I wanted to talk about Eddie Howe.
Should he remain as boss of Newcastle United?
Across two articles, I am presenting the case for and against Eddie Howe, presented in the style of a courtroom drama!
In this first article, we heard from the Prosecution, arguing the case for the removal of Eddie Howe.
Now we will hear from the Defence, arguing for Eddie Howe to remain as the manager of Newcastle United.
Charge #1 – Squad Building – Conservative to a fault
The defence would argue that the accusation that the squad building has been stale is not unfounded, but that the responsibility for this falls on the club more than Eddie Howe. The nature of PSR and the revolving door in the Director of Football room have meant that some of this responsibility has fallen upon Eddie Howe, but it should not have. Much like you should not judge a player too harshly when being brave enough to play out of position for the betterment of the team, Eddie Howe should in fact be commended for taking on these extra responsibilities when the club needed him.
The last time the club had a Director of Football in place for any length of time (Dan Ashworth), the club was churning the squad and buying young players with potential. This helps to prove that the issue is not about Eddie Howe, rather the structure above him. With the structures now in place, the time to judge the club and Eddie Howe if you wish, will be from this summer onwards.
In addition to this, it is generally considered that you judge squad building over years plural – not months or a single year. The club has managed to compete with spending only £10 million on the Goalkeeping department (ED: Not including the £20 million PSR Vlachodimos forced deal) in four years – this is a unique achievement.
Ultimately, everything breaks at some point, with hindsight it looks like the shoulder injuries that Nick Pope has sustained have had a severe effect on his ability as a shot stopper, but hindsight is always 20/20 and you can not blame the club for wanting to find out on the pitch rather than speculate. The very nature of the Ramsdale signing reportedly being a loan with no option was the club telling everyone that it was a short-term fix. We live in an imperfect world where you sometimes have to make decisions that you know are not the answer going forward – to avoid being caught out in the short-term.
The defence – progression comes from stability.
Charge #2 – Summer 2025 – What just happened?
If one wanted to make judgments about the Summer 2025 transfer window, and as previously stated, it is generally considered that judgements are made in years and not months – it is only fair to take it as a whole.
This whole includes two signings (Jacob Ramsey and Malick Thiaw) who have impressed and have the potential to be mainstays of the team in years to come. Taken as a whole the summer 2025 transfer window was one of transition for the squad and this was communicated by the club at the time. To paint it as a failure without even acknowledging this and the successes of Ramsey and Thiaw is disingenuous.
Having said that, the defence does acknowledge that Elanga, Wissa and Woltemade have performed below expectations to varying degrees this season. However, with Eddie Howe’s proven ability to improve players over time – Elanga and Woltemade both retain the potential to be key players for the club going forward. The Wissa deal is harder to defend, but this brings us to an interesting question, what is considered a successful transfer hit rate? How many transfers play over 75% of the clubs games and see out their contracts and should we expect every transfer to be a success?
Recruitment is difficult and the most difficult position to recruit successfully for is centre forward. Finding players who can seamlessly fit into a team and score goals at the business end of the pitch is hard at the best of times – even harder when you are trying to find two of them in the same window.
The defence – Perfection is a myth and there is plenty of time for the players to come good.
Charge #3 – Identity crisis and European hangover 2.0
The loss of both derby games is understandably a difficult pill to swallow for the club and its fans, but emotions should not dictate long-term sporting strategy. Transitions take time, three years of good progress should not be thrown out the window for one transitional season. The transition has started, now is not the time to lose your nerve and panic, the structures are in place – keep calm and follow the plan.
The club is finally relevant after years in the doldrums and fans need to be realistic. The club is not at the size where it can attract either the very best players or managers to the team, so why shouldn’t the manager be able to make mistakes and learn? Eddie Howe has a demonstrated history of creating teams that play vibrant attacking football – the defence would argue that Eddie has earned the opportunity to ride out this inevitable bump in the road and continue on the road to success. After all, this is the man who helped to end a 70-year domestic trophy drought and success is rarely linear.
The defence – Understand your place in the food chain and keep punching upwards
Charge #4 – In-game management – Net negative impact
Every club in the land has fans who are frustrated with some aspects of how their manager does things, be it substitution timings or personnel choices, but there is no gold standard here. Football is a game of opinions and anyone claiming to be correct all the time is either a liar or an idiot. These issues are subjective, we all have an opinion but they are rarely a signal of deeper underlying issues, rather personal preference.
Eddie Howe has proven his ability to create unique and successful gameplans to beat other teams and managers (The League Cup semi and final last season for example). He has also been unsuccessful at times – this is part of the game.
Ultimately the defence agrees with the prosecution – players are more important than managers. If the club fix some of the issues in squad building and personnel, a lot of the problems seen this season will disappear into the rear view mirror.
The defence: In game management is highly subjective and generally results based.
My Final Verdict:
Mistakes have certainly been made, but you can not single out Eddie Howe here without acknowledging the chaos above him in the boardroom over recent seasons – this is valuable and relevant context. Eddie certainly shoulders some blame and there are genuine concerns that some lessons have not been learned from the previous season in Europe. Having acknowledged this I personally do not think that a World Cup summer with a team in transition is the right time to make a change. Newcastle have consistently punched above their weight with Eddie Howe and he has earned the opportunity to continue.
In my opinion a sensible management team would look to empower Eddie Howe in the things he does well (developing players and man management) and build processes and hire people around the areas which he seems to struggle with (moving trusted older players on and recruitment for example).
Ultimately I don’t think the club has any plans to sack Eddie Howe, so I doubt it happens. But the club would be in dereliction of its duty if it does not recognise some of the patterns that have been emerging and have a solid pool of potential candidates and plan should the manager leave. Ultimately – losing both derby games means the club are a bad start to next season away from having to make a change, whether they want to or not.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to reading your opinions in the comments section! Next I will be beginning a deep dive into the Newcastle squad, analysing the current situation and speculating on what the future might look like, starting with the goalkeeping department.
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