As Eddie Howe prepared to meet the press on Friday afternoon, there was one topic above all others that dominated the pre-interview headlines – the newly-vacant England position.
By the time the Newcastle United boss had exited his 30-minute chat, the dial had well and truly shifted and a very different theme was dominating the headlines – that of whether Howe was fully convinced, or comfortable, with recent changes made off the pitch at the Magpies.
Before that is examined, it is important to stress there was one major positive to take from the sit-down at Adidas’ German headquarters; Howe has little immediate desire to take the England job in the wake of Gareth Southgate’s exit. The Newcastle chief, somehow, remains the bookmakers’ favourite to take the nation’s top job ahead of the likes of Lee Carsley and Graham Potter but any talk of him ditching club football in the next few weeks or months was surely extinguished after his silence was broken.
“For me, being very proud to be Newcastle manager, this is all about Newcastle,” he said at the club’s training camp at Adidas’ headquarters in Germany. “It’s not about England so as long as I’m happy, feel supported, feel free to work in a way that I want to work, I’ve not thought of anything else other than Newcastle.”
Of course, had that been that, all would have been rosy, but Howe also made clear that his loyalty to Newcastle was dependant on feeling comfortable in the new-look setup behind the scenes on Tyneside.
“As long as I have certain things there for me,” Howe added. “As in, I’m happy and I’m allowed to work in the way that I feel I need to work to get the best out of me, and that I feel supported. Then that will never change. There’s been so much change that I think we need a period of time to set the boundaries and get to know how we are all going to work.”
Making such a public statement, essentially sending a message directly to the club’s decision makers, can be described in a number of ways. Bold? Admirable? Fascinating? Commendable? Risky? It felt like Howe was making a clear point to the club’s top brass: Do not take me for granted.
Arriving on these shores in 2021, his standing was very different. After failing to keep Bournemouth in the top flight, Howe’s next job in football would be at a club with supposed untold riches and a vision to become the best in the world. Many believed he was the right man to steady the sinking ship before inevitably passing the torch on to a more experienced, ‘big-name’ managerial figure.
Fast forward to present day and those predictions feel a lifetime ago. After striking up a remarkable bond with supporters, improving both a significant chunk of the players he inherited and subsequently the team’s standing, and forming a solid working relationship with the club’s ownership, few, if any, have any appetite to see Howe pass the baton on at this stage of the journey.
The 46-year-old has been central to everything that has transpired in the post-takeover years. The vast amount of success has been down to him and meticulous work on the training pitch and the sidelines. Now, after a summer of upheaval behind the scenes at St James’ Park, it is no wonder the head coach is perhaps a tad unclear as to how the future will look. He has lost two very key allies in Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi and has also watched on as a new sporting director and director of performance have been brought in to work alongside him.
CEO Darren Eales has made his feelings clear on Howe, with the former Atlanta United chief in no hurry to seek out a replacement in the dugout. However, the decision to appoint Paul Mitchell as the club’s sporting director and James Bunce as director of performance was made, according to Eales, to allow Howe to ‘do the strengths he’s got’ – namely working on the grass – and ‘take away from him some of the things that, if it was Eddie, he would spend all his time and every waking hour on.
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