Following on from lacklustre performances, one point from a possible six against West Ham and Crystal Palace and a weekend that saw us slip into the bottom half, there have been increased calls for Newcastle to replace Eddie Howe should he not able to turn things around.
Aside from some excellent performances just before the international break against Chelsea, Arsenal and Nottingham Forest, Newcastle have looked like a shadow of the high-intensity team many in the league feared playing just 18 months ago.
And whilst some of that can be attributed to PSR struggles hindering squad development, the lack of signings in 2024 and unfortunate injury luck, many have questioned if Howe is starting to run out of ideas after Saturday saw us manage just one shot (and zero on target) against a struggling Palace side.
Much of the mainstream press disagrees, however. The Telegraph’s Luke Edwards has been one of the staunch defenders of Howe in the wake of recent results, and was not shy for words following on from Saturday’s draw at Selhurst Park.
In a message to fans on X, Edwards said: “Aston Villa last won a game on October 22nd, and I believe there is no the same level of anti manger vitriol whilst flying around social media. They drew at home to Palace too.”
In the same tweet, he continued “I know the majority of the shortsighted, negative and unhinged stuff is confined to Newcastle on here, but when you lose sight of context, you become irrational and annoying.”
”Howe deserves support, backing from the board, and time to get things right, which is what I’m told he will get so snipe away. He’s not going anywhere.”
Whilst Howe’s achievements truly cannot be understated, helping the club survive relegation in unprecedented circumstances before guiding us back to the Champions League for the first time in decades, there’s a feeling that we’ve now gone stale and must adapt to overcome this concerning start to 2024/25.
Edwards and much of the Toon-centric press are right: Howe deserves support from the fans, players and the club’s hierarchy to navigate the ongoing storm and to try and right the inconsistencies we’ve seen unfold too often this season. But it’s also not unfair to criticise when the manager gets it wrong.
Frankly, there’s very, very few available managers who you would perhaps entrust with such a task who aren’t already signed to either another Premier League club or one of Europe’s elite sides.
But the fans absolutely retain their right to criticise the current managerial regime: the fact we’ve seen a lack of plan B, very little good football and almost none of the high intensity ‘2022/2023 Newcastle’ is a concern. Howe must be expected to find solutions.
Wednesday night’s game against runaway league leaders Liverpool serves a perfect opportunity for Howe to answer his critics with another convincing performance from his side against one of the world’s top teams. But anything less than a gutsy performance that is a dramatic improvement on recent games and those noises of concern won’t go anywhere, even if Howe’s job is rightfully safe for now.