“Newcastle United’s ownership continue to support Eddie Howe despite the club’s struggles this season with all parties intending to evaluate the managerial situation this summer.
Howe won the club’s first major trophy since 1969 with victory in the 2025 Carabao Cup but Newcastle are 14th in the Premier League table and have won just three of their past 11 league games.
A review and any contingency work around the issue is considered by those involved to be standard procedure in such circumstances, although there have been no serious conversations yet about a change of head coach.
Howe commands a great deal of respect among the Newcastle hierarchy and is expected to be part of the evaluation process.
The 48-year-old Englishman was appointed Newcastle head coach in 2021 after a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund completed its takeover of the club.
He signed new contracts in 2022 and 2023, but questions have been raised over his long-term future due to the team’s performance this season.
On Sunday, Newcastle conceded two late goals as they were beaten 2-1 by Crystal Palace. Howe’s side are 10 points off the Premier League’s final Champions League place and five points outside a Conference League spot heading into their final six matches.
Newcastle CEO David Hopkinson prompted uncertainty around Howe’s position by saying a managerial change was not being considered “at the moment” after their previous defeat to rivals Sunderland.
*The Athletic* has been told that Hopkinson’s intent when speaking to reporters at a briefing called to discuss Newcastle’s latest financial results was to avoid the kind of public vote of confidence which often pre-empts a manager leaving.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Howe insisted he is “100 per cent” committed to the Newcastle job, while adding “it’s very difficult to look too far in the long-term”.
Howe guided Newcastle away from relegation during his first season in charge, and led them to Champions League qualification for the first time in 20 years in 2022-23, and again in 2024-25. He also secured the club’s first major trophy since 1969 with victory in the 2025 Carabao Cup final.
A 4-3 win over Leeds United on January 7 had left Newcastle sixth in the Premier League, just two points off Liverpool in fourth, and well in contention to secure a European spot. However, they have won just three of their 11 top-flight matches since to drop into the bottom half of the table.
Newcastle are next in action against Howe’s former club Bournemouth, who he is yet to beat in the Premier League, on April 18 before travelling to the Emirates to take on league leaders Arsenal.”
toon_84 on
That’s him done then. I reckon after the Arsenal game.
JackAndrewThorne on
Then the ownership are simply negligent and hiding their heads in the sands desperately hoping they don’t have to actually do their fucking jobs and make a tough but needed call.
It’s Steve Bruce all over again. It’s clear it’s time to go. It’s been clear for weeks if not months. But the people who make the calls simply don’t care enough to pay enough attention to the club to see it.
Even with the “richest owners in the world”, even with “The ambition to be number 1”, we still don’t have owners who actually CARE enough to know the situation on the ground and what is best for the club.
Feitan74 on
Ahh well first time I’ve felt like PIF are properly checked out
McGuetta on
I just think it would be crazy to sack him after that awful summer. It wasn’t – just – his fault everything conspired the way it did. There are failings he has made but this all comes down to awful recruitment and awful handling of the Isak situation. It set us up to fail – and I think some are forgetting just how awful it was.
We have a new hierarchy in place now for this summer – if we see the same failings early next season it would be a much more sensible call to let him go.
Castia10 on
The old review in the summer…
A mutual agreement on parting ways is in the pipeline isn’t it
meganev on
I’ve been saying for weeks now that anybody thinking Howe was in any danger was kidding themselves. PIF is not proactive. If/when Howe goes, I genuinely think it’ll be 6-9 months after he *should* have probably gone. If PIF can delay a decision, they will take it every time. (and to clarify, I’m not Howe In/Out, I said I would make my own personal judgement at the end of the season, and that’s a position I’m stubbornly sticking to, for now, at least).
charlierc on
Beyond the headline, I don’t think it tells us much new. The idea was seemingly that the situation would be reviewed at the end of the season as per things we heard in the break between the Sunderland and Palace contests, and this says that it’ll be reviewed in the summer
It still feels like we’re careering towards a break point ngl
Olucaron on
There’s absolutely nothing new in this to what’s been said for the past few months.
