Among certain sections of the Newcastle fanbase, the debate about Eddie Howe’s future rages on. After defeat in the Tyne-Wear derby there are some who believe Howe should not be invited to continue beyond this season.
It’s a ridiculous notion. Howe is the best thing that has happened to Newcastle for years and those who can’t see that may want to be very careful what they wish for. Howe has made Newcastle credible again.
Indeed, it’s perhaps more appropriate to view the debate from the opposite side. Instead of asking whether Howe has done all he can for Newcastle, we should probably be talking about whether the club has anything more to offer one of the most talented managers in Europe.
Howe has already taken Newcastle into the Champions League twice and won them their first trophy – last season’s Carabao Cup – in more than half a century. He has developed a team that plays attractive football and has improved individual players such as Lewis Hall, Sandro Tonali, Anthony Gordon and others.
But as long as the Premier League’s financial rules stay in place and the longer the Newcastle owners take their time over building a new stadium, the longer a state of inertia threatens to settle over St James’ Park. And clubs that stand still effectively go backwards.
Only an increase in revenue streams can propel Newcastle forward now and that only comes via a new stadium. Can Howe – 48 and coming towards the end of his fifth season in the north-east – really afford to stick around and wait for that?
Eddie Howe is the best thing that has happened to Newcastle for years and it is appropriate to ask whether the club has anything more to offer one of Europe’s most talented managers
Yesterday’s derby defeat suggested the rest of the season could get worse from here, with Newcastle looking fatigued after a hard run of games that the squad is not built to cope with
Yesterday’s derby defeat looked and felt portentous for the way the rest of the season may yet play out. It could get worse from here.
Equally, it hinted at the fatigue that tends to come at the end of a hard run of games – Manchester United, Manchester City, Barcelona, Chelsea, Barcelona, Sunderland – when you don’t quite have the squad depth to cope.
You only had to look at the way Hall – such a progressive presence for Newcastle at left-back this season – failed to track his runner as Sunderland won the game in the 90th minute to understand all of that.
Not until Newcastle can offer regular Champions League football and the kind of wages paid by clubs in Manchester and London will Howe ever be able to take the club to where it wishes to go.
Maybe it’s time for him to consider life elsewhere before patience on Tyneside runs out and he gets spat out anyway?
If I was conducting a managerial search at Manchester United – where I remain unconvinced that Michael Carrick is the answer – Howe would be high on a list that should also feature Unai Emery of Aston Villa.
United had an almighty fight getting sporting director Dan Ashworth out of Newcastle so any interest in Howe could soon get ugly.
That’s no reason not to try, though.
PEP’S LESSON FOR THE REST
If the Carabao Cup did an awful lot for Newcastle last season then the same can be said for Manchester City as Pep Guardiola lifted it for the fifth time at Wembley yesterday.
Indeed Guardiola’s touchline dash (shame he was booked) after his team opened the scoring was one of the images of the season.
And that’s the thing about Guardiola. He has always understood and valued the concept of just winning.
That may sound strange but so many modern managers don’t. They don’t understand the impact big victories can have on a season or the way they can fuel and motivate players to go on and win other games in competitions that arguably matter more.
Yes, it’s easier for a coach with a squad as deep as City’s to attack a season on four fronts. But not all of the big clubs do it.
Guardiola always has and when he does eventually leave the EFL will arguably owe him a debt of thanks. He has done more than any other elite coach to help keep their fabulous competition relevant.
Pep Guardiola has always understood and valued the concept of just winning, which is a lesson other coaches can learn from
KEPA’S BIG MISTAKE WAS NOT YESTERDAY’S
Kepa Arizzabalaga’s mistake was to choose Arsenal after his loan year at Bournemouth came to an end.
The 30-year-old has some unfortunate history with the League Cup but that doesn’t make him a bad goalkeeper.
Being a ‘cup goalkeeper’ comes with huge risks attached, not just for a team but for the individual.
How can a specialist be expected to perform to a high level after so many weekends sitting with the substitutes?
Despite his clanger at Wembley, Kepa is too good a goalkeeper to be understudy to David Raya.
He should now follow the example of his opposite number, James Trafford, yesterday and look to get out of the club and find a number one spot as soon as possible.
Kepa Arizzabalaga’s clanger at Wembley was costly for Arsenal, but the goalkeeper’s biggest mistake was deciding to become an understudy in the first place after leaving Bournemouth
WRIGHT ALWAYS RIGHT
Trafford’s triple save – once from Kai Havertz and twice from Bukayo Saka – was one of the pivotal moments of a final that Manchester City thoroughly deserved to win. It was hard not to feel pleased for a keeper who feels he was brought to the club under confusing – if not false – pretences.
At half-time on Sky, meanwhile, Ian Wright’s analysis of Kai Havertz’s failure to take the chance was informative and enlightening.
We miss Wright as a pundit on Match of the Day. He remains one of the best the industry has to offer.
SAVE OF THE SEASON?
David Moyes’ rational reaction to Jordan Pickford’s mistake against Arsenal nine days ago was admirable.
‘He has saved us many more points than he has lost us this season,’ said the Everton manager.
That was the calm voice of experience talking and he didn’t have to wait long for further evidence as Pickford produced one of the saves of the season to deny Enzo Fernandes with Everton 1-0 up at home to Chelsea.
Much was made of Pickford’s late stop to deny Sandro Tonali at Newcastle recently but this one was even better.
As Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez contributed to two Everton goals at the Hill-Dickinson – he was desperately slow to close down scorer Beto for the first one – the importance of a top class number one is enduringly clear.
It’s remarkable that Chelsea still haven’t got themselves one.
