How Will Howe Fair This Season?

Newcastle are at the beginning of what is surely going to be a hugely transformative new ownership. The stairway to heaven before them, however, is a long one considering the dilapidated state Mike Ashley ground the club down to. 

Currently wallowing in the relegation zone, the remit for this season is simply to retain the club’s Premiership status. Eddie Howe has been named as the man for the job. But what factors are likely to influence how he fairs in his challenge this season?

During Ashley’s ownership there was no ambition or hope at Newcastle. But Howe now most visibly represents the new era – underlined by those two valuable ingredients hope and ambition – at the club. 

With such cause for optimism the Geordie faithful will throw their full support behind Howe and the team. Such unity means the team can play with a vigour and spring in their step because the club – in the long term – are now playing for achievement rather than solely for survival.

As far as honeymoon periods go in football this one, between Howe and the fans, could be a long and passionate one to rival Hector and Paris.

For a long time Newcastle have played a defensive brand of football. Sitting back and letting opposition teams attack them – even ones inferior on paper. 

This style has not bred excitement amongst fans. It has not induced a fearsome raucous atmosphere at home on matchdays that can potentially beat some teams into submission – and which history shows the fans at St James’ can create. And neither has it produced a satisfactory number of goals or wins.

Howe, however, wants to implement an attacking style of football: “If you watched, my Bournemouth teams always tried to play on the front foot and play brave attacking football. I am not going to come here and do something I haven’t done before.”

This is exactly the type of football Newcastle fans yearn to see their team play. The days of Kevin Keegan’s “Entertainers” in the 1990s are still remembered as icons on Tyneside. If Howe can quickly deliver attacking football then he will have the favour of the fans in no time. 

In turn, this will ratchet up the excitement and noise levels inside St James’ Park all the more. The louder the excited din, the greater the fans’ approval of Howe and the more adrenaline the players will fight with.

The potential power of this was briefly in evidence at the start of the new owners’ first match after their takeover, against Tottenham, when the noise levels could have made an AC/DC concert sound like a library.

Newcastle’s first match under Howe is at home against Brentford. As far as Premiership fixtures go this is surely an ideal one to start with. 

Clubs often expect to beat promoted teams, and on paper this is a winnable match as opposed to starting against a more established and glamorous Premiership team.

Brentford also like to play attacking football. With two attacking teams going at each other, it could be a highly entertaining high-scoring match which will get the fans in the stadium on their feet and vocal in support of their team and new manager. 

Although Howe joins a Newcastle team languishing in second bottom of the league table he is not daunted by the challenge of steering the club to safety having overcome high pressure situations in the past. 

“At Bournemouth, the existence of the club was under threat if we failed. That is huge pressure. It's a football club going out of business… I really felt that pressure and I lived it every day. What an education that was for a first job.”

Coming through such an experience – and eventually leading Bournemouth to the Premiership after starting with them in League Two – will help Howe keep his composure better than most others would fare. Antonio Conte for one did not appear to have the belly to lead a club in the relegation zone and without global superstars.

It has been over a year since Howe’s last management job when he left Bournemouth by mutual consent at the end of the 2019/20 season.

Whilst some people might have sat around gathering moss and a chunky Netflix watched history Howe has spent that time studying the game from a distance.

“I felt I needed to reset, recharge and re-educate myself… And then commit to coming back better.”

Having spent his time away from the spotlight wisely Howe should be perfectly refreshed and raring to go at Newcastle; whilst many of his fellow managers might be more fatigued from the constant pressures of top-level football. 

Despite the seeming good fit between Howe and Newcastle, this season’s objective – Premiership survival – is by no means guaranteed. There are several reasons to be cautious. 

For one, Howe starts his reign at Newcastle in a handicapped position. The club have five points from their first eleven matches which leaves them five points – and a considerable negative goal difference – away from safety. 

This is not an ideal starting point. And the strength and form of the teams above them means those currently sitting in safety will be hard to catch.

This is not to forget that Howe successfully contended with a seventeen point deduction in his first spell at Bournemouth. Saving the club from relegation and consequently from liquidation. 

The numerous heavyweight clubs and superstar players that pack the Premiership table, however, means this is a rather different proposition to that which Howe faced at Bournemouth in League Two. 

If Newcastle are to climb out of the relegation zone they will need to seriously tighten up a leaky defence. Only Norwich have conceded more goals than Newcastle so far this season and they stand the only team below Newcastle in the table – tied on points but below on goal difference.

Whilst Howe has built his good reputation on exciting attacking football, the question of his teams’ defensive records has left a little to be desired. Arguably, it was Bournemouth’s poor defensive record in the season they were relegated from the Premiership which was the primary reason behind their demotion. 

This is not a mistake Howe can afford to make now. It is not likely that a holiday season in the Championship is on the agenda of the wealthy new owners. A relegation could complicate Howe’s relations with his employers and the fans.

Newcastle’s league status could depend on how well they do in their remaining matches before the January transfer window, when some player reinforcements are virtually a certainty. Until then Newcastle cannot afford to let the gap between themselves and safety become too big. Otherwise it might prove to be an irrecoverable position whoever is bought in January.

There are nine matches for Newcastle until the January transfer window. Five of these are at home and four are away. Six out of these nine matches Newcastle will enter as the underdogs. 

Howe will surely target those home matches as imperative to win. However, two of these are against the two Manchester clubs who will enter those fixtures firmly as the favourites. Meanwhile, Newcastle’s away fixtures are at Arsenal, Leicester, Liverpool and Everton – all of whom will expect victories too.

So, the pre-January period of fixtures Howe has to contend with are going to be a tricky and testing time. On paper they don’t appear bountiful.

However, the game is not played on paper.

And, crucially, the lifeblood of football fans – hope and ambition – has returned, for the first time in a very long time, to Newcastle football club. That is surely a promising start.