As living proof of what Jake Humphrey could have been if he was introduced to Wyscout and Jason Tindall early enough, it feels like Eddie Howe has a set of World-Class Basics he lives, breathes and coaches Newcastle by.
Among them, going by the manager’s public thoughts on the transfer window, might be “clarity”.
It is a word he has used frequently but also seemingly exclusively every August and September, stressing the need for it after both the 3-2 defeat to Liverpool and goalless draw with Aston Villa on the opening weekend.
“I think we needed that clarity. We’re delighted we can move on as a team and try and win games,” Howe said after the narrow win over Wolves. His on-pitch avatar Dan Burn added that “I’m glad it’s done” and “we wanted the transfer window to close to have a bit of clarity on it” while on international duty with England.
Even last summer, Howe noted that the closure of a “challenging” and “frustrating” transfer window in which the first team was systematically weakened to comply with PSR would bring “clarity” to “unsettled” players.
That created a “narrative” he hoped to use. “It’s my job to shape that in the most powerful way that I can,” he continued, before donning his chef’s hat and turning the chicken sh*t served up by Paul Mitchell into the chicken salad of a trophy and Champions League qualification.
It was a remarkable achievement of coaching excellence, proof were it needed that whether or not Howe is among the managerial elite is irrelevant when he remains the best possible fit for Newcastle.
This summer almost parodically reinforced the difference between their perceptions as a club and a team: a series of bruising, chastening rejections showed they are still relatively small in terms of the former, but beyond the noise, this is a side capable of routinely competing with and beating those whose shadows they inhabit.
And necessary steps are being made to bridge that off-field, boardroom chasm. Newcastle have appointed a new chief executive and technical director with Ross Wilson expected to arrive from Nottingham Forest as sporting director soon. It is a hierarchy and structure they have operated without for far too long.
With the Alexander Isak cloud shifted, it is easy to argue that Newcastle achieved what clubs should aspire to achieve in the transfer window. They came out of it in a stronger position than they entered, improving their depth and quality in every position across the squad to compete on multiple fronts.
The stuff in between was hilarious and often absurdly bush league for a business with ostensibly unlimited funds and delusions of world domination grandeur, but now they are out the other side Newcastle can laugh along with the joke rather than being the butt of it.
That, after all, is what Luke Edwards is there for.
This is ultimately Newcastle’s strength, the moment Howe can take the wider “narrative” and turn it into a “powerful” driving force. The Isak saga played out in such a way as to strengthen those existing bonds throughout the rest of the squad, the sort which perhaps no side harnesses better than Newcastle.
When an ‘angry’ unnamed player has to be ‘calmed down by a compatriot after a meeting on the subject, such was the strength of his feeling for honouring the badge, the siege mentality has already become a self-fulfilling prophecy for the manager to “shape” and take advantage of.
Beyond pushing the latent Ballon d’Or credentials of Jacob Murphy and securing clearance for Joelinton to foul everyone he sees not wearing black-and-white stripes, it’s what Howe excels at.
The Wolves game was a crucial crossroads to navigate safely. Howe called it “a massive moment in our season” and said while they “needed to win”, it was a requirement he could not relay to the players.
“When you’re managing or coaching, you can never put that demand on the team. I don’t think it really helps,” he said. “The players know, you need to work out how you’re going to do it.”
It was a typical downplaying of his role in a season-starting triumph, an identity-affirming third clean sheet in four games for the representatives of a city whose motto translates to ‘triumphing by brave defence’ – at least until someone figures out the Latin for “clarity”.
That it was almost satirically delivered by the head of the new giant cult hero centre-forward on his debut, replacing the traitor who so flagrantly betrayed the badge, only plays further into Newcastle’s invigorated hands.
Newcastle have a target, a cause worth fighting for, no more distractions and a nostalgia-heavy Champions League return at home to Barcelona. It could be worse.
READ NEXT: Actually, Newcastle United ‘absolutely buzzing’ after Alexander Isak exit