There are no excuses, Eddie Howe must deliver at Newcastle United next season.
Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe.placeholder image
Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe. | Getty Images
Hopkinson made that statement just over a week after the Tyne-Wear derby devastation, a 2-1 defeat to Sunderland at St James’ Park that he insisted was taken ‘seriously’ and had ‘resonated’.
It was the first time Howe's future had been called into serious question by sections of the Newcastle fanbase, and Hopkinson’s response on Howe was hardly unequivocal.
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Eddie Howe fails to meet David Hopkinson expectation
"Eddie's our manager. I expect to have a great run to the end of the season here and we'll talk about the future when it's time,” Hopkinson told The Gazette. “Right now, we're focused on this season's competition.”
His reply was open to interpretation and, on initial reading, could those who thought Hopkinson had given Howe seven games to save his job be mistaken? That was never the case, but if it was, then Howe would have faced the sack.
Newcastle sat 12th in the Premier League table at the time of Hopkinson’s comments and finished… yep, 12th, having lost 17 of their 38 matches.
A two-game losing streak turned into a five-game losing streak, as Crystal Palace, Bournemouth and Arsenal piled on the misery before Howe stopped the rot with a 3-1 win at home to Brighton & Hove Albion.
A draw at Nottingham Forest and another 3-1 win, albeit over a soon-to-be relegated West Ham, promised to create some good feeling heading into the summer but the 2-0 defeat at Fulham on the final day was befitting of what has been a truly awful Premier League campaign.
One of the first big statements Hopkinson made after arriving through the St James’ Park door last September was that he sees Newcastle United competing to be among the top clubs in the world by 2030. As fanciful as that feels yes, where does a bottom-half finish fit into it?
Howe is one of Newcastle’s best-ever managers, twice qualifying for the Champions League and giving this generation of supporters their greatest day last year by lifting the League Cup at Wembley. Howe rightly built up an enormous amount of credit, but that has been spent on this season.
There was migration, of course. Newcastle operated without a sporting director and CEO last summer, and, in hindsight, got the Alexander Isak saga horribly wrong, stupidly waiting until the final day of the window to sell him. Other top targets went elsewhere too.
Eddie Howe has no excuses next season
But having said all that, Howe was afforded £250million on new signings. That shouldn’t be just a throwaway figure, it represents the biggest summer spending spree in the club’s history.
Whatever way you look at it, going from fifth & Champions League qualification to 12th & no European qualification isn’t acceptable for a club that claims to have the ambitions it has.
Newcastle chiefs’ support of Howe has rarely, if ever, wavered, but both sides know lessons must be learned in order to retain that feeling. They simply cannot afford a repeat of 25-26.
With Hopkinson as CEO and Ross Wilson as sporting director, the Magpies should have the appropriate structure to attack the summer transfer window accordingly, whether that be incomings or, just as likely, outgoings.
And then for Howe, it’ll be his team, his players and his tactics, all whilst having the training time he believes to be so important. There are zero excuses, he must deliver next season.
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