Does the name Jean Francois Gravelet mean anything to you? How about his showbiz persona, Charles Blondin?
He was a worldwide sensation, the most renowned funambulist (high-wire walker) of the 19th century. His nerveless stroll along a 1,100ft tightrope suspended 160ft above Niagara Falls, aided by a balancing pole, was the stuff of legend.
Not content with that singular achievement on June 30, 1859, he repeated the feat, each time adding a degree of difficulty: walking blindfolded, or on stilts, or cooking an omelette halfway across. The rope was barely three inches in diameter.
Blondin was the sort of character who figured in a 1960s school curriculum filled with heroes and villains. He is not to be confused with Blondel, a wandering minstrel who allegedly discovered Richard the Lionheart imprisoned in an Austrian castle.
In my youth education was far more black-and-white. Some of it was gained in the middle of a packed Leazes End, watching my own heroes, such as Irving Nattrass, Alan Kennedy, Jimmy Smith and Supermac.
All of which brings me to Eddie Howe, a current hero whose high-wire act involves coping with the sometimes conflicting demands of about two dozen merry men on Tyneside while trying to overcome multiple handicaps.
Management is rarely straightforward. In Britain, employees tend to be promoted if they are good at their job, in the often erroneous expectation that they will be equally effective as a supervisor or manager or director or whatever. If only it were that simple.
Sometimes it works. Howe became the youngest chief coach in the Football League, aged 31, when Bournemouth appointed him. His temporary role was confirmed on New Year’s Day, 2009. He took them from the foot of the fourth tier (they started the 2008/09 season in administration on minus 17 points) to promotion within 18 months. After two years at Burnley, he returned to Dean Court and oversaw the Cherries’ rise to the Premier League.
That second spell brought many highlights, though ultimately it ended after Bournemouth lost their place at the top table in 2020.
Newcastle United were sensible enough to hire him in November 2021, paying no heed to a superficially correct but utterly absurd statement from his predecessor, who allegedly called Howe “that bloke who got Bournemouth relegated”.
From the outside looking in, you might think his current job is easier than his first, when he had to defy the odds in preserving a club’s status in the Football League. Bournemouth were deep in the clarts, struggling financially as well as on the pitch. His achievements in Dorset cannot be overstated.
Eighteen years on from that debut in management, having taken charge of 761 competitive matches, he is on the brink of a Round of 16 tie in the Champions League.
“Unbelievable, Jeff,” as Chris Kamara would say.
For several reasons, I believe this is Howe’s toughest gig so far, notwithstanding his task at Bournemouth. He has already ticked plenty of boxes: saving Newcastle from relegation; qualifying twice in three full seasons for the Champions League; reaching a first Wembley Cup final since the previous millennium, then repeating the trick two years later and defeating the mighty Liverpool on the big day.
Those achievements are remarkable when you consider the spending restrictions under which the Mags operate. The budgets of those six clubs who wanted to form a European Super League in 2021 are far higher. The transfer fees they pay less wealthy rivals are far higher. The renumeration packages they offer ambitious players are far higher. Their squads are on paper deeper than Newcastle’s, with more understudies ready and waiting in the wings to step up if needed.
Eddie Howe has met those challenges head-on. He is, in my opinion, massively in credit after four years, three months at the helm. Last summer, his top goalscorer went on strike, disrupting preparations for the current season and distracting from the bigger picture: how to compete on four fronts, including a recently expanded Champions League qualifying phase.
New faces arrived while a few familiar ones departed, notably Sean Longstaff and Callum Wilson. This is where the gaffer’s funambulist skills are tested to the limit. He has to walk a tightrope and carry everyone with him.
Blondin’s Niagara Falls repertoire included one crossing with his manager riding piggyback. That seems a doddle compared with Howe’s task of ensuring nobody falls by the wayside, especially when you consider the success of 2024/25 was built on a supreme team spirit.
Cynics say a good team spirit is easy to generate when you’re winning. Not so straightforward to persuade players to run through the proverbial brick wall if defeat follows defeat. Neither is it easy to maintain if the line-up changes every four days.
Some of those who lifted the League Cup 11 months ago have had to accept they are no longer a shoo-in for a starting berth. Some of those on whom Newcastle United splashed the cash in the summer transfer window are fighting to displace the established aces. Of the 2025 recruits, only Malick Thiaw has consistently made the cut. If Fabian Schar, Sven Botman and Dan Burn had not missed a lot of games because of injury, would our German centre-back have flourished this early in his Toon career?
More than one teenager is desperate to show his potential on the big stage. Lewis Miley, having made his Premier League debut on the final day of the 2022/23 campaign, is on “only” 39 competitive starts nearly three years later. Sean Neave came off the bench in Baku last week for his first senior appearance. He will turn 19 in May and clearly wants to prove his mettle in front of goal. Leo Shahar, a highly regarded defender, is two months older than Neave. Perhaps he will make his first bow tonight.
Howe does his best to keep everyone involved but there will inevitably be setbacks. Two of the most promising young talents, Elliot Anderson and Yankubah Minteh, were sold to balance the books on July 1, 2024.
You could say their belated replacements were Jacob Ramsey and Anthony Elanga. Neither has yet made as big an impact as Thiaw and plenty of fans have been quick to judge them. Too quick, in my book.
There is little time to integrate them on the training pitch when United usually face two games a week and sometimes three in seven days. Everyone knows Howe likes his team to play in a particular way. We are not Villa and we are not Forest.
To expect Ramsey and Elanga to be at their best after the stops and starts of their first season on Tyneside is unrealistic.
Just ask Jacob Murphy, who was 29 at the beginning of his stellar 2024/25 season. He will turn 31 today and, having taken a while to hit the heights, now finds his place under threat from Elanga.
The former Manchester United and Forest winger is one of the fastest players I have seen in a Newcastle strip. His top speed of 36.65km/h is behind only Anthony Gordon’s 37.92 among those still competing in this season’s Champions League.
Blinding pace is, of course, by no means the most important measure of a footballer. To be successful he must read the game, play the pass, choose the right option at the right time. This is where Elanga has so far failed to deliver, attracting a lot of unfavourable comments from our fans.
He has one assist this season in the Premier League after 10 starts and 13 substitute appearances. One goal in the League Cup. Elanga made his league debut in May 2021, aged 19, and now has 14 goals from 87 starts and 49 sub appearances.
In his first season at St James’ Park, Murphy made 25 Premier League appearances and scored one goal. The statistics for their debut seasons on Tyneside are not dissimilar.
Murphy cost £12m in July 2017 and after 18 months with Newcastle spent the next season and a half on loan, first with West Brom, then with Sheffield Wednesday. His top-flight career seemed to have stalled.
Elanga cost £55m in July last year. Compared with Murphy, he has far more Premier League experience at the same age, 23. Any suggestion that he should be sent on loan to a lower-league club would be ridiculed.
The manager is walking a tightrope here. If Elanga is given a long run of starts, something I believe he needs as a confidence boost, the pressure is on to deliver. If he continues to be picked one week and be back on the bench the next, the prospect of gelling with his teammates will suffer.
All the while, United are fighting on three fronts. Two more wins in the FA Cup will mean a return to Wembley for the semi-finals. We are, presumably, only one successful tie away from the quarter-finals of the Uefa Champions League.
With 11 matches remaining in the Premier League, we are in dire need of victories to overtake the teams immediately above us.
Eddie Howe is not only walking a tightrope; he is expected to juggle a few hot potatoes at the same time.