Eddie Howe recently celebrated his fourth anniversary since becoming Head Coach of Newcastle United.
On November 8, 2021, the new boss went to work and took stock of what he had inherited.
It wasn’t pretty.
Eddie Howe finds himself in a complete mess, total chaos, a mess he inherited thanks to the combined efforts of Mike Ashley and Steve Bruce.
As Newcastle United fans, we all know what has happened since then.
Or us???
It seems like ‘all Newcastle United fans’ isn’t really true.
A very vocal minority who, in my opinion, are behaving quite disgracefully.
Apparently if I continue to support Newcastle United’s greatest manager, certainly in my lifetime, I’ll be a ‘Happy Clapper’.
If you search online, “Happy Clapper” is described as…”A derogatory term for someone who is overly enthusiastic, often used for fans who support a team unconditionally, or for evangelical Christians in services with lots of clapping and singing.”
Well, I haven’t seen the inside of a church for many a day, so I definitely belong to the first target group.
If I continue to support Eddie Howe and appreciate everything he has done AND continues to do for us, apparently I am a Happy Clapper.
I find it beyond ridiculous that I find myself in this position.
Some of the crazy fringe among the United fanbase would be happy to see Eddie Howe leave St James’ Park. Some of them seem desperate to see that day coming.
I know many of these are sad and desperate characters lurking on social media, on YouTube, so-called Newcastle United fans who are willing to say literally anything if it gets them attention, and in many cases that equates to money.
The route to attention these days is as extreme as possible, extreme negativity equals a lot of attention, which also attracts the fans of rival clubs who are desperate to see Newcastle United fail. They absolutely love seeing Newcastle United ‘fans’ bash their own manager, players and club in the most public way possible.
Continuing to support Eddie Howe does not mean he is untouchable, because he brought us our first trophy in 56 years.
The reality is that, like any other manager, any other football club, results on the pitch determine their future, how long they stay in their position.
There have been plenty of examples in the past of a manager at a club winning a trophy. Where an otherwise struggling team (and manager) is so lucky in a cup competition, nice draws and fine margins fall their way. Even past examples of teams being relegated AND winning a trophy.
The point is, this was and is absolutely NOT the case with Eddie Howe. The March 16, 2025 was anything but a fluke, it was simply the silverware that had been jeopardized because the manager had made Newcastle United so competitive.
Eddie Howe inherited an ugly mess and turned it into something beautiful.
Unbelievable that some people reacted to the Chelsea match on Saturday as further ‘proof’ that Eddie Howe needs to be replaced.
Eddie Howe set out his team and tactics perfectly if they wanted to join Chelsea from the first whistle and we saw the best half of football we have enjoyed for many days.
It wasn’t Eddie Howe’s fault that chance after chance begged apart from the two that were taken, or that the match officials didn’t believe in their decision-making, or that two soft goals were then conceded due to poor goalkeeping and defending thanks to individual errors, nor that many more big chances went untaken after that which meant United could still have deservedly won the game.
On Saturday I was desperate for more of this from Eddie Howe and his players. Let’s not get rid of the greatest Newcastle United manager any of us have ever seen and blindly bring in a replacement based on nothing more than… wishful thinking. I can even see some of them opposing Eddie Howe and pushing Jose Mourinho and Rafa Benitez. Both great managers in their time, BUT that day is over now. This is Eddie Howe’s day and hopefully there will be many more (days) to come at Newcastle United.
I’m not a Happy Clapper who thinks everything is perfect right now and can’t be improved, far from it.
However, here we are just one step away from our third cup final in four years, almost certainly finding ourselves in the play-off stages to reach the last 16 of the Champions League, plus the reality is that Newcastle United are only six points clear of the top four in the Premier League, all against the backdrop of seven or eight players currently injured.
If you don’t think Eddie Howe is worth supporting, based on more than four years of brilliance (so far), what would it take to convince you that the biggest possible own goal for Newcastle United would be to lose this talented top man mid-season?
#supporting #Newcastle #United #Manager #happy