Newcastle United CEO David Hopkinson and CFO Simon Capper have been speaking about the club's situation and when the subject of Eddie Howe came up, it was hardly the backing the Toon head coach may have felt he deserves
Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe
Eddie Howe has done a stellar job at Newcastle United(Image: Europa Press via Getty Images)
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It has been a long time since club executives handed out votes of confidence in a manager. That was strictly old school and invited ridicule when the inevitable dismissal soon followed.
So when Newcastle United’s chief executive David Hopkinson and chief financial officer Simon Capper sat down to talk to journalists, a gushing no-strings endorsement of the job being done by Eddie Howe was probably a bit too much to expect.
“I don’t have a stance on his (Howe’s) future,” said Hopkinson. “What I can tell you is that the derby loss hurt. We take it seriously.”
And if that did not sound ominous enough, Hopkinson went on: “Eddie’s our manager. I expect to have a great run to the end of the season and we’ll talk about the future when it’s time.”
Asked to clarify his comments, Hopkinson went on about having only “so much bandwidth”, meaning he was only focusing on the remaining seven matches of the season.
Hopkinson suggested he would not frame the situation as Howe having seven games to save his job - but it sure looks that way from where most people are standing.
It is all well and good for Hopkinson to talk about focusing on these final seven games but he surely has enough, er, “bandwidth” to acknowledge the fantastic job Howe has done since arriving at St James’ Park just under four and a half years ago.
Newcastle United CEO David Hopkinson
Newcastle United CEO David Hopkinson
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This is a club that has gone from the lower reaches of the Premier League to have TWO Champions League campaigns and lift a first domestic trophy in 70 years. Howe has been the inspiration for that, he has been the driving force, he has brilliantly managed a club that is notoriously difficult to manage.
And don’t forget, he has had to navigate this season without the services of a striker who had become a talisman for the team.
“To me, (Alexander) Isak was a good sale,” said Hopkinson.
And in terms of the player wanting out and Newcastle securing a record fee, yes, Isak was a good sale - if you are a financial guy who talks about bandwidth. But ask Howe if it was a good sale?
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The exact length of Howe’s contract at Newcastle is not known for certain, although it is acknowledged to be ‘long-term’. But if he reads Hopkinson’s comments - not to mention the financial verdict delivered by Capper - he must wonder what his future holds.
The chief executive telling him he ‘expects’ a great end to the season does not have a great ring to it.
They might be in the bottom half of the table and been beaten twice by Sunderland this season, but Howe’s stock is still high. Howe doesn’t need telling that it would be nice to win a few matches between now and the end of May. It verges on the condescending.
And what then? In their extensive analysis of the club’s financial situation, Hopkinson and Capper make it clear that for significant signings to happen, significant sales will have to happen. The signs for keeping the likes of Sandro Tonali and Anthony Gordon do not look good.
Yet still Hopkinson, apparently, has a vision of the club being in the conversation as one of the best world by 2030. “I think we can get there quickly into a group that is competing for top prizes,” he said.
Well, the best manager for that challenge is Howe, without any doubt. But if Howe reads the words of his chief executive and wonders if that challenge is worth the monumental effort he puts in, then you would not blame him.
Hopkinson might not be assessing the manager’s future right now… but Eddie Howe should be.