Maybe, folks, “review in the summer” means exactly that, instead of trying to read more into deliberately ambiguous headlines designed for clicks.
SenorButtmunch on
To me, this reads as ‘we won’t sack him now but we will certainly consider it at the end of the season’. Which sounds about right.
Personally I don’t see any reason why he’s kept on aside from hope based on experiences that are more than a year old. Nothing in the past 12 months has convinced me that he’s the right man for the job. Everything has convinced me that, actually, he isn’t the right guy.
It is what it is at this point. I’d be pleasantly surprised if we even finished in the top half, let alone Conference League or beyond. Terrible way for it all to fizzle out but yesterday proved that Eddie is completely out of ideas and that the time has come for him to go, for the best of the club and the project.
Nathan_Toddy_Todd on
He’s gotta go, your eyes don’t lie. He’s been tactically found out by everyone in the league and the players aren’t playing for him anymore he’s lost the dressing room. If losing 2 derbys and being sat 14th isn’t sackable his handling of Woltemade is. No striker is going to want to join us just to be thrown into midfield so he can play Gordon out of position as a striker. He never gets youth a chance which means he’s effecting our academy, no kids are going to want to join us because there’s no route into the first team under Howe. Miley being the exemption.
This season has gone the exact same way his last season at Bournemouth went stale, the owners thought they couldn’t sack him because he was mr Bournemouth and they ended up relegated. We are just lucky the teams below us are awful and even still couple wins from any team below us and we’ll be in the mix
PureArmadillo1730 on
What a well balanced article. Definitely don’t forget to talk about how we’re top of league in points dropped, or the two losses to mackems, or how our 3 most expensive signings from last season absolutely honked.
But aye, 10 points away from Europe lads. Just got to roll our sleeves up.
MarshalOverflow on
They’ll support him until they don’t, nothing new in there. Looks like end of the season, Howe won’t do anything in the remaining games.
Abrantesboy12 on
well they will missed out on europe for next season as well
14 Comments
“Newcastle United’s ownership continue to support Eddie Howe despite the club’s struggles this season with all parties intending to evaluate the managerial situation this summer.
Howe won the club’s first major trophy since 1969 with victory in the 2025 Carabao Cup but Newcastle are 14th in the Premier League table and have won just three of their past 11 league games.
A review and any contingency work around the issue is considered by those involved to be standard procedure in such circumstances, although there have been no serious conversations yet about a change of head coach.
Howe commands a great deal of respect among the Newcastle hierarchy and is expected to be part of the evaluation process.
The 48-year-old Englishman was appointed Newcastle head coach in 2021 after a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund completed its takeover of the club.
He signed new contracts in 2022 and 2023, but questions have been raised over his long-term future due to the team’s performance this season.
On Sunday, Newcastle conceded two late goals as they were beaten 2-1 by Crystal Palace. Howe’s side are 10 points off the Premier League’s final Champions League place and five points outside a Conference League spot heading into their final six matches.
Newcastle CEO David Hopkinson prompted uncertainty around Howe’s position by saying a managerial change was not being considered “at the moment” after their previous defeat to rivals Sunderland.
*The Athletic* has been told that Hopkinson’s intent when speaking to reporters at a briefing called to discuss Newcastle’s latest financial results was to avoid the kind of public vote of confidence which often pre-empts a manager leaving.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Howe insisted he is “100 per cent” committed to the Newcastle job, while adding “it’s very difficult to look too far in the long-term”.
Howe guided Newcastle away from relegation during his first season in charge, and led them to Champions League qualification for the first time in 20 years in 2022-23, and again in 2024-25. He also secured the club’s first major trophy since 1969 with victory in the 2025 Carabao Cup final.
