In light of an increasingly polarised and bitter Newcastle United social media fanbase, let’s start with some statements that most would agree with:
1. The Alexander Isak situation in the summer was destabilising and damaging to the club.
2. Partly as a result of the Isak departure, Newcastle’s attack is yet to function as well as it could.
3. Overall, the recruitment from the summer is yet to be a success.
4. Some key players have struggled for form this season.
5. Newcastle’s away Premier League form has been poor.
6. Performances have been inconsistent, and the team does not look as coherent tactically as it did for the majority of the preceding three seasons.
None of the above are controversial statements, whether you view things from the ‘happy clapper’ perspective, or are regarded as a ‘bed wetter’, but the tone of the debate on social media has become increasingly toxic on both sides despite the probable common ground on the above.
Who you hold responsible for the challenges of 2025/26 so far will depend on your own perspective when it comes to Newcastle United. An increasing number of vocal fans on social media appear to have concluded that Eddie Howe is the man to pin the blame on. This causes others to jump to his defence, which means the debate becomes binary, and the middle ground (where the truth most often lies) is vacated. The impact of relevant context is ignored, undervalued or over-exaggerated depending on your viewpoint.
Cards on the table – and this may be skewed by my age (40 this year) and the fact I had resigned myself to never seeing Newcastle win a trophy in my life – I retain unwavering faith and trust in Eddie Howe, and I believe this position is easily justified. But just because I think Howe remains the right man for the job does not mean I think he can do no wrong.
Howe’s in-game management, for example, has been questionable at times this season (the Dan Burn nightmare at Brentford, the West Ham debacle, and the meek surrender at Sunderland stand out). He has struggled to affect change using his substitutes, and the throwing away of leads and inability to fight back from deficits is most unlike Howe’s Newcastle of 2022 – 2025. Howe has been unable to land on a consistent system and tactical framework that gets the best out of his summer signings and mitigates the loss of Isak.
Howe’s main strength is in the coaching of his players, and for the second time in three years the team’s Premier League form has wavered when they have had a European campaign to contend with and less training time (albeit Aston Villa also experienced this during their Champions League campaign). The schedule has been relentless, but Europe is where Newcastle as a club want and need to be every season, and the manager must be able to train his players to cope with the extra demands.
Nobody on the outside knows the detail of what happened in the summer of 2025, but several of the signings have not yet made the grade. No manager has a 100% transfer hit rate (post-takeover Newcastle’s is extraordinarily high), and writing these players off completely would be premature, but Howe must extract a lot more from the likes of Jacob Ramsey, Anthony Elanga and Yoane Wissa for the summer not to go down as a profligate and wasteful use of resources. That Howe seemingly championed these expensive signings is another stick for his detractors to beat him with, although none were first choices and the difficulties with recruitment go above the manager.
Despite the above, the scale of the problems has been overexaggerated at times. Every time Newcastle don’t win a game (including against quality top five opposition) it is branded ’embarrassing’, ‘shambolic’, ‘disgraceful’ or ‘unacceptable’. Even when they do win there are fans rushing to denigrate the victory because it was ‘only’ against Burnley or Leeds.
The fact that Newcastle were top of the six-game Premier League form table even after losing to Villa is evidence that they are not alone in their troubles this season. The whole league is struggling for consistency and momentum and unlike previous seasons, there are (cliche alert) no easy games in the Premier League in this era of widespread low blocks and set piece-based percentage football.
In the current climate, Howe’s every comment is used against him. He can say something objectively and statistically true about the team playing well in patches (as they did against Villa and Liverpool) and it is met online with incredulity and disbelief. It is a boring truth that most matches are settled by fine margins, and Newcastle have ended up on the wrong side of the margins for the majority of the season, while struggling for consistency.
The patchy form has turned every game into a sort of social media based mini referendum on Howe’s ability as a manager, where the last four years are whitewashed, and the only answers are that he is dreadful and should be sacked or he is phenomenal and should have a job for life. Again, where is that middle ground? It is exhausting and frustrating to become embroiled in.
