The Mag
·16. Dezember 2024
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·16. Dezember 2024
I still can’t get my head around the fact that a vocal minority of Newcastle United fans thought it would be a good idea to sack Eddie Howe.
No, I’m not saying everything is perfect just because United hammered Leicester 4-2.
Just as I didn’t think it was the end of the world when Eddie Howe watched on as his players put in a dismal second half to lose 4-2 at Brentford.
I find it a bit depressing as well, that for some of these Newcastle United fans who are seemingly intent on wanting to see Eddie Howe leave, their first reaction to the 4-0 over Leicester, wasn’t just to enjoy that result and praise all involved in making it happen. Instead, I saw a fair few fans going down the route of ‘This will be meaningless unless Newcastle now beat Brentford, Ipswich… etc etc’
Of course every match and result matters and winning (or losing…) one game only counts for so much. However, these past 37 months we have seen Eddie Howe time and time again find the answers when Newcastle hit a spell of indifferent form, so why be determined as Newcastle United fans to dig such a deep hole of negativity that you seemingly find yourself unable to climb out of?
There is no balance and of course the media thrive on negativity from a number of Newcastle United fans.
Ahead of the Leicester match, I read/heard journalists and pundits stating how Eddie Howe was desperate to get a win after such poor recent form.
That Leicester match coming only ten days after Newcastle’s best performance of the season, when they more than matched Liverpool.
No manager should be immune from criticism of course, they all live or die by results, eventually.
Just look at Pep Guardiola for example, despite so many trophies won, even he can find that six weeks or so can see a very different scenario.
Results for Pep Guardiola and Man City in all competitions from 30 October 2024 onwards, now show:
Played 11 Won 1 Drawn 2 Lost 8
Results for Eddie Howe and Newcastle United in all competitions from 30 October 2024 onwards, now show:
Played 8 Won 4 Drawn 2 Lost 2
Not exactly a nightmare set of results, not to me anyway, especially when they include wins over Chelsea, Arsenal and form team Forest (away), plus that thrashing of Leicester, also of course the excellent 3-3 with Liverpool.
Indeed, whilst Pep Guardiola and Man City have lost eight times in the last six weeks, Eddie Howe and Newcastle United have lost seven in the last nine months.
These past nine months show (in all domestic competitions) Newcastle United form of:
Played 29 Won 15 Drawn 7 Lost 7
A lot of the Eddie Howe critics will point to say somebody like Unai Emery and I agree he is a very good manager.
However, in domestic competitions from 30 October 2024 onwards, Unai Emery and Aston Villa:
Played 8 Won 2 Drawn 1 Lost 5
A lot of the Eddie Howe critics will also point to say somebody like Fabian Hurzeler and I agree he looks a very good manager in the making.
However, in domestic competitions from 30 October 2024 onwards, Fabian Hurzeler and Brighton:
Played 8 Won 2 Drawn 2 Lost 4
The idea that it would be great idea to sack Eddie Howe and a new manager would automatically produce better results, is laughable.
Plus of course, it wouldn’t be an Emery or Hurzeler that Newcastle United would be picking up as a Howe replacement in mid-season.
Both Brighton and Aston Villa spent serious amounts of money this past summer, whilst Eddie Howe hasn’t been able to bring in any new first team contenders since summer 2023 and indeed due to PSR, had to sell two of his best young players this summer, one of them to Brighton.
It has been a very up and down season for pretty much every club, with the exception of Liverpool.
Now in mid-December, Newcastle United are currently five points off the top four in the Premier League and have a home cup quarter-final on Wednesday night.
I know it might seem like a bit of an old-fashioned idea to some who react so dramatically to any poor result or performance, but I can’t see anything beyond getting right behind Eddie Howe and this group of Newcastle United players, then seeing what potentially we could all collectively achieve by the end of this 2024/25 season.