Eddie Howe

[Jamesmcc222]

Think the transfer stress is causing some slightly unusual reactions.

 

Our transfer strategy to this point has been excellent. We’ve signed pretty much exclusively hits. Mostly from abroad despite this slightly strange new narrative.

 

FFP is the enemy here, certainly not Howe. Loyalty is part of who he is. As is single mindedness. That’s why he’s built such a tight and successful team.

 

we’ve been outbid and outspent by a select elite aided by a corrupt system.

 

There are a select set of players that would be available and improve us, and moving ‘quickly’ makes no difference. They are on other big clubs radars too. 
 

It’s been a sobering and disappointing window but hopefully it pushes us to players who can still improve us and perhaps care more about just money.

[Kooiman]

28 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

Klopp did the same a lot I believe? Sometimes winning and sometimes not.

I've seen it floated that some of the reason they've spent big this summer is because Jurgen Klopp isn't with the club anymore and so the process is markedly easier. 

 

I'm not sure how true that is. I love Eddie. I had wobbles last season when we had a ropey period, but he showed resilience and ingenuity to turn things around and change how we play mid-season. That sense of reinvention is something I love, but I don't know if it would flood into transfers. Success has a thousand fathers, failure is an orphan, and it because of that it becomes to easy to pin a bad transfer on one person when it goes south. 

 

I would hope his attitude to transfers is not resistant to change. I don't know a top club that lets a manager operate like that in the modern day. It's simply too much work, and as with any leadership position, you have to empower those around you to make calls, regardless of whether you agree with them.

 

Talk of a trophy in the first five years felt ridiculous, but it was achieved, and I wonder if the rate of that success somewhat skewed where we were in other departments. 

 

As I'd said previously, so much of this summer has felt like a failure, but I hope within the ashes of that struggle those in charge can see where we need to go as a club and how to build toward that. 

[Thomson Mouse]

25 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

I don’t think anyone is - he is a tit.  And so is Ashworth.  But the point is that Howe chased the men who were appointed to sort this shit out for him; and now it’s on him and his nephew to negotiate.  So far they’re not exactly doing a bang-up job. 

 

Pretty sure Mitchell was an Eales appt, he'd worked with him previously

[andycap]

1 minute ago, Heron said:

Maybe Ashworth felt the Man United job was a bigger, better opportunity and Mitchell just came in blabbing on about shit?

 

I'm not saying you chaos are wrong, for what it's worth, with regards to Howe "not wanting that model" but I am just curious as to what evidence there is of that and also as to what signings "Howe has made" that have been bad.

 

We signed Trippier, Burn and Bruno all without a DoF, as well as Chris Wood who we then later sold for more money. I don't get all this talk about poor transfer activity. It seems to me the transfer activity has gone backwards since having DoFs. The reasons for that of course return us back to the speculation, but again nothing to suggest Howe picks out bad players or indeed that he only goes for proven PL footballers.

I'm sure ashworth said something along the lines of that he felt underused with his input in transfers. 

[Heron]

Just now, andycap said:

I'm sure ashworth said something along the lines of that he felt underused with his input in transfers. 

Wasn't aware of that, but again that's not necessarily saying Howe is the issue too. Perhaps those above the DoF weren't listening to him...

 

I am evidently biased, I know. But I just don't see sufficient for Howe's stance or transfer ability to be questioned that's all.

[Heron]

Edit: quoted the wrong person. Not sure how to delete a post.

 

 

Edited July 30, 2025 by Heron

[Heron]

6 minutes ago, Jamesmcc222 said:

Think the transfer stress is causing some slightly unusual reactions.

 

Our transfer strategy to this point has been excellent. We’ve signed pretty much exclusively hits. Mostly from abroad despite this slightly strange new narrative.

 

FFP is the enemy here, certainly not Howe. Loyalty is part of who he is. As is single mindedness. That’s why he’s built such a tight and successful team.

 

we’ve been outbid and outspent by a select elite aided by a corrupt system.

 

There are a select set of players that would be available and improve us, and moving ‘quickly’ makes no difference. They are on other big clubs radars too. 
 

It’s been a sobering and disappointing window but hopefully it pushes us to players who can still improve us and perhaps care more about just money.

