decent game. Not a lot of chances, invariably ends in a drab draw. I am not convinced that if Eddie Howe had done anything differently that we would have seen a different kind of match. I think whatever starting eleven and subs, Sunday would have been a match of few chances at either end and decided on a few key moments, the odd mistake and/or piece of rare quality.
I think we are at a time of the season when just like the vast majority of Newcastle United fans, both Eddie Howe and the players can’t wait for the end of the season to come and to regroup, to hopefully looking forward to bouncing back next season. This season, already 52 games gone, has been a brutal one. The relentless nature of it has left manager and squad running on empty, both physically and mentally.
So much damage was done last summer and the 2025/26 season seriously undermined. Eddie Howe of course has to take his share of the blame but for me it is the Newcastle United owners who were easily the most to blame. After so many transfer windows where no first team signings had been made and both Anderson and Minteh having to be sold due to their (the NUFC owners’) incompetence in allowing a desperate PSR situation to develop. Summer 2025 was the point when quality signings were needed AND a fair few of them. For them to be delivered to Eddie Howe ASAP for him to get to work on preparing a squad to take on a hugely challenging season. Instead, the Newcastle United owners totally blundered their way through last summer, they couldn’t have handled the Alexander Isak situation any worse, whilst only one player was bought in time to have a proper pre-season with the Newcastle United squad. The owners failed to have even a CEO or Sporting Director working at the club across summer 2025, this surely playing a key role in why deals didn’t get quickly done for Eddie Howe’s top targets and we ended up with the shambles where last ditch signings were made in the very final stages of the summer 2025 window. Signings that were very clearly not in Eddie Howe’s thoughts when he met the Newcastle United owners in the hours following Champions League qualification on the final day of the 2024/25 Premier League season, with transfer business topping (the only thing on?) the agenda.
The reality
I understand why other fans might think that changing the manager is the answer.
My belief though is that the best chance of having a successful 2026/27 season is by keeping Eddie Howe.
I think the club had been a shambles for some time and Eddie Howe having to do his best despite what was happening behind the scenes. The hope has to be now that with David Hopkinson and Ross Wilson in place as CEO and Sporting Director, that along with the Newcastle United owners taking more interest and a hands-on approach on how to help, that Eddie Howe will have the proper support and backing he has been desperate for.
Which brings us back to the most expensive ever Newcastle United bench
We will all choose to blame whoever for how it came about but this is the Newcastle United squad we now currently have.
How many of them will still be here next season remains to be seen.
When picking a first choice team for a particular match (no rotation due to number of matches etc), at Palace we ended up with the most expensive Newcastle United bench ever seen.
Which has to be a worry.
If Eddie Howe believed (and I think he did) that after having such lengthy preparation time and the number of options he had available, to then think it was best to have that team on the pitch AND those players on the bench at Crystal Palace, then clearly we have a lot of problems to be sorted.
You don’t blindly hold onto your manager but for me Eddie Howe still has plenty goodwill banked, based on what he has shown over a number of years.
With so much to sort out this summer, to then add a new manager as well, would carry huge risk.
Despite overwhelming advantages over pretty much every other club, Manchester United were fourth bottom of the Premier League on the final day of the 2024/25 season, before a shock home win over Aston Villa lifted them to sixth bottom. Spurs also have such huge advantages over nearly every other club and yet they did end up fourth bottom at the end of the 2024/25 season and now look booked to go one better and actually get relegated this time. Nottingham Forest missed out on Champions League football in the very final match of the 2024/25 season, yet they are also at serious risk of relegation this time.
The theme running through all three of these clubs is some terrible decisions when it comes to choosing managers. Turning problems to be solved into a disaster instead.
As Newcastle United fans, if you were around back in the day, you will recall the disastrous appointments of Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness, when respectively replacing Kevin Keegan and Sir Bobby Robson. Those changes set the club back years on both occasions and the teams/squads ripped apart as so many talented players left St James’ Park.
Eddie Howe shouldn’t have a job for life based on his past achievements at NUFC but I do think he deserves at last one more season. It feels to me that for many Newcastle United fans who are desperate to see Howe replaced, there is belief of “Well, what is the worst that could happen…?”
That “Having the richest owners in the world” would somehow ensure things couldn’t end in disaster.
As we all know too well though, the wealth of the owners of Premier League clubs only goes so far even if they are prepared to spend whatever, due to the financial rules in football. The Forest owner has done pretty much the same as the Newcastle United owners, putting in as much extra investment into his club as he possibly can to allow them to compete.
Whilst with both Man U and Spurs, they are light years ahead of Newcastle United in financial terms and in other ways, due mostly to the Mike Ashley decade and a half that was incredibly damaging.
Personally, I think that having Eddie Howe at the club this summer and throughout next season could prove more important than it has been at any point in his four and a half years so far.