Milburn

I don’t really buy the “club let him down” angle. He’s been backed with huge money, had time, and had a big say in how the squad has been built. At some point it can’t always be “what’s above him”. The performances, the patterns, and the results are on the pitch. And let’s be honest, players like Elanga and Wissa are exactly the type Howe would’ve pushed for regardless, even with the best Sporting Director and CEO in place last summer. You can’t talk about being let down when the same issues keep showing up week after week.

Exactly. It happens to almost every manager eventually. Football moves quickly, cycles run their course, and things that once worked just stop having the same impact. Doesn’t take away from what he’s done, it’s just the reality of the game. But going in at half-time 1–0 down to Bournemouth without a single shot on target… that’s the kind of thing that makes you think he’s lost it.

Lucky to only be 1-0 down

Mourinho’s clear soft spot for Newcastle and the link to Sir Bobby makes it interesting on some level, but hopefully we look at other candidates.

I don’t see a middle ground here. Either we get outclassed on and off the pitch and Bournemouth win comfortably - which feels the most likely - or we finally see a proper reaction, try something different, and blow them away. Can’t see this being a tight, even game at all. And if it ends in another defeat, the reaction in the stands at full-time will probably be such that it dawns on Howe that the point of no return has been passed.

I don’t think option A, spending a lot of money on his players, should even be on the table. We’ve already tried that route. Spending big on, at the very best, bang average “PL-proven” players. People point to the lack of a CEO and Sporting Director last summer, but players like Elanga and Wissa were clearly Howe’s choices and players he would have wanted even with a proper setup in place. It hasn’t moved us forward. The club needs a reset in direction: targeting lesser-known profiles from the continent, building value, and actually having a coherent recruitment strategy. That shouldn’t even be up for debate at this point. The real question is: does Howe fit into that model? Because it requires the manager to step back and accept that player recruitment and strategy are driven by others. I’m not convinced someone as detail-driven and hands-on as Howe will be comfortable with that.

A lot of fans are still reacting like it’s the Ashley era, which is understandable after all those years. But this is a different ownership, with a new Sporting Director and a new CEO who’ve both been here less than a year. For all we know, they’ve already been doing a lot of work behind the scenes on both player strategy and the coaching structure. One can only hope… At least there is a proper setup in place, instead of a Lee Charnley filling several boxes in the organisation chart.

Maresca would be my choice as well. Fits the profile and the style we should be moving towards. Only concern is he’s already being mentioned as a potential option for City if/when Pep steps down this summer, so we might not be the only ones looking at him.

There are barely 7–8 managers in 30+ years of Premier League history who’ve lasted 5+ years at one club. Howe is already pushing into territory most managers don’t reach. Let’s not forget that. Expecting it to just keep going indefinitely isn’t reality. And there’s a reason for that: ideas fade, messages stop landing, and performances plateau. That’s just the natural cycle in modern football. And that is where we are now. And regardless of how successful he might be elsewhere in the future, that wouldn’t change the fact that moving on now feels like the right decision for Newcastle.

If the Bournemouth game goes the way many of us expect, it’s going to get ugly in the stands very quickly. That could be the moment where it really dawns on Howe that he’s passed the point of no return and resigns That said… it’s so nailed-on defeat that we’ll probably turn up and win 3–0 just to confuse everyone 😉

There are definitely good coaches out there, no doubt. The issue is the timing. A lot of clubs will most likely be in the market this summer, so competition for those names will be intense. It’s not just about identifying better coaches, it’s about actually landing one ahead of everyone else I’m afraid.

And next up is Bournemouth. Probably one of the worst possible matchup for us right now. High intensity, aggressive press, direct running… basically everything we struggle against. Unless something drastically changes, it’s set up for another game where we get outplayed, both on the pitch and on the touchline.

