Eddie Howe has not added to his backroom staff since joining Newcastle United in November 2021.
Eddie Howe has left the door open to sensationally shake up his Newcastle United staff this summer.
Assistant managers Jason Tindall and Graeme Jones - as well as first-team coaches Stephen Purches and Simon Weatherstone - have been the bedrock of Howe’s backroom team since joining in November 2021. While Jones was inherited, the rest worked alongside the Toon boss at Bournemouth.
Howe is under pressure to improve results at St James’ Park, with Newcastle sitting 14th in the table. Some fans are already calling for the manager’s head following another capitulation at Crystal Palace last weekend.
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‘I’m open’ - Eddie Howe
A potential middle ground would be for Howe to welcome a fresh face to his coaching team. Long-serving, successful managers like Sir Alex Ferguson and Pep Guardiola famously introduced new voices to keep the dressing room engaged.
“I'm open to anything that makes us better,” Howe told reporters. “I've certainly not got a fixed mindset or a closed mindset in terms of growth and improvement. Certainly if you think everyone agrees with me, you haven't existed in our room! There's healthy debate, there's healthy conflict.
“I think you need that. I embrace that and I want that from my staff. I don't want people just to nod their heads and agree with what I say. We've got a staff and a dynamic that's been hugely successful for me and for us over a long period of time and that's why I say you've got to be very careful in my position that you don't throw out good things and good ideas off the back of a few results and a back of an overreaction to a shorter-term problem.
“So I think those decisions are best made in the summer and every summer I'll sit there and go right what do we need to do to get to the next level and how can we change things. So I think change can sometimes be a really good thing as well. So yeah, I'm very open to anything.”
Eddie Howe issues passionate defence
Howe also strongly backed himself as the right man to take Newcastle forward. He added: “In terms of my fire, my fire is burning very, very strongly. There’s no guarantee obviously, from my side, what's going to happen in the future because, as I've said, the forces that move in football clubs move quickly.
“But my fire is there. There's loads of wood stacked up and I'm ready to put it on it. I just want to serve the club. I just want to do what's right for the football club and that's always been my aim. If that's me leaving to help the club then of course that's something I'll do.
“I've got no issue doing that. It's not about me. But if I believe I'm the right person to take the club forward, which I do currently right now, then I'll do that and I'll fight to the end. I'll fight harder than I've ever fought before. But it's making sure that those two things are aligned.”
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