· 29 May 2025, 10:00
**Newcastle United and Paul Mitchell are set to part ways next month after less than a year. The news dropped on Tuesday, less than 48 hours after the curtain came down on the Premier League season.**
The news was sudden and a shock, but for some, the only shock was the timing. Craig Hope of The Daily Mail felt that the writing had been on the wall for a while.
In his [Newcastle Confidential column](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-14757431/Newcastle-Paul-Mitchell-Eddie-Howe.html), Hope explains how Mitchell rubbed people up the wrong way pretty much from day one.
His comments about the previous transfer model not being fit for purpose certainly did him no favours. He may have been right in what he was saying, but the way he said it did little to endear him to fans or those within the corridors of power at St James' Park.
Feels like the first and last time Eddie Howe and Paul Mitchell were pictured together
Players felt from Paul Mitchell's initial meetings that he had it out for Eddie Howe
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Perhaps his biggest issue was that the players felt like Mitchell wanted rid of Eddie Howe to bring in his own man, believed to be Mauricio Pochettino.
Howe and Mitchell had a fractured relationship from day one, with rumours of a tense relationship being reported daily after Mitchell's arrival.
Later, the reports would downplay the tensions, and we were led to believe the pair had settled their differences. Clearly, we were being fed a line to keep the peace.
Eddie Howe has proved he is the right man for the job
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Now that Eddie Howe has delivered a trophy and Champions League football, proving to everyone that he's the right man for the job, combined with the fact that Mitchell's biggest ally at the club, Darren Eales is stepping away soon, it seems Mitchell could see that his time at the club was coming to an end one way or another.
As someone on X said the other day, "Eddie Howe could sack Mohamed Bin Salman if he wanted to". If you come for the King, you'd better kill the King.
Howe is the main man at Newcastle; the club practically revolves around him, and if the staff can't work around that, they're going to find it hard to keep their jobs. Just as Dan Ashworth and Paul Mitchell.