There is 'no indication' Eddie Howe will be sacked this week - Journalist

There have been some loud calls from the media in the past couple of days for Newcastle United to issue an update on Eddie Howe's job security.

With calls for the sack growing louder from some sections of the fanbase and a mountain of uncertainty over whether the 48-year-old will still be in the hot seat come August, there's a thick fog of negativity looming over St James' Park.

Prominent journalists have called for the club to put an end to the speculation by announcing whether or not Eddie Howe's job is safe. Luke Edwards claimed yesterday that the board likely already knows whether or not they are sticking with Howe, as they aren't going to learn anything new from the remaining games, so they should either announce he's safe or tell us he's leaving so we can prepare either way.

We definitely back those calls. As Edwards said, it really doesn't matter what happens in the last five games; we have four years of data on Eddie Howe. We know what he's capable of, and the board knows too. Just make the call and lift the fog.

Chris Waugh expects Howe to be in charge on Saturday

In the latest Q&A in The Athletic, Chris Waugh was asked who would take interim charge if Howe was sacked this week, but rather than play along with that question, Waugh made it clear that there's been nothing to suggest Howe will not be in charge against Arsenal on Saturday.

"I do not expect Howe to leave this week — there is no indication whatsoever that he will, with the head coach focused and determined to turn things around, while the message from the Newcastle hierarchy is they will not act rashly and make a change imminently — so who would cover in for him is not something which has been communicated."

That's still not a definitive statement on Howe's future, but we'd say that at this point, any decision the board makes isn't going to be rash, as we said before, they have four years of data to pull from.

We are Howe In, but things need to change

Everyone is going to have a different opinion on what's best going forward. We're still very much Howe In. He's proven enough over the last four and a half years that he's a top manager, but we will concede he's having a tough time right now.

His tactics have gone stale, but we're hoping that he's just seeing out the season with the current ideas and will change things up ahead of the next season when he's got time to work with the players over the summer.

Some new faces on the pitch and in the dugout will go a long way to refreshing things, too.