Newcastle are languishing in 14th in the Premier League table after another disappointing performance at Crystal Palace
Newcastle United Head Coach Eddie Howe gestures from the sidelines
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Prior to Newcastle United's 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon, Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher dubbed David Hopkinson's comments over Eddie Howe's future at St James' Park 'clumsy'.
The Magpies CEO left more than a little room for interpretation when suggesting he did not have a stance on Howe's future as United's manager in a briefing with journalists a fortnight ago.
"I don't have a stance on his future," he said. "What I can tell you is that the derby loss hurt. We take it seriously. There's nothing within us that thinks, 'Well, it's just three points and on we go'. It has resonated.
"I spent a couple of hours in a one-on-one lunch recently with Eddie and we talked through a multitude of things, including that. Eddie is our manager. I expect to have a great run to the end of the season here and we will talk about the future when it's time. Right now, we're focused on this season's competition."
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Carragher has been an ardent defender of Howe this season and shares the commonly held belief that when he leaves Newcastle, he will walk straight into another top job.
That is because of the body of work Howe has built at both Bournemouth and at Newcastle United. After all, he is the manager who ended Newcastle's 70-year wait for domestic silverware and he delivered Champions League football twice in three seasons.
He is still revered at Bournemouth as the manager who transformed them from fourth tier also rans to Premier League regulars. But despite his success on the south coast, his time there ultimately ended in relegation. Howe and his staff ran out of steam and his time at the Vitality Stadium ended in disappointment after years of success. The fear is that the same pattern is now repeating at Newcastle.
Like Carragher, the majority of Newcastle fans have kept faith with Howe, recognising the quality of manager they have in the building and the unprecedented success he has achieved, two decades on since the golden days of Sir Bobby Robson.
It is undeniable that the effect he has had on the Magpies has been transformative and his team have given supporters days they could have only dreamed of in the Mike Ashley years.
Jamie Carragher
Former Liverpool and England defender Jamie Carragher(Image: Carl Recine)
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But the Liverpool legend was wrong to call Hopkinson's stance 'clumsy'. It was a sensible stance from an experienced CEO who knows how quickly the tide can turn against the head coach.
Newcastle's plan internally had been for Howe to lead their summer rebuild alongside Hopkinson and Ross Wilson, with the feeling that Howe has enough credit in the bank to be afforded the opportunity to have a summer transfer window alongside the two club chiefs.
But the trends this season are becoming impossible to ignore. Newcastle have dropped 25 points from winning positions this season. A stat Howe called 'incredible' but also did not have any answers as to why it continues to happen.
His side were flat throughout their 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace but had they held on to their 1-0 lead, it could have given them the springboard to really attack the European places between now and the end of the season.
But their late collapse was as predictable as it was disappointing. After all, it was the seventh time this season Newcastle have lost a game in which they have taken the lead. And Jean-Philippe Mateta's two goals took the amount of goals they have conceded in the last 15 minutes of matches this term up to 18.
You can come up with all sorts of hypothetical situations of how different Newcastle's season could look right now if they had cut those numbers down but the bottom line is they are not good enough, they are not improving, and it is a situation Newcastle have found themselves in far too many times this term.
Ironically, the European places still aren't mathematically out of reach. There are six points between Newcastle and sixth place and five points between themselves and the top eight. The problem is Newcastle have shown no evidence they can string a run together in their final six matches to claw back that deficit and there are a lot of teams between themselves in 14th and eighth placed Everton for them to leapfrog.
While Howe has so often had the solutions to Newcastle's problems, that is perhaps no longer the case.
"It’s uncharacteristic of us again going on past history to defend like that," was Howe's response when analysing the two goals conceded at Selhurst Park.
Tino Livramento's error was his third in as many matches that have led to a goal. Sven Botman's ridiculous foul on Jefferson Lerma was indicative of a defender who hasn't found his best level in a Newcastle shirt for over two years.
You can pick so many more examples this season of games where individual errors have cost Newcastle defensively to suggest it is very much characteristic of this Magpies team this season.
Watching Newcastle fold in South London with a back four that included Livramento, Malick Thiaw and Botman and questioning whether it would have happened had it been Kieran Trippier, 35, Fabian Schar, 34, and Dan Burn, 33, in the line-up is a big problem. Newcastle's core group of players are ageing but the players replacing them don't have the same heart, the same backbone, the same control over games.
Sven Botman of Newcastle United looks dejected after the team's defeat
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For four years, Newcastle's success was built on them being tough to beat, ferocious in their intensity and relentless in their press. The Newcastle team we saw at Selhurst Park was soft, lethargic and so far away from those ideals.
Howe said he picked a 'young, dynamic' team against Palace in the hope they would impose themselves on the game physically. The expectation was Newcastle would be better for the break and the training time. The reality was they looked worse than ever.
Those trends, those errors, those performances are why Newcastle are staring a bottom half finish in the face. Despite many mitigating factors, the excuses are wearing thin.
Howe's legacy on Tyneside is secure and the grass may not be greener on the other side should a managerial change be made. But Newcastle are a team in reverse and the manager is running out of time to prove he can change their course.
Hopkinson's stance wasn't clumsy. Howe himself said the support he has earned from ownership and supporters is not 'unconditional' and they would not 'blindly support us if we're not performing consistently'.
The United boss admitted the responsibility was on him to up his side's performance levels in the last seven games of the season. The fact they arguably got worse at Selhurst Park will be impossible for the hierarchy to ignore.