One day on, and after his side had lost 2-1 to Bournemouth, their fifth defeat in the last six home league matches, he was asked whether the same was true of his players.
For seven seconds, he said nothing. He thought, he reflected, he shifted his position. Seven seconds is a long time to stay silent when the question is so significant.
“Erm, yeah, I’m hesitating because I’m speaking on behalf of other people, and that’s very difficult to do,” Howe eventually said. “Erm, I believe they do. From what I see in the training ground I don’t see any sense of poor attitude or poor commitment to their work.
“I see a group of players giving their all. I don’t see an issue with that. If I did, I would say so or I would say behind the scenes and make the following adjustments, so obviously my team selection in part represents that as well. Of course, we all need to give more. The players need to give more. I need to give more to turn the results around.”
A measured response, but the silence that preceded it spoke volumes. In previous seasons, any question over the commitment, spirit and unity of Newcastle’s players would have felt nonsensical. Intensity was their identity. They were together, they cared. They played every game like their lives depended on it.
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Not anymore. This is a broken team limping towards the end of a broken season. The only saving grace is that they have somehow stumbled onto 42 points, so the 11-point gap currently separating them from Spurs means they will almost certainly not be dragged into a relegation battle in their remaining five matches. That’s a relief because, on this evidence, they’re certainly not going to win any of them.
Have they downed tools because their season is effectively over or is the sense of lethargy and drift indicative of a much deeper malaise that will require major summer surgery to fix? Increasingly, it feels like the latter with some of Newcastle’s biggest names seemingly at the end of the road in terms of their willingness to buy in to Howe, the team and the ‘project’ that is stalling badly as hopes of European qualification disappear out of sight.
Anthony Gordon was nowhere to be seen at the weekend, injured after damaging his hip in midweek but also the subject of stories suggesting he is keen to investigate the possibility of leaving Tyneside this summer which have not been denied.
Lewis Hall was so poor in the first half against Bournemouth, allowing Rayan to run off him to set up the visitors’ opening goal, that he was hauled off at half-time. Tino Livramento was equally as bad on the opposite flank, barely putting up a fight as Marcus Tavernier beat him to the ball to convert Rayan’s cross, and was fortunate to still be on the field when he eventually succumbed to his latest injury setback in the second half. The pair are supposed to be two of the best full-backs in the Premier League. They’re not playing like it at the moment.
Then, there are the players who simply don’t look good enough to be elite Premier League performers. For all the understandable criticism of the deals that brought Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa to Tyneside last summer, the decision to spend £55m on Anthony Elanga was surely worse. The winger has produced some desperate displays since joining Newcastle from Nottingham Forest - Saturday’s, full of misplaced passes and baffling decisions, was the worst of the lot.
Jacob Ramsey underperformed, Harvey Barnes frustrated repeatedly as he failed to trouble the Bournemouth goal. Will Osula did what he does, nothing for more than an hour before bursting into life with a goal that suggests there might be a player there somewhere if only he could harness the raw ability that seems to exist. An unpolished gem? That still feels kind.
The upshot was that Newcastle suffered an eighth defeat in their last 11 league games, a desperate run that has asked extremely awkward questions of Howe, the players and the viability of everything the Magpies hierarchy publicly state they are trying to achieve.
“Of course it can be turned around,” said Howe. “It’s just winning games. It’s a very simple remedy, but very hard to deliver.” He didn’t need to hesitate to say that.