Eddie Howe - What next and why Newcastle can’t afford to be left in limbo

Eddie Howe has emerged as a big talking point amongst our fan-base over the last few weeks. This piece was planned before the England job became available, but that has provided another discussion point for me to touch on.

Prior to Gareth Southgate leaving his post, Amanda Staveley left the club and sold her shares to the other owners. That led to a lot of talk online about the future direction for the club and what it meant for our progression. Howe was one of the main topics spoken about, with many suggesting he wouldn't be as protected without the former minority owner at the club.

There seems to be a minority, and it is still only a minority, that believe that he is under pressure this season. It seems crazy to me that anyone would doubt Eddie Howe's ability as Newcastle manager. The body of evidence we have available to us is wholly positive. Are there mistakes that he has made in the last 12 months? Sure, but that is the case for any manager working in football.

Any debate about Howe being a transitional manager incapable of winning major honours at St James' Park may have some truth to it. Perhaps, it will transpire that a change is needed, but at this point in time, nobody can state that with certainty. In his two and a half seasons in charge, he has overseen a comfortable march away from a perilous league position; an incredible top four finish and a 7th placed finish.

Last season, the team were incredibly unfortunate to miss out on European football. Manchester United denied us by winning the FA Cup, but in the majority of previous campaigns, 7th would be sufficient for some sort of European football.

Aside from that quirk, a lot of situations transpired that gave the head coach difficulties. The cup draws were incredibly tough, an unheard of injury crisis took place and the big summer signing made by the club was banned for the majority of the season for a previous misdemeanor.

Although it is true that Howe is paid to manage through these difficulties, it is an incredibly poor hand he was dealt and some regression in performance was expected. In the January window, he desperately needed reinforcements to help the squad push through the injury crisis. Due to the financial difficulties caused by PSR, it was impossible for the club to provide these. This is another contributing factor that should earn Howe goodwill.

Considering everything that went on last season, it is my opinion that Howe actually emerged with more credit that he started the season with. It is easy to ride the wave of success like he did in 2022/23, but it shows his credentials as a manager that he led the team to a 7th placed finish. That feels like the absolute floor for the team under Howe and that is an impressive feat considering the quality and resources of the teams we are competing with.

It is worth stating that this piece isn't to suggest Howe should be absolved of any criticism for last season. He made mistakes. There should have been more rotation with the small number of players he did have available and the use of substitutions wasn't good enough sometimes. He was stubborn in some of his selections and his style of play may have caused a lot of the soft tissue injuries that we did suffer.

However, it was his first campaign as a manager competing in Europe. He will learn and he deserves time to show that he has. The appointments of Paul Mitchell and James Bunce will help Howe with some of those errors. There should be pressure on him to perform this season, but he should still start the season with a lot of credit.

What does the England job mean for Howe and Newcastle?

To put it bluntly, it comes at the perfect time for Howe. After losing some of his power base at the club, he has the opportunity to leverage a job offer to get the assurances that he needs for his own job security. The recent comments from Darren Eales suggest that the club remain fully behind their manager, even if some supporters are starting to sway.

However, it is easy to make public statements, Howe will want to see firm action behind the scenes to back up those words.

Some of his doubters will see this as the perfect scenario. Howe can leave without damaging his standing in the club and we can push on with a more high profile manager. I don't agree with this sentiment.

This is the worst time for any doubts to emerge over the manager's position. There is a dearth of quality managers on the market and those in a post already would be reluctant to move clubs with pre-season under way. Any targets would be reluctant to make a huge career move until there is clarity over who is in the dugout for the Southampton game. It is imperative that this is resolved quickly and either Howe leaves or he announces he won't take the England job.

There have been a lot of issues in this pre-season, but we still have the opportunity to have a progressive summer that pushes the team on. However, until we have a conclusion to Howe's future, we will remain in limbo.