Jonjo Shelvey heaps praise on Eddie Howe amid ramping pressure

After announcing his retirement from playing and that he's taken up the position as manager of Arabian Falcons FC, Jonjo Shelvey has revealed that one of the first people he spoke to was Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe.

Shelvey spoke about his aspirations to rise to the top of the game after taking over as Arabian Falcons boss, saying that his first aim is to get his side to the top of the UAE pyramid.

The former Newcastle midfielder has worked under some top coaches in his time: Eddie Howe, Rafa Benitez, Steve Bruce... but it was Howe who the 34-year-old turned to ahead of making his move into management.

Shelvey has been doing the media rounds after announcing his new role, and the ex-England man told the iPaper that he asked Eddie Howe if he could return to Newcastle to shadow him in training.

Eddie Howe welcomes Shelvey back to Newcastle

Howe showed his character once again, welcoming Shelvey back whenever he wants.

“We didn’t have a game, so I asked if I could come back to Newcastle and watch his training and shadow him for a day, be a sponge basically.

“When you’re a player you miss the little things but I’d like to go in and be around him, just pick his brain, even down to the little things like looking at what he’s got on his wall.

“He came back to me and said, ‘Mate, whenever you want to come back to me, just give me a shout’. That sums him up as a person.”

Shelvey asks fans to be patient with Howe

Jonjo Shelvey would go on to acknowledge the pressure that Howe is currently under, and urged the Newcastle fans to stick by their manager.

“I can see it from both sides because it hasn’t gone well this season but the level of expectation is there because of him. He deserves a little bit more than what fans are giving him.”

We're with Jonjo on this one. We appreciate that Howe can't survive on his past accomplishments forever, but the reality is we have overachieved with him as boss, and that's why our expectations are so high now. 

In truth, this season has shown our true level, maybe a bit below our true level in terms of our league form, but overall, this is our level, and that's fine. The problem is, we peaked too soon, and we don't have the resources or the infrastructure to maintain that level.

It's going to be rocky no matter who is in charge, so it makes sense to us to stick with the man who started the plan; otherwise we'd be starting from scratch again, and we'd never move forward.