[Conjo]

5 minutes ago, Heron said:

We signed Trippier, Burn and Bruno all without a DoF, as well as Chris Wood who we then later sold for more money. I don't get all this talk about poor transfer activity. It seems to me the transfer activity has gone backwards since having DoFs. The reasons for that of course return us back to the speculation, but again nothing to suggest Howe picks out bad players or indeed that he only goes for proven PL footballers.

 

Are you speculating whether we could have continued to buy players with a net spend of £100 - 150m every season?

 

[andycap]

1 minute ago, Heron said:

Edit: quoted the wrong person. Not sure how to delete a post.

 

 

 

Just leave it you silly sausage. 😂 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I don’t follow twitter gossip very closely, but I don’t know if there’s even any evidence that Howe demands full control of transfers. Nothing he says in public suggests he’s anything other than realistic about the challenges facing the club and cooperative with the people around him. He’s an intelligent, modern manager, he’s not a dinosaur. 
 

Maybe Mitchell was just the wrong fit, or the brief he was given was too vague, I don’t know. 

[Heron]

3 minutes ago, Conjo said:

 

Are you speculating whether we could have continued to buy players with a net spend of £100 - 150m every season?

 

Every other PL-CL club seems to

 

Last time I checked we signed top draw players and got rid of bit part players to make up for FFP. Seemed to have worked for us to date

 

 

Edited July 30, 2025 by Heron

[HaydnNUFC]

Our best transfer windows after the January 2022 one were with Ashworth and Howe together at the helm. Been a mess since the former left.

 

Fuck you, Manchester United. 

[TheBrownBottle]

30 minutes ago, Heron said:

On what basis did Howe chase them? Have I missed something? Mitchell came in and criticised the whole transfer policy publicly. The same transfer policy that saw us go from rock bottom to a top 4 side?

 

What did Mitchell do in his time here?

 

People (to my knowledge) assume Howe doesn't like that model and is the one fighting it but I'm not really sure on what basis tbh. Surely the structure is set by the club and Howe would have known the intentions before taking the role?

 

 

 

Howe was publicly critical before Mitchell had his arse on his seat 

 

Mitchell is a wanker, and it’s important that Howe has a say in transfers.  But Howe isn’t squeaky clean on what’s happening at the moment - he’s got the power he wanted, and at the moment we’re making a mess of it

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Do we know Howe wanted all the power? 

[TheBrownBottle]

12 minutes ago, Thomson Mouse said:

 

Pretty sure Mitchell was an Eales appt, he'd worked with him previously

He was - the manager shouldn’t have a say in who is appointed DoF.  But there was a power play last summer before Mitchell had his name on his office door

[Heron]

1 minute ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Howe was publicly critical before Mitchell had his arse on his seat 

 

Mitchell is a wanker, and it’s important that Howe has a say in transfers.  But Howe isn’t squeaky clean on what’s happening at the moment - he’s got the power he wanted, and at the moment we’re making a mess of it

Was he? Not aware of that like tbf.

 

Again the latter bit about Howe getting the power he wanted is just speculation to me, as, if @HaydnNUFCsays our best window (since the firstt) came from with Ashworth and Howe at the helm what suggests he wont work with a DoF?

[Heron]

2 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

He was - the manager shouldn’t have a say in who is appointed DoF.  But there was a power play last summer before Mitchell had his name on his office door

What was this power play? Genuinely curious.

[andycap]

The presser the other day howe was asked about the new ceo and dof positions. 

And he was on about they had to be the right hires and the right people. 😂 He will be already plotting like guy Fawkes. 😂 

[Conjo]

7 minutes ago, Heron said:

Every other PL-CL club seems to

 

Last time I checked we signed top draw players and got rid of bit part players to make up for FFP. Seemed to have worked for us to date

 

 

All those other clubs had and have a much higher commercial income than us, and we had to fire sale two of our brightest talents to barely comply with psr. It simply wasn't a sustainable policy.

[HaydnNUFC]

3 minutes ago, Heron said:

What was this power play? Genuinely curious.

He was holding the England job over people’s heads prior to Mitchell coming in at the outset of pre season last year, some of his comments were Benitez-esque iirc.

[TheBrownBottle]

7 minutes ago, Heron said:

Was he? Not aware of that like tbf.

 

Again the latter bit about Howe getting the power he wanted is just speculation to me, as, if @HaydnNUFCsays our best window (since the firstt) came from with Ashworth and Howe at the helm what suggests he wont work with a DoF?

