Well said, Simon Jordan - TalkSPORT pundit nails it on Howe v Mitchell and 'civil war' claims

TalkSPORT pundit and former Crystal Palace Chairman Simon Jordan has leapt to the defence of Eddie Howe and Newcastle United amidst the purported ‘Civil War’ claims within the media concerning the club.

Speaking before Sunday’s win over Wolves, Howe addressed Sporting Director Paul Mitchell’s negative comments about the club’s structure and transfer strategy, insisting he's "very, very proud of every single player we signed in that period.",

And when asked if he had spoke to Mitchell in the past week, Howe revealed that he hadn’t, but added that “I don’t think that’s unusual: we’ve got different jobs to do, I’m focusing on the football and the team, and he’s obviously focusing on his role.”

The comments by both Mitchell and Howe have been interpreted by many as signs of a major falling out between the pair, with many journalists now presenting the idea of a ‘Civil War’ off the pitch.

“I think this is a deliberate misinterpretation by the media in characterising what Paul Mitchell said. Under the governance of football, in order for Newcastle United to refresh and re-energise their team, they need to have a transfer policy that allows them to move players in and out to be able to do what they need to do, which is to give Newcastle the opportunity to progress. That’s the point he’s making.”

Jordan then put to bed the idea that Mitchell has been criticising Howe with his comment, stating, but fellow pundit Martin Keown believes differently.  “Why doesn’t Eddie Howe react in that manner? Why does he respond as if he is being criticised?”, Keown added.

But Jordan was once again quick to emphasise that it’s the media narrative that is overhyping the idea that Howe and Mitchell are at each other’s throats.

“The challenge for Newcastle is that everyone thinks they’re the world’s richest football club, and why aren’t they buying their way to success? And the reality is that they can’t.”

“So now you’ve got a Director of Football, coming in and saying in part ‘The reasons I can’t do what I would really like to do is because previous buying policies, which were right at the time with what we needed to fix at the time, aren’t proving to be right in the here and now, because we can’t trade the way we want to now.”

“Now what Eddie is doing is he’s not going to have these players criticised, because he’s taking it down to a micro-level in that these players in the dressing room he’s still got to manage are being in-part criticised: no they’re not!”

When addressing the issue of Howe supposedly wanting a limited number of transfer targets that he was comfortable in pursuing and “added value”, Jordan once again argued that this was further media mischaracterisation of Mitchell and Howe’s comments.

“Mitchell’s not saying point your guns at anyone, he’s giving you an answer to the question. What we’re doing is characterising the question as attributing blame. Poor bugger can’t answer a question. He gives you an answer to a question, and we characterise it as some sort of division between people.”

Host Jim White chimed in that it was odd for Howe to even make the comments about Mitchell’s interview before the clash at Molineux, but Jordan reiterated that this was once again the media trying to build a story out of a minor incident.

“What is the benefit, or lack of benefit, in a sporting director not speaking to a manager, unless there was a real conversation? This is you, the media, characterising two individuals inside of a business as having a division.”

With Newcastle’s fantastic unbeaten start to the season, and still many months until the January transfer window opens again, many will now be hoping any signs of disagreement or dissent within management regarding transfers can quietly fade away.