It was during a family holiday in Greece in the final week of May that Eddie Howe decided, after much contemplation, that he was ‘all in’ on the season ahead with Newcastle United.
His future in the days and weeks before was uncertain. Not because he was about to be sacked. He had been given assurances by the Saudi-led owners of their commitment to him in late April.
He, in turn, had searched for every reason to reaffirm his own commitment. He wanted to stay. He wanted to believe that all inside the club were aligned. He wanted to feel re-energised after the most draining 12 months of his managerial career. His relationship with those at the top has always been and remains good, but he also had to be on good terms with himself.
There were days when he was in. There were days when he was out. After a 2-1 home defeat by Bournemouth in April, he felt in, despite a growing expectation he could go. ‘F*** them, I want this job,’ was his resolve in the days after.
But then, following the final game of the season, a lame 2-0 defeat at Fulham, he felt out. So bad was the performance, he wondered whether this really was the end. Did the team need a new voice?
Eddie Howe has left Newcastle United after four-and-a-half years in charge
He guided the club from 19th in the Premier League to their first major domestic trophy in 70 years, as well as two seasons in the Champions League
Howe flew to Greece hours later and knew, if he was to be fair to Newcastle, that he had to make a decision while there.
Finally free of a season that began amid the stifling humidity of the Far East and the trauma of Alexander Isak’s protracted sale, and grew ever more suffocating as the team inevitably suffered and finished 12th in the Premier League, Howe was able to clear his mind.
The picture suddenly became less complicated. He loved Newcastle. His desire to get the team back on track was stronger than the doubt that this could all veer off course. His focus was on recruitment and a summer rebuild. Leaving Greece, there was optimism.
By the time he sat in the Miami Stadium and watched Bruno Guimaraes play for Brazil in the World Cup against Scotland on June 24, that renewed enthusiasm was being tested. A few days earlier, Newcastle had missed out on the signing of Spain winger Victor Munoz.
With club staff in place in Dallas to complete the player’s medical, Liverpool hijacked the deal at the 11th hour. It was a dark hour for the club. Losing their top target to replace Anthony Gordon cast an unwanted shadow over the summer in front of them, and that only lengthened when Switzerland midfielder Johan Manzambi then chose Aston Villa over the Magpies. Was it happening again?
A year on from the transfer window that will forever rank as a disasterclass in football-club ownership, when No 1 targets such as Hugo Ekitike and Joao Pedro and several others rejected moves to an organisation without a sporting director or chief executive, there was a fear that Newcastle’s reputation and processes had not recovered to the level needed to succeed. To be fair to new executive arrivals, this felt as much a legacy issue.
Bruno Guimaraes could be the next high-profile star to leave, with Arsenal ready to pounce
Newcastle have seen a host of major departures this summer, including Sandro Tonali to Tottenham for an initial £92.5m
Anthony Gordon joined Barcelona for £70m earlier in the window
In the background, Guimaraes was making moves to find a new club, as revealed by Daily Mail Sport the day after Howe had seen him play in Florida.
To lose his captain – the team’s driving force on the pitch and emotional leader off it – would have been close to unthinkable. Guimaraes will join Arsenal if they make a formal offer above the £75million mooted by intermediaries and his departure, we are told, is more likely than not.
We can also reveal that his compatriot Joelinton told Newcastle of his wish to move to Saudi Arabia in the weeks after the season closed. That offer is yet to materialise. Gordon had gone to Barcelona and Sandro Tonali was in the process of moving to Tottenham.
To Howe, each of these was a blow. The team he cherished was being dismantled, in part out of necessity because of Premier League and UEFA spending restrictions, but also because these players had doubts as to the speed, direction and delivery of the club’s ‘Vision 2030’ project, a stated ambition to be among the best in the world. Blurred Vision 2030 feels more appropriate right now.
Incoming, meanwhile, were four players of high potential – three 20-year-olds and an 18-year-old – but with a low guarantee of impacting this season. Howe supported each signing and understood the need for a shift in transfer policy.
But there was enough evidence from last season to realise that supporters, especially online, might not be so understanding if results suffered.
For all of that, transfers are not the reason Howe has decided to stand down. In fact, there is no one reason. There has been no fallout. He leaves on good terms with sporting director Ross Wilson, chief executive David Hopkinson and all others. This is not a knee-jerk reaction to any one incident.
The frontrunner to replace Howe is Al Ahli boss Matthias Jaissle, who won the Asian Champions League twice with his current club and previously managed Red Bull Salzburg
This, you suspect, has been building for the best part of two years. In that time there has been the internal coup to oust his allies Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi, the destabilising appointment of sporting director Paul Mitchell and delays to key off-field developments which have harmed the optics around the club.
This, more than anything, is a sad tale of mismanagement at ownership level. There is the mitigation of Profit and Sustainability Rules, but they do not limit care, engagement and infrastructural investment.
