I remember when Sir Bobby Robson took over Newcastle United in September 1999.
Before his arrival that season, United had collected just one point from their opening six Premier League games, putting them in the bottom two alongside Sheffield Wednesday.
After an unfortunate 1-0 defeat at Chelsea, Sir Bobby’s first game at St James’ Park was of course the memorable 8-0 win against Sheffield Wednesday.
The first home game for a local boy who came home and took on the opposition. The first thing Bobby did at the end of the match was walk up to the young up and coming opposition manager and hug him. That act of kindness was the moment I fell in love with Sir Bobby Robson.
I also remember Eddie Howe taking over a Newcastle side that was winless and almost guaranteed to go down without a much-needed change. Our team was much weaker than the one Bobby inherited, but Eddie still led the club to an eleventh-place finish after a run of twelve wins in the last eighteen games. Newcastle became the first team in Premier League history to avoid relegation after failing to win any of their first fourteen games.
Both men turned around a sinking ship.
Since Eddie’s first season, I no longer look at the bottom of the table and wonder who might be worse than us so we can stay up. Now we look upwards, at teams we can beat to get into the Champions League. The last time I felt like this was under Sir Bobby.
That’s why it still bothers me how Sir Bobby Robson was treated by the owners and a vocal minority of fans who wanted him out. We all knew Bobby was getting older, but he still had football in him. Letting Bobby leave the club on his own terms – by choosing his successor – would have been the ending he deserved. I’ve read how hurt Bobby was by his sacking and how he couldn’t understand why he was sacked after taking the club out of relegation and later taking Newcastle to fourth and third places before finishing in fifth place in his last full season. It annoys me to this day how he was treated.
The Sir Bobby Robson Institute for Cancer Research, funded mainly by the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, is a testament to the man he was.
In his first full season in charge, Eddie Howe guided Newcastle United into the Champions League ahead of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool and free agents Chelsea. The next season was difficult. The Champions League and the national cups were taken seriously, but mainly due to the ridiculous number of injuries and Tonali’s suspension, we simply could not cope as a team. Yet, without a ridiculous penalty against PSG, we would still have qualified for the last 16 knockout stages of the Champions League.
The lesson was clear: we needed a bigger team. But due to financial constraints, not only were we unable to sign players in the summer of 2024, we also had to sell players to meet the PSR. Can you imagine Pep, Klopp or Arteta having to sell their best young players, not being allowed to improve their squads and yet still being expected to perform better than their peers? Yet Eddie did just that, delivering our first domestic trophy in 70 years and qualifying for the Champions League again, a second time in three seasons.
Many Newcastle United fans take it for granted, but Eddie Howe worked wonders. How many managers in world football could do that with both hands tied behind their back and still succeed?
This summer was over and Newcastle United were all set for a new season, ready to bring in reinforcements and get started. Then Alexander Isak changed the entire summer plan and Paul Mitchell quit. Eddie Howe had to go through the entire recruiting process again, when the man fully deserved a break from football. The season hasn’t gone entirely to plan, but when a manager over-performs time and time again, he deserves time and patience.
So many clubs have tried and failed.
Manchester United, Tottenham and Chelsea all spent significantly more than Newcastle. Chelsea alone have spent over £1.5 billion on new players since the transfer of ownership in the summer of 2022, but their points tally since that takeover is still lower than Eddie’s.
During the Eddie Howe Newcastle United era, net spend is not significantly higher than West Ham’s.
The difference between Newcastle United and West Ham isn’t the money, it’s Eddie Howe. The Hammers are locked in a relegation battle, while the Magpies are two points off a Champions League spot in the League Cup semi-finals, plus a great chance of reaching the knockout stages of this season’s premier European competition. The difference is Eddie Howe.
If the vocal minority of Newcastle United fans got their way and Eddie Howe left. The likes of Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester United are said to be lining up to double or triple his wages. I have no doubt that Eddie would succeed at any of those clubs.
The greatest asset at our club is not any player, it is our manager.
Like Alex Ferguson, Pep Guardiola and Unai Emery, managers ensure sustainable success. Eddie Howe belongs to the list of managers who bring success.
We are lucky. We are blessed. We have to count our lucky stars that Eddie Howe is our manager.
Let’s not harass and chase the best manager we’ve had in years. Let’s not repeat the same mistake we made with Bobby.
#time #silent #majority #heard