The best Newcastle United manager in my lifetime needs your support.
In the four years Eddie Howe has managed Newcastle United, we’ve never finished below 7th, taking into account full seasons managed.
Despite PSR, despite a wage deficit of hundreds of millions of pounds to the ‘big six’, despite working without a CEO, despite working with a Sporting Director who upset everyone on his first day in charge and despite losing allies at boardroom level in Amanda and Mehrdad. Despite a ridiculous number of injuries the season we finished 7th and despite buying no first team signings the season before last.
The one constant throughout it all has been Eddie Howe, steadying the ship and churning out results on the pitch season on season, all while we have floundered off the pitch at boardroom level.
What Eddie Howe has done is a miracle, and even better than that he’s done it with class. A man of huge integrity, someone who has fully embraced the north-east and its people. A man who embodies everything his predecessor wasn’t. A trophy winning manager. A man who cares deeply about our football club, as deeply as you or I.
As far as I’m concerned, Eddie Howe could finish 16th this season and I’d still be want him to keep his job. For as long as there’s a huge revenue deficit to the big six, we will continue to be built on sand.
What about the £700m+ he’s spent I hear you ask? Easy! He generated that revenue or a large proportion of it himself. By qualifying for the Champions League twice and finishing high up the league, he has in large part generated his own revenue.
And what has he done with that revenue? Bought some of the best players I’ve ever seen play for Newcastle United. Bruno Guimaraes, Sandro Tonali are two of the best midfielders I’ve ever seen play for this club. His outstanding recruitment has enabled us to finish high up the league table for three consecutive years.
Form is temporary, class is permanent. Eddie Howe is class, and a world class human being to boot. And we need to prove we’re the ‘loyalist football supporters the world has ever had’ against Manchester City, because we will not find another Eddie Howe for a long, long time.
Yes, we’re desperately struggling, the signings haven’t gelled and he’s trying to figure it out without his first choice full backs. But while he does, he needs a 12th man now more than ever. We should be there for him, when he needs us most.