Sacking Eddie Howe – If that’s the response, you’re asking the wrong question.

A month ago, I said something similar about Eddie Howe.

That came after a 3-2 loss to Chelsea 29 days prior.

The previous game had resulted in a comfortable 3-0 victory over Wolves, but this was only a momentary respite.

Neither did the fact that Newcastle United had only lost one (and won five) of their previous eight games before the meeting at Stamford Bridge appear to count for anything.

A loud minority of Newcastle United fans currently believe that Eddie Howe is only one defeat and/or perceived poor performance away from being terminated.

Eddie Howe being sacked? If that’s the response, you’re asking the incorrect question.

Well, obviously, I lack the ‘expertise’ of people who tell Newcastle United’s Head Coach where he is ‘obviously’ getting things so wrong.

As I stated after the defeat at Chelsea four weeks ago.

The experts sitting in their bedrooms spouting out all of their knowledge of varying formations Eddie Howe should have ‘obviously’ used, well, it doesn’t matter what set-up or formation you put out, if the entire side you put out proves incapable of keeping the ball for more than two or three passes and continually gifts possession to a similarly generous and poor on the night Chelsea side, right?

Do you honestly believe that Eddie Howe’s team setup was the deciding factor in Monday night’s defeat? If you honestly do this, there is little chance for you.

The truth is, that Chelsea defeat was followed by an FA Cup loss to Manchester City. Despite everyone seeing this as a foregone outcome, the second loss in a week pushed NUFC fan criticism over the over. If only Eddie Howe would have done this instead, etc.

This was not a new development, despite the fantastic job the NUFC Head Coach has done since taking over in November 2021 and turning around an appalling catastrophe left by Steve Bruce and Mike Ashley.

A year ago (March 2023), Eddie Howe was under intense criticism from NUFC fan critics as well as unethical media and pundits.

This came after Eddie Howe had overseen three defeats in a row (0-2 Liverpool at home, 0-2 Man U at Wembley, 0-2 at Man City) and also only one win in eight Premier League matches (five draws and two defeats).

Then on 12 March 2023, Newcastle played Wolves at home and beat them 2-1, this beginning a sequence of nine PL matches where NUFC won eight of them and it effectively sealed fourth place and Champions League football.

Many of you are probably wondering why you’re bringing this up now. Eddie Howe has just overseen seven points from three games, and the overwhelming opinion among Newcastle United fans and outsiders is that with NUFC set to move into sixth place if they win against Spurs in the early Saturday kick-off, it demonstrates how well Eddie Howe has performed in the circumstances. Those conditions, of course, revolve primarily around the insane amount of players who have been absent for an extended period of time this season.

However…

The truth is that this past week has simply summed up how shallow so many people are, which I can excuse our enemies in the media for, I expect nothing else.

However, with this vocal minority of Newcastle United fans I’m not so forgiving.

Their loyalty and support to Eddie Howe and indeed his players, is so wafer thin.

To put it another way, if Harvey Barnes had not scored those two late goals against West Ham, and if Fulham had scored while dominant in the first half, we could have been looking at a week in which United only earned one point rather than three. That would have put NUFC in 12th place, just ahead of 13th-placed Bournemouth on goal difference.

The fact that Eddie Howe has had six months to deal with an unprecedented amount of absent players will not matter to his NUFC fan detractors, who are quick to turn.

It wouldn’t have mattered if these three games in a week had brought even more terrible luck in terms of player injuries and the Head Coach having to cope with a whole team (or more!) of players who were unavailable.

Eddie Howe cannot control factors such as player behavior, match officials’ judgments, and tiny margins.

I believe Eddie Howe has done an excellent job under such challenging circumstances this season, and losing to West Ham and Fulham would not have changed my mind.

Nonetheless, so many of this vociferous minority would have gone crazy if simply one point this week.

Eddie Howe has so much credit in the bank, at least for me, and we’ve seen what an incredible job he’s done.

Indeed, despite having so many lost players for a number of months, Eddie Howe still had us fifth in early December, just a few points behind the top four, until Nick Pope’s injury pushed us over the brink. At that point, we were also in the League Cup quarterfinals and one win away from the Champions League last 16.

Eddie Howe is not part of the ‘problem’; rather, he is a critical element of the solution for Newcastle United to return to the top four next season.

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