Another lead thrown away. Again. It’s the same story. Go ahead, lose control, concede soft goals, drop points. Nothing changes. No adjustment, no learning, no progression. Three weeks to prepare and we come back looking exactly the same. Slow, predictable, and mentally fragile. This is about coaching. Howe has taken us as far as he can. The patterns are obvious, the ceiling has been hit, and we’re going backwards. Forever legend of this Club, but his time here as the football manager is over.

Like watching an early pre-season friendly this

No one is denying what Howe has done for the club. He’s been a huge part of dragging us out of the mess we were in. But I don’t think this is about “hounding him out” or social media noise. It’s about what we’re seeing on the pitch over a longer period. The same issues keep coming back: lots of extremly soft goals, poor game management at times, dropped points from winning positions. And that’s the concern. Not one-off mistakes, but a pattern. You can appreciate everything Howe has done and still question whether we’re moving forward or starting to plateau. Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive. For me, unless we see clear improvement in these final games and finish the season on a high, then it’s probably time to move on. There also seem to be signals the club wants to shift towards a different transfer strategi (which is very welcome in my view) and it’s not clear how that fits with Howe’s ‘small pool of players’ preference and mainly ‘Premier League proven’ profiles. He held the cards last summer after winning the cup, but he won’t have the same hand this time…

Kieran Trippier will always be remembered as the face of the new era after the takeover. At the time, it felt surreal seeing a player of his quality at the club after so many years in the dark. Early on, he was head and shoulders above everyone else on the pitch. Like a world-class player dropped into an U18 side. True legend of this club.

Massive 7 games coming up and a win here is the only acceptable outcome really.

The issue is the trend since we won the cup in March last year. That’s a long enough period to judge, and it’s been inconsistent at best. Same problems, same types of goals conceded, same dropped points. The last seven games just confirm or challenge that trend, they’re not the whole basis for the decision in my opinion.

We’re 12th in the table. We’ve lost more games than we’ve won. Only six teams have conceded more goals, and we’ve dropped 22 points from winning positions. We’ve also lost twice to Sunderland. The same mistakes keep happening again and again, with little to no sign of improvement or learning. And yet people are surprised the CEO is taking a cautious, non-committal stance on the manager?

Agree. And it’s not just about the last week. It’s the trend over the past year or so. We keep conceding the same type of soft goals, making the same mistakes, losing games we shouldn’t… and there’s no real sign of it improving. He’s been tactically outplayed way too often. That’s what makes these last games so important. It’s not just about points, it’s about whether there’s actually any change or if it’s more of the same. And for me, unless we qualify for the Conference League, or at an absolute minimum finish top 10 with some real momentum, then he has to go.

Yeah, real vote of confidence that…

That’s corporate speak for: “perform now or we decide in May.” “Not looking to make a change at the moment” isn’t backing, it’s buying time. The last seven games of this season is the review, whether they say it or not.

He could still stick with Woltemade, just not in this setup. Playing him as a lone striker without pace or aggressive runners around him is setting him up to fail. He needs a system built around his strengths, not isolation. But that’s the issue. Everything comes back to Howe’s rigid love for 4-3-3. There’s very little flexibility. You look at someone like Emery, who seems to have 200 different ways of setting a team up depending on the opponent. That kind of adaptability is what we’re missing.

There is reporting that Howe advocated for Wilson coming in (The Guardian I believe), which is interesting in itself. But there’s no evidence they have worked together before Wilson himself has talked about there likely being better value outside the Premier League, so it’ll be interesting to see if that actually translates into a different approach. Hopefully we’re done paying £100m+ for “PL-proven” players like Wissa and Elanga. Those transfers make me sick.

At places like Arsenal, City and Liverpool, the structure is still club-led. The recruitment model, profiling and long-term planning sit above the manager. “Final say” in practice usually means veto power, not that the manager drives the process or that the recruitment department/DoF chases players based on the manager’s command. The concern is when it tips into manager-led recruitment rather than a proper club strategy, but because that’s when you lose continuity the moment the manager changes. Newcastle are now in a position where the DoF was effectively appointed on Howe’s recommendation, and one of the heads of recruitment is his nephew. Make of that what you want...