Newcastle have only the eighth highest wage bill (which is a more consistent indicator of outcomes than one off transfer window spending) in the Premier League and are sitting three points off 8th position with 42 points still to play for. Finishing outside of the top 6 would not be cause for panic stations, but it would feel disappointing after three seasons of overachievement and a couple of tastes of the Champions League. In this respect Howe is a victim of his own success, although another domestic cup semi-final and a solid Champions League campaign are feathers in his cap. Any form of European qualification would have to be regarded as an decent outcome after the way the summer went and the difficulties of the season.
The myth that Howe has no ‘plan b’ is easily debunked. You don’t achieve what he has with Newcastle by dogmatically sticking to a system that doesn’t work. He won a trophy less than 12 months ago and got a creditable draw at the European champions one week ago by employing a ‘plan b’, and just because he largely sticks to his 4-3-3 shape, it doesn’t mean that he isn’t making tweaks within it. Whether his adaptions work is another question, and they evidently don’t always, but that is impacted by the players’ execution of the tactics and time on the training pitch.
While trying to work out a way of getting the best out of Woltemade and Wissa, Howe must have concluded that it isn’t wise at this juncture to completely rip up what has brought success over three years, and what the majority of the squad are used to, to accommodate one or two players. Despite the outcry that accompanies every negative result, Newcastle have still been winning games. One of Howe’s strengths is his ability to screen out the noise and make objective decisions based on the vast amount of data he has access to, and his own experience.
Many fans don’t like this phrase, but it is a statement of fact that Newcastle are in a period of transition away from an elite striker who averaged more than 20 goals per season for three years and who the entire attack was shaped around. They were unable for various reasons to sign their first-choice replacements, so were forced into panic and had to make do with what was available in the market. This transition was forced upon the club probably 12 months sooner than they had anticipated, but the effects are still reverberating now. The Isak situation has to be a learning experience for the club because there is no doubt it derailed the season before it had even begun.
The nature of the summer of 2025 called into question the way in which Newcastle were being run at an executive level. Howe has had to contend with churn all around him and has now reported to four different Chief Executives and Directors of Football. This is critical context and is more impactful on the fortunes of the team on the pitch than some realise or care to admit. For three years Howe’s coaching turbo-charged the progress of the team despite the inconsistency of structure and strategy above him. With David Hopkinson and Ross Wilson now in place, these big picture concerns must be addressed, or it will be difficult for any manager to work effectively. Lines of delegation and decision-making sign off from PIF also have to become smoother.
There is a difference between looking backwards with hopeless nostalgia and using past events as a predictor of the future. Eddie Howe has not become a bad football manager in the space of 9 – 11 months since he led Newcastle to a trophy and Champions League qualification for the second time in three years. He has come through difficult periods before and brought success, and there is no reason why he can’t do it again in the right circumstances. Progress is not linear, and one average season in trying circumstances is not reason enough to dispense with the man who raised the profile of the club and the expectation level.
Will Howe ever be a truly elite manager? The jury is out, but right now Newcastle United are not an elite club. They are still a way behind the traditional ‘big 6’ in terms of resources and off field operations, and they behave nothing like an elite club at boardroom level. Howe is the right manager for a club of Newcastle’s current stature and resource, and would walk into another big job if he was sacked by Newcastle.
Howe has earned some patience, trust and faith, and yes, he still has ‘credit in the bank’ from his previous three years of overachievement. Credit which will last into next season at least. This season can still be a success, and then it is onto a big summer for everyone at the club to prove that they are serious about breaking through the glass ceiling and making steps to becoming ‘number one’. as per PIF’s stated (perhaps unwise) objective upon the takeover.
Eddie Howe deserves the chance to lead that charge with support from those above him. He will know as well as anybody that if progress is not made, the pressure will ramp up again, in the boardroom and the stands as well as on the internet.
HWTL!