Eddie Howe reflects on awful performance and 2025/26 season after Fulham defeat

Eddie Howe didn't shy away from the fact that there's plenty of work to be done before next season after Newcastle United ended the season in 12th place.

Speaking after the 2-0 defeat to Fulham, Eddie Howe vowed to keep fighting for Newcastle, but admitted there's plenty of work to be done before the next campaign gets underway.

The Magpies are expecting to be busy in the transfer market, and after today, we're really hoping that goes for outgoings as well as incomings because there were far too many players on that Craven Cottage pitch who might as well have stepped onto the field in their flip-flops and swimming shorts.

It probably wasn't the worst performance of the season, let's be honest, there are a few contenders for that crown, but it probably makes the top 10.

Eddie Howe frustrated after Fulham shocker 

Even Eddie Howe, who always tries to put a positive spin on things, couldn't do it on Sunday. He told reporters (via Shields Gazette) that he didn't like the way his team played, and hinted that it was indicative of the season as a whole.

“Disappointing performance, not the way we wanted to end the season, that's for sure. I think there was a disjointed view about the team today, in part, we had really limited selection choices today.

“We didn't really like how we performed for the halves and were really frustrated.

“I think it's been a really difficult season,” Howe said. “A number of fronts, a number of games were played, obviously the focus came from Europe and the Premier League, that's always a challenge.

“We haven't dealt with that really well enough in our Premier League season.”

Losing Tonali before kick-off didn't help matters

Losing Sandro Tonali in the warm-up obviously upset the game plan somewhat, but surely it shouldn't have had that much of an impact. Joe Willock replaced the Italian, and it's not as if it was his debut.

Disjointed was a good word by Howe, but even that doesn't cover the extent of how lost the players looked on Sunday. 

Let's hope there are a lot of talks over the summer about a new style of play to go along with our new signings, of which there needs to be many.