That trophy carries a lot of weight for Eddie Howe and Newcastle United fans

A bit of perspective is needed when looking at Newcastle United and Eddie Howe in our current situation.

The focus now, probably more than at any other time since he arrived, is on the NUFC Head Coach.

I find the criticism quite astonishing sometimes.

Short-sighted, reactionary, completely out of sight of the bigger picture, but above all downright astonishing.

This isn’t going to be an outright defense of Eddie Howe, he’s big enough to do that himself and I don’t think the percentage of negative reactions from fans at the manager’s door is the majority, far from it, but ask yourself this. During our wilderness years, those years where, under the previous regime of total lack of ambition and self-imposed limitation of our club as any form of competitiveness, could you ever foresee a situation where a trophy-winning manager of Newcastle United would still not be in post eighteen months or less after such a feat had been achieved? Unfathomable.

That League Cup win just nine months ago now weighs heavily on Eddie Howe’s shoulders and I wonder if a fan who thinks changing the manager is the way forward would feel differently if he were transported back before the takeover?

I bet the same fan’s mentality would be: just give us the trophy and we can finish mid-table, just make sure we get the trophy.

Add in TWO Champions League campaigns and everything that fame brings, and it puts into perspective what such a knee-jerk reaction of ‘Let’s change the manager’ looks like. Like I said, amazingly shortsighted.

If you had told me five years ago that we would qualify for the Champions League twice in the next ten years, I would have laughed in your face. Reach two cup finals? Very unlikely. All we managed to achieve previously was Europa League qualification for fifth place, and when we got that the owner panicked.

When we finished seventh in 2023/24 after our first Champions League game in 20 years, I can’t remember any outrage, despite not having Europe the following season. Mind you, we hadn’t won that trophy yet. Strange that. Like I said, that trophy carries a lot of weight.

Now I would fail in myself to say that things are all clever. That’s not the case and they haven’t looked good all season. But there are valid reasons for this and they cover many areas within the club.

Injuries

The more injuries you sustain, the less likely you are to get in good shape. As it stands, we’ve eliminated Tino Livramento, Kieran Trippier, Joelinton, Dan Burn, Sven Botman, Emil Krafth, Jamaal Lascelles, and Will Osula. We also have Lewis Hall and Yoane Wissa who are only just getting up to speed after weeks and months away respectively.

Go back to November in the 2023/24 season and at one point we were missing our two main strikers, two full-backs, two centre-backs, three central midfielders and two wingers.

That season we reached the quarter-finals of BOTH domestic cups and played the Champions League. Yet the situation was quite rightly accepted by the fans as a reason why we may not be doing as well as the previous season. The season before we had lost the League Cup final. The following season (last season) we won the League Cup final. Yet here we are.

Form

We’re in 14th place, which never looks great, but still only six points away from fifth. But we are ten above West Ham in the relegation zone, just four places below us. It’s a strange table this year.

Our last six games read WDWLDL and if you look at almost every team in the league outside the top four and bottom three it is a familiar form for all of them and it is this that Eddie Howe must turn around if a meaningful finish in the top half is to be achieved. Two wins in a row can get us going and that’s the hardest part.

In terms of form, individual players have to look at themselves. Anthony Gordon has been completely inconsistent, Jacob Ramsey hasn’t filled the absence of Joelinton (who wasn’t the old Joelinton before his injury anyway) and Anthony Elanga has been a total disappointment. The three midfielders who are called the ‘best three in the league’ have not shown it together for a long time.

My midseason picks for the most consistent performers are Jacob Murphy and Malick Thiaw.

Eddie Howe

Since he took over, we have been through several final stages of the cups, including two finals. Two Champions League qualifications (and one season where we finished above a team that entered Europe despite finishing worse off below us by 24 goals).

That said, some of his decisions are baffling at times. The notable one recently was Anthony Elanga starting ahead of Jacob Murphy in the derby defeat. Then again, in my defense, that day I saw two players run balls to the byline and let them wander out of play for goal kicks. I also saw our striker score a world-class header from the wrong side, and you can hardly blame the manager for that.

Late goals

It’s been a problem for a season. Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham at home, Brighton and Bayer Leverkusen away. Away at Brentford and West Ham we were in the hunt for both games, but were allowed in late.

The recent match against Chelsea was a telling moment for me. We did a fantastic job winning 2-0 against a good team, but I still said to someone at the time; “We need a third to win this.”

Now that shouldn’t be the case. If you sit back and try to see EVERY game at 2-0, you risk it, 3-0, fair enough. I don’t know what goes through management’s and/or players’ heads during the matches, but something has to change.

Another thing I struggle with is the lack of adaptability in our formation. It seems the 4-3-3 tactic is Plan A and if Plan A doesn’t work, switch to . . Plan A with other staff. THAT has to change.

I’ve long been a proponent of 5-3-2 or 5-3-1-1, depending on how you look at it. We have excellent full-backs (when fit) and our wingers often fail. We now have Yoane Wissa fit, while Nick Woltemade ideally plays behind a striker anyway. The only problem we have is that we currently don’t have the center back or wing back numbers until the players come back from injury.

So back to the point in hand: where does that leave Eddie Howe?

I have been critical of team selections and replacements of every manager we have had in my lifetime, such is the joy of an armchair manager, sitting in the ground or watching on TV etc, and Howe is not immune to such opinions. But that’s really where my criticism ends.

This season was not disrupted from day one. It went off the rails well before a ball was kicked and it had little or nothing to do with Eddie Howe.

Athletic Directors and Summer Recruitment

Firstly, we have had multiple athletic directors in recent years and our summer recruitment has not been up to par. Howe himself had to cut his summer vacation short to come back and help resolve the situation. That is not his job, his fault or his responsibility. Hopefully there is some stability going forward, where there was little to see last summer.

Secondly, Eddie Howe did NOT advise/approve Alexander Isak to go on strike to force a departure from the club. This in turn caused panic in putting forward plans for a transfer window and gave other clubs the best negotiating position at our expense, both financially and in terms of planning.

What followed was Brentford holding on to top dollar for Wissa. This led to a situation where we did not have a recognized striker until the fourth game of the season and three games were lost, including one defeat and two nil-nil draws.

Thirdly, the direct replacement of Alexander Isak and his agent, who got us into such a mess, only played his first game for us after more than twenty games into the season. Yoane Wissa was injured for DR Congo shortly after his transfer, leaving us with Nick Woltemade (the indirect replacement for Callum Wilson) as the main striker. . and he is not one.

Luckily, Nick did a remarkably good job (derby discretion aside). We can only hope that both Woltemade and Wissa will share the load for the rest of the season and turn things around. I’m sure Howe will pin his hopes on this too.

The recovery must start tonight at Burnley.

Happy New Year to all Newcastle United fans on Thursday and here’s to a great 2026 for Newcastle United.