A 4-3 win over Leeds United on January 7 had left Newcastle sixth in the Premier League, just two points off Liverpool in fourth, and well in contention to secure a European spot. However, they have won just three of their 11 top-flight matches since to drop into the bottom half of the table.
Newcastle are next in action against Howe’s former club Bournemouth, who he is yet to beat in the Premier League, on April 18 before travelling to the Emirates to take on league leaders Arsenal.”
That’s him done then. I reckon after the Arsenal game.
Then the ownership are simply negligent and hiding their heads in the sands desperately hoping they don’t have to actually do their fucking jobs and make a tough but needed call.
It’s Steve Bruce all over again. It’s clear it’s time to go. It’s been clear for weeks if not months. But the people who make the calls simply don’t care enough to pay enough attention to the club to see it.
Even with the “richest owners in the world”, even with “The ambition to be number 1”, we still don’t have owners who actually CARE enough to know the situation on the ground and what is best for the club.
Ahh well first time I’ve felt like PIF are properly checked out
I just think it would be crazy to sack him after that awful summer. It wasn’t – just – his fault everything conspired the way it did. There are failings he has made but this all comes down to awful recruitment and awful handling of the Isak situation. It set us up to fail – and I think some are forgetting just how awful it was.
We have a new hierarchy in place now for this summer – if we see the same failings early next season it would be a much more sensible call to let him go.
The old review in the summer…
A mutual agreement on parting ways is in the pipeline isn’t it
I’ve been saying for weeks now that anybody thinking Howe was in any danger was kidding themselves. PIF is not proactive. If/when Howe goes, I genuinely think it’ll be 6-9 months after he *should* have probably gone. If PIF can delay a decision, they will take it every time. (and to clarify, I’m not Howe In/Out, I said I would make my own personal judgement at the end of the season, and that’s a position I’m stubbornly sticking to, for now, at least).
Beyond the headline, I don’t think it tells us much new. The idea was seemingly that the situation would be reviewed at the end of the season as per things we heard in the break between the Sunderland and Palace contests, and this says that it’ll be reviewed in the summer
It still feels like we’re careering towards a break point ngl
There’s absolutely nothing new in this to what’s been said for the past few months.
Maybe, folks, “review in the summer” means exactly that, instead of trying to read more into deliberately ambiguous headlines designed for clicks.
To me, this reads as ‘we won’t sack him now but we will certainly consider it at the end of the season’. Which sounds about right.
Personally I don’t see any reason why he’s kept on aside from hope based on experiences that are more than a year old. Nothing in the past 12 months has convinced me that he’s the right man for the job. Everything has convinced me that, actually, he isn’t the right guy.
It is what it is at this point. I’d be pleasantly surprised if we even finished in the top half, let alone Conference League or beyond. Terrible way for it all to fizzle out but yesterday proved that Eddie is completely out of ideas and that the time has come for him to go, for the best of the club and the project.
He’s gotta go, your eyes don’t lie. He’s been tactically found out by everyone in the league and the players aren’t playing for him anymore he’s lost the dressing room. If losing 2 derbys and being sat 14th isn’t sackable his handling of Woltemade is. No striker is going to want to join us just to be thrown into midfield so he can play Gordon out of position as a striker. He never gets youth a chance which means he’s effecting our academy, no kids are going to want to join us because there’s no route into the first team under Howe. Miley being the exemption.
This season has gone the exact same way his last season at Bournemouth went stale, the owners thought they couldn’t sack him because he was mr Bournemouth and they ended up relegated. We are just lucky the teams below us are awful and even still couple wins from any team below us and we’ll be in the mix
What a well balanced article. Definitely don’t forget to talk about how we’re top of league in points dropped, or the two losses to mackems, or how our 3 most expensive signings from last season absolutely honked.
But aye, 10 points away from Europe lads. Just got to roll our sleeves up.
They’ll support him until they don’t, nothing new in there. Looks like end of the season, Howe won’t do anything in the remaining games.
well they will missed out on europe for next season as well