The owners won the lottery when appointing Howe as their first manager in November 2021, and have since proceeded to tear up the ticket. They left Howe to fight fire after fire until their head coach was burnt out.
On the eve of returning to pre-season training on July 13, the 48-year-old told Wilson that he felt the time was right for him to take a break. It was best for the squad if a new manager arrived with fresh energy and ideas.
The club disagreed and wanted Howe to lead the team this season. The timing was also far from ideal. Available managers had come and gone and, within a few days, someone had to take training. Howe agreed to stay on until his replacement was found. The players were not informed.
Kieran McKenna (second right), whose Premier League relegation with Ipswich Town was confirmed at St James’ Park last year, was spoken about as a potential Howe replacement
Meanwhile, a very small number of candidates were considered and Matthias Jaissle, of Al Ahli, agreed to take charge. Kieran McKenna was spoken about, but he is taking a career break.
Jaissle’s contract is currently with lawyers and the 38-year-old will join the squad in La Manga in the coming days. Howe would have travelled to Spain had news not broken of his impeding exit.
Now, there will be sadness. There will be fatigue. In recent days, weeks and months, a couple of analogies have been put to me to describe Howe’s predicament. One, like a boxer who should have admitted his fight was done but kept on swinging. The other, like a man pushing back against the rock that has been trying to crush him and the club. The second of those feels most pertinent but fails to capture the stones that were falling from within.
To understand why Howe has decided to stop now, we must first rewind.
An illusion. That is the word we have used for two years. The job Howe did in taking Newcastle from 19th in the Premier League, twice into the Champions League and delivering a first domestic trophy in 70 years was always at odds with reality.
The reality, rather, was that Howe, his staff and his players were over-performing (they had the eighth-highest wage bill in the Premier League last season).
Recruitment – from Isak to Guimaraes to Gordon and Kieran Trippier – was exceptional. The football operation was the head of the club, while the tail – the business operation – was lagging behind.
No new training ground. No new stadium or St James’ Park upgrade. Sponsorship and commercial deals that were improved but still not up to speed with the head-start Howe had given them. Broken promises to players. Broken relationships.
Mehrdad Ghodoussi (left) and Amanda Staveley (right) were the glue that kept the club together. Crucially, they recognised the value of Howe and stuck to him more than anyone
When I wrote in August 2024, ‘This is all starting to feel a bit Mike Ashley’, it was met with astonishment, on Tyneside and especially beyond. This came in the months after the Machiavellian plot to get rid of Staveley and Ghodoussi, led by non-football senior staff who argued that the minority owners cut across too much of their own responsibilities.
This was true, but it was also true that Staveley and Ghodoussi did a better job than those they were cutting across. They were the glue that kept the club together. Crucially, they recognised the value of Howe and stuck to him more than anyone.
Mitchell arrived within weeks and, on the part of the club, it felt like an act of vandalism. With an alarming absence of humility, he told players and staff on his first day that he was elite and they should go on a journey with him.
It left them feeling abandoned by the club at the parachuting in of this abrasive outsider. It then caused mayhem when he told some players they weren’t wanted and they believed that instruction had come from Howe, which they later discovered it had not.
The tumult led to Isak – and more – wanting to go. Howe, somehow, managed to keep his squad together, and he did that alone minus Staveley and Ghodoussi.
Forget that the couple stood on the toes of others, when the Saudis listened to the plotters, they as good as blew their own feet off. For all the good PIF had done in the first two-and-a-half years of their ownership, this was a bad error of judgment at a pivotal moment.
Howe’s exit adds to a turbulent summer and pre-season, with Newcastle losing 4-1 to Bristol City on Wednesday
Paul Mitchell (right) arrived as sporting director within weeks of Staveley and Ghodoussi’s exit and, on the part of the club, it felt like an act of vandalism
The day they went marked day one in the unravelling of the illusion. This was not really a well-run super club destined for the top. It was a magic carpet given flight by Howe, its supporters and the power of Newcastle Re-United.
Still, they had enough elevation to win the Carabao Cup in 2025 and, even last season, there was a return to the semi-final of that competition and a Champions League last 16. Today, though, that carpet is well and truly grounded. The mirage, the magic, it has all been exposed by Howe deciding he could not go on. To repeat, he did not want to feel like this.
Yes, there is the lingering impact of the pneumonia that hospitalised him in the weeks after the Carabao Cup win. He came back too soon and is still learning how best to manage his workload.
But even allowing for that, he was ready for this season when he left Greece in early June and later headed to the United States with his family. Influenced by his heart, he made his mind believe that it could work. In the end, he had to be true to himself and true to the club.
The truth is, he has made the right decision. The truth is, the club are infinitely worse off for that. The truth is, the reality of Newcastle United has long since been something of a lie.