He wasn’t exactly welcoming

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/sep/13/howe-hits-back-at-claims-newcastles-transfer-strategy-not-fit-for-purpose

 

I think Howe‘s record on transfers is first class - easily the best I’ve seen at NUFC.  But I don’t think that he can get credit for that and remain completely blameless when things don’t work out.  That hardly means that he should have vitriol poured on him, only that he is accountable for some of what is happening.   And if the window ends and we have several new signings and hit the ground running, he should be given full credit - but the current shitshow isn’t happening to him, he’s part of it. 

[Heron]

5 minutes ago, Conjo said:

 

All those other clubs had and have a much higher commercial income than us, and we had to fire sale two of our brightest talents to barely comply with psr. It simply wasn't a sustainable policy.

Two players who weren't getting in our first 11. Chelsea & Man City also buy or bring in young players and sell them for a decent amount, just to name two sides. It's not that much of a fucked model. Brighton have done that incredibly to enable them to be a sustained top 10 side (or there abouts).

[Heron]

9 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

He wasn’t exactly welcoming

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/sep/13/howe-hits-back-at-claims-newcastles-transfer-strategy-not-fit-for-purpose

 

I think Howe‘s record on transfers is first class - easily the best I’ve seen at NUFC.  But I don’t think that he can get credit for that and remain completely blameless when things don’t work out.  That hardly means that he should have vitriol poured on him, only that he is accountable for some of what is happening.   And if the window ends and we have several new signings and hit the ground running, he should be given full credit - but the current shitshow isn’t happening to him, he’s part of it. 

There's absolutely nothing wrong from Howe in that article and it's all related to Mitchell's public outburst...

 

For me, the issue is that Mitchell has come in shouting his mouth off, immediately lost the respect of the people he is tasked with working with and has fucked off when he didn't get his own way and Howe, meanwhile, managed the team to their first domestic cup win for 70 years.

 

Any plans or discussions would (in my view) have been based with Mitchell's involvement and him opting to leave at the start of the transfer window is both his (Mitchell's) fault and that of those who appointed him, not Howe.

 

Howe now has to pick up the pieces and fill the voids from that debacle whilst dealing with Isak's twattery and preparing the squad.

 

 

Edited July 30, 2025 by Heron

[Ben]

7 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

He wasn’t exactly welcoming

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/sep/13/howe-hits-back-at-claims-newcastles-transfer-strategy-not-fit-for-purpose

 

I think Howe‘s record on transfers is first class - easily the best I’ve seen at NUFC.  But I don’t think that he can get credit for that and remain completely blameless when things don’t work out.  That hardly means that he should have vitriol poured on him, only that he is accountable for some of what is happening.   And if the window ends and we have several new signings and hit the ground running, he should be given full credit - but the current shitshow isn’t happening to him, he’s part of it. 

 

If we had signed Howe's first choices this summer we'd have a shot at the title.

[TheBrownBottle]

4 minutes ago, Heron said:

There's absolutely nothing wrong from Howe in that article and it's all related to Mitchell's public outburst...

 

For me, the issue is that Mitchell has come in shouting his mouth off, immediately lost the respect of the people he is tasked with working with and has fucked off when he didn't get his own way and Howe, meanwhile, managed the team to their first domestic cup win for 70 years.

 

Any plans or discussions would (in my view) have been based with Mitchell's involvement and him opting to leave at the start of the transfer window is both his (Mitchell's) fault and that of those who appointed him, not Howe.

 

Howe now has to pick up the pieces and fill the voids from that debacle whilst dealing with Isak's twattery and preparing the squad.

 

 

 

It started before Mitchell made those comments, when the players were in a training camp in Germany and Howe was being linked with the England job.

 

It strikes me as the mildest of criticisms to suggest that Howe - being head of the transfer committee - might just have some responsibility for who is targeted and signing those players.  If we'd signed them, would everyone be saying 'great, we've signed Pedro, Ekitike and Trafford - but Howe should be given zero credit for that, that's down to others'?

 

7 minutes ago, Ben said:

 

If we had signed Howe's first choices this summer we'd have a shot at the title.

If they signed my first choices they'd have a shot at the title, that doesn't mean signing those players would be realistic or viable.