These are the only reasons why Eddie Howe should be sacked by Newcastle United | OneFootball

Eddie Howe is under extreme focus.

It obviously comes with the territory when you are Newcastle United boss.

Especially when things aren’t going so well…

However, in my opinion, these are the only reasons why Eddie Howe (or any other manager) should be sacked by Newcastle United:

The players have stopped playing (trying) for the manager

Whatever else you might want to say about Eddie Howe and his squad, I don’t accept for one minute any claims that these Newcastle United players are now doing anything other than giving it everything for the manager.

A run of poor results over a long period of time with no apparent reasons as to why that form has gone so downhill

A few observations here.

What counts as a ‘long period of time’ with results?

On 1 January 2024, that completed a 25 day stretch of eight games featuring seven defeats. However, less than a month before that on 2 December 2023, Newcastle dominated Man U and beat them 1-0 (should have been four or five) and that completed a week where Chelsea had been hammered 4-1 the previous weekend and then in the midweek NUFC cheated out of a famous win in Paris by that shocking late penalty award. I honestly think, unless you were demanding Eddie Howe should be sacked on 7 December (before the first of this eight match sequence in rapid succession and after that stellar week of performances and results), then it is pretty shallow if only 25 days later you suddenly think Eddie Howe is a disaster for NUFC after what we have experienced these past two years.

As for ‘no apparent reasons as to why that form has gone so downhill’, well, where do you start?!!! Which brings us to…

A new manager would clearly have done significantly better in the same circumstances

Eddie Howe has been faced with a near impossible situation, in my opinion.

It is incredible many of the positive results and performances he has overseen, especially that week outlined above, only a month ago! To do what they did against Chelsea, PSG and Man U was remarkable, with basically no other options and having to play the same 11 for pretty much every minute of all three games, that 11 including a 17 year old and Jamaal Lascelles who many Newcastle fans had pretty much given up on.

So many matches in such quick succession and with so few available players, plus of course in recent weeks, just how many of the even available players have been anywhere near fully fit, well, how would any other manager have done better than Eddie Howe? Unless we brought in some kind of miracle healer to get the injured suddenly fully fit!

We all know the toxic situation surely? No rotation available to Eddie Howe and no positive in-game options off the bench.

At Liverpool, there were 10 Newcastle players unavailable to Eddie Howe and by my count, nine of them for sure would have been in the matchday 20 (Manquillo the probably exception). Jurgen Klopp had the luxury of getting his front five or six players to give it everything for an hour, knowing they had five on the bench who are a very similar standard. Klopp left Elliot on the bench but brought on his other four obvious options and three of them were key to the two goals that eventually won the match. Eddie Howe had Miggy to bring on.

Who knows for sure if any new manager is going to do better than the last one.

However, what I do know is that far far less high quality managers are available during a season.

In the summer, clubs are usually accepting if a manager wants to leave, as they then have the time and best choice themselves of a replacement. During a season, which club is going to happily let their manager go, especially if he is doing a great job high up in one of the top European leagues?

We already experienced this with Unai Emery, turning Newcastle down because of his position with Villarreal at the time. He had just led them to their first ever trophy (Europa League) and was in the middle of their first ever Champions League run, a run that almost took them to the final, unlucky against Liverpool in the semis.

So basically you are looking at out of work managers, who are usually that for a very good reason. We had incredible luck that the other candidate identified by the NUFC owners after sacking Steve Bruce, was Eddie Howe. He was almost unique amongst those out of work, having resigned (not sacked) at Bournemouth and then deciding to take a year or more out of management, to travel around and spending time with managers / clubs in the UK and on the continent, expanding his experience, knowledge and skill set.

As I say, Eddie Howe was pretty unique, I struggle to name any current out of work managers who I’d put in that same bracket.

As for believing that if Eddie Howe was moved out, Newcastle United will be able to march in during mid-season and take away any top performing manager currently working at a very high level, well, good luck with that one.

High profile clubs who repeatedly sack managers mid-season, end up creating an ever bigger mess. Just look at the likes of Man Utd, Tottenham and especially Chelsea.

If you are thinking about changing managers and you believe your club will be attractive to high quality candidates, then you are almost always far better off waiting until the summer, when you are then far more able to get managers to move AND their clubs to accept that fact.