Jordan Pickford produced one of the saves of the season at the weekend to deny Enzo Fernandes with Everton 1-0 up at home to Chelsea
Robert Sanchez contributed to two Everton goals on Saturday and it remains remarkable that Chelsea still have not got a top class number one
WHO CARES ABOUT BEING WORLD CHAMPIONS NOW?
Much was made by Chelsea of their Club World Cup success last summer and that’s understandable. If you spend a month in America trying to win a competition as gruelling as that one then you may as well celebrate it.
But the rest of us saw it for what it was – largely irrelevant. How, for example, can you have a Club World Cup without the champions of England and Spain – Liverpool and Barcelona – in it?
Anyway, some of English footballer’s smarter thinkers – including England coach Thomas Tuchel – saw problems ahead in the domestic season given that the Chelsea squad hardly got a break last summer and who is to say this isn’t now coming to pass?
Chelsea look like they are wading through treacle at the moment and have just suffered two significant injuries to Reece James and Trevoh Chalobah.
James in particular was always likely to be at risk, given his history with hamstring injuries. His latest one is the tenth of his career.
Chelsea may be World Champions but they are also close to becoming the third best team in London. Brentford are just two points behind.
Chelsea may be world champions, but last summer’s tournament now looks to be having an impact with their team now looking like its running through treacle
NO EXCUSE FOR BOEHLY
Chelsea’s team at Everton – and indeed the five substitutes that were used – comprised entirely players bought under the ownership of Clearlake Capital, who bought the club in May 2022.
As the London club continue to stagger through the latter stages of the Premier League campaign, they are already on Clearlake’s fifth permanent manager.
Suffice to say it’s proving to be a rather long learning curve for Todd Boehly and friends.
WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO CONOR GALLAGHER?
One Chelsea academy graduate who is long gone is Conor Gallagher, now playing his football across London at Tottenham.
The former England midfielder was recruited from Atletico Madrid in January to bring some experience and calm to the Spurs midfield but the move has done nothing for either club or player so far.
Gallagher hasn’t started for Spurs caretaker Igor Tudor since his second game – a chaotic defeat at Fulham – and with good reason. Tottenham have taken just two points from the nine Premier League games in which he has featured.
Gallagher built a reputation at Chelsea and then at Crystal Palace as a combative and energetic midfielder and this brought him 22 England caps. Indeed during the 2024 Euros in Germany, he was briefly considered to be the answer to his country’s problems in the centre of the field.
Currently, though, Gallagher looks as though he is struggling to get round the pitch at all. It’s strange.
Conor Gallagher was signed to add experience and calm to the Tottenham midfield, but the move has done nothing for either the player or club to date
TUDOR SHOULD HAVE GONE BEFORE LIVERPOOL
I said here last week that Tottenham should have sacked Tudor before the Liverpool game and nothing I have seen since has persuaded me I was wrong.
The Croatian continues to look like a coach throwing darts in the dark and his record of one point from five Premier League games is threatening to take Spurs into the Championship.
Even before that point at Anfield eight days ago, the Spurs hierarchy had identified the home game against Nottingham Forest as the one that really mattered.
Now that it has gone so badly, it’s surely time to roll the dice one last time and give the job to someone from within the club’s age group coaching structure.
That was briefly the plan before Tudor was given the role on the advice of former managing director Fabio Paratici.
Tottenham must part ways with Igor Tudor and roll the dice one more time in the hope of avoiding relegation to the Championship
FODEN EXPERIMENT IS NEEDLESS
Phil Foden is clinging on to his England place simply because Tuchel believes he can also play as a back-up striker to Harry Kane. Indeed the England coach intends to use the Manchester City player as a ‘ten’ ahead of Friday’s game against Uruguay and a ‘nine’ for the match against Japan that follows.
It’s a strange one, given Foden has hardly – if ever – played through the middle for City and even stranger given that the perfect utility player is currently emerging at Newcastle.
Anthony Gordon – a winger by trade – has been playing as a striker for Eddie Howe as the Newcastle boss tries to plug a hole left by the ineffectual Nick Woltemade and the Liverpudlian’s goal against Sunderland yesterday was his third in successive games.
Foden’s form has once again fallen off a cliff for City. He got just a couple of minutes at the end of the Carabao Cup Final yesterday.
But if he is going to go the World Cup this summer, it should be as a playmaker. He isn’t – and never has been – a number nine.
Phil Foden is clinging onto his England place with his form having gone off a cliff, but if he is to go to the World Cup it must be as a playmaker
WELBECK SPEAKS FOR ALL OF US
It seems Danny Welbeck’s hopes of making Tuchel’s squad are over after the Premier League’s leading English goalscorer was overlooked in favour of Dominic Solanke and Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
His two goals were enough to down hopeless Liverpool on Saturday and he became the first player to admit he no longer celebrates until he is sure VAR are not going to overturn it.
‘I have got PTSD after celebrating wildly against Fulham and then being offside by my elbow,’ Welbeck told Match of the Day.
‘It’s difficult because you want to celebrate but you feel you can’t. It’s taken the joy out of the game.’
And so English football’s dystopian relationship with VAR goes on.
Danny Welbeck admitted he initially did not celebrate his second goal against Liverpool due to his fear it would be ruled out by VAR
GOING BACKWARDS TO GO FORWARDS
Liverpool began the game at the Amex with Dominik Szoboszlai deliberately sending the ball out of play deep in Brighton territory, prompting a recollection from talkSPORT analyst Stuart Pearce.
‘I remember Graham Taylor asking us to do that for England against Turkey in about 1993,’ Pearce laughed.
‘It seemed strange even then. But it shows that everything in football comes back round again eventually.’
