The theory inside Newcastle United is that this summer of upheaval at St James’ Park will ensure the club continues on its rapid upward trajectory.
Newcastle have felt like they have been in a state of constant flux this off-season — and while some of that has been by design, the increasing uncertainty over their head coach’s future was not part of a grand plan.
Gareth Southgate’s swift resignation, just two days after England’s Euro 2024 final defeat to Spain, has prompted questions about Howe’s future because he is expected to feature towards the top of the FA’s list of possible successors.
Darren Eales — Newcastle’s CEO, who has assumed even greater control of day-to-day affairs following Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi’s exits as co-owners — said on Tuesday that the club “love” Howe and will fight to keep him but that has not settled the matter.
Newcastle feel they are in a powerful position to resist any approaches, given that Howe signed a secret “multi-year” contract extension last summer, which Eales says does not include a designated release clause. That should mean they can set their asking price at however high they feel to prevent the FA from prising away their coach.
Yet the strength of Newcastle’s hand is partly dependent upon Howe’s stance.
If Howe elects to leave, then Newcastle are unlikely to be able to hold on to “the coach we want to lead the club for the future”, regardless of the deterrence of a multi-million-pound compensation package.
Staveley, who has exited the club, was a key Howe supporter (Getty Images)
As Eales stressed, this all remains “hypothetical”, with the FA being at the start of their process and yet to formally determine who their top choice will be — never mind reach out to Newcastle about speaking to Howe.
While Howe has publicly and privately distanced himself from the England position whenever he has previously been asked about it — “I’m totally committed to Newcastle and always have been,” was his most recent response — that was an easy answer to give when Southgate was still in situ and he had not been approached.
The substance of that reply, however, is genuine.
He is someone who has one mindset and it is “all in”, which is why he relocated his wife, Vicki, and three sons, Harry, Rocky and Theo, to the North East, where they are settled and happy.
Last year, Howe admitted to “feeling like a Newcastle man” now, which felt like quite the statement for someone who arrived following a more-than-two-decade association with Bournemouth as a player and manager.
At Dean Court, Howe was thrust into the dugout as a 31-year-old rookie and, having rescued Bournemouth from relegation out of the EFL and potential liquidation while overseeing a transfer embargo, he achieved three promotions across two spells and lifted the club to the Premier League, where they survived for five seasons.
In May 2015, Howe led Bournemouth to their first-ever promotion to the top flight of English football (Steve Bardens/Getty Images)
A confessed obsessive whose friends refer to him as a “workaholic”, Howe thrives upon the day-to-day coaching which club football offers him. He feels he still has much to accomplish on Tyneside.
That is despite firmly cementing his place in the hearts of Newcastle fans, having rescued a side who were winless and 19th after 11 games during the 2021-22 campaign by not only avoiding relegation but by finishing 11th.
Then, during his first full season in charge, Howe transformed Newcastle into a high-intensity, high-pressing side who secured a fourth-placed finish. For the first time in 20 years, Newcastle were back in the Champions League, and then came that famous 4-1 thrashing of Paris Saint-Germain at St James’ Park.
Last season’s seventh-placed finish may have brought a regression in terms of league position, but that purely statistical view fails to account for the nuance of the rapid on-field progress Howe has delivered. The false impression regarding Newcastle’s perceived wealth does not match the reality on the ground; few parts of the club are truly elite yet, certainly when it comes to infrastructure and potential expenditure.
The £415million ($537.7m) post-takeover transfer outlay may have significantly aided Howe, but Newcastle’s vast improvement has primarily been driven by his coaching. Sean Longstaff, Fabian Schar, Jacob Murphy and Joelinton are just some of the players he inherited who have been transformed — and, in the latter’s case, beyond recognition.
But Howe believes he can still achieve more.
There was a first major cup final in 24 years in February 2023 and two further quarter-finals last season — yet Howe is fixated upon being the manager to finally deliver a trophy for a supporter base who last witnessed silverware being lifted in 1969.
Under Howe, Newcastle came close to ending their 54-year trophy drought (Mark Fletcher/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
He is also determined to prove that 2022-23 was not merely a one-off. Howe wants to take Newcastle back to Europe and show he can thrive in continental competition following suggestions he struggled to accommodate the demands of a more-congested fixture list.
Given Howe’s pedigree, his ability to improve players, his attractive, attacking brand of football, and his non-confrontational and controlled approach to the media, it is obvious why the FA would regard Howe as among the leading English candidates. He was among the coaches whose progress was being closely tracked during Dan Ashworth’s tenure as FA technical director and the FA have admired him for a decade.
If they do decide Howe is their choice, then an approach from the FA really would give the 46-year-old something to consider.
Howe is fiercely patriotic and he is also fiercely ambitious — and such an offer may never come again.
In May, he admitted to Gary Neville on The Overlap podcast that he “loves England” and, although he “never really thought about international football for me, personally, who knows what will happen in the future”.
That interview was conducted before the turbulent off-season events at St James’, which may perhaps lead Howe to contemplate life beyond Newcastle slightly more seriously than he would have done before.
Howe is out in Germany, at Adidas’ headquarters, planning double pre-season training sessions to ensure his Newcastle squad are ideally conditioned for the new campaign.
But he is also dealing with the fallout from the chaotic, if ultimately successful, dash to satisfy the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) by June 30, with Anthony Gordon said to have been unsettled by links to Liverpool, and several other first-team players being linked away.
Then came the departures of Staveley and Ghodoussi — Howe’s most ardent supporters among the ownership — and the subsequent restructuring of the hierarchy, which has created a new dynamic above Howe.
The arrivals of Paul Mitchell as sporting director — an appointment which Howe was not involved in — and James Bunce as performance director fundamentally reshape the footballing side of the club.
Eales says that bringing in Mitchell and Bunce is intended to aid Howe, to free the head coach “to use the strengths he’s got” and to “take away some of the things he would spend every waking hour on”.
In practice, that will suit Howe, whose great passion is coaching. But Howe has also built a power base at Newcastle, with his sphere of influence stretching across the footballing side. Andy Howe, his nephew, is the assistant head of recruitment and has been a prominent voice, alongside Steve Nickson, the head of recruitment, in transfer planning.
Mitchell’s role is “90 per cent recruitment”, says Eales, while one of Bunce’s most pressing tasks is injury prevention, given the crisis which afflicted last season.
Howe will welcome support in both areas, but there is a fine line between support and (perceived) encroachment. So, until those relationships are developed and an understanding established, there could be a certain amount of unease .
What’s more, the sporting director usually appoints the head coach. Mitchell, as with Ashworth, is inheriting a head coach — and one whose authority has been more reflective of a traditional manager.
As FA technical director, Dan Ashworth (right) played a role in the hiring of Gareth Southgate as England manager in 2016 (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Although Eales has been effusive in his public praise, Mitchell may need to offer some reassuring words in private so that Howe feels his position is secure, rather than tempt him to jump if he starts to worry that he may be pushed in the not-too-distant future.
For now, this is all theoretical. The FA has not approached Newcastle and they may never do so. But it is not in Howe’s interests to rush to distance himself.
Rather he can gauge the public and private response from his superiors at Newcastle and use those to inform him on his potential longevity under the new-look St James’ regime.
By Friday, when Howe addresses the media for the first time since May, his future, be it with Newcastle or England, should become far clearer.
(Top photo: George Wood/Getty Images)
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