Newcastle United’s Premier League form must improve, and quickly.
We’ve not won on the road since a 3-0 win over Leicester in April, our only league wins have come over sides currently 20th, 19th and 15th, and the nature of our back-to-back 3-1 defeats at West Ham and Brentford have been alarming over the past week.
Inevitably, questions have been asked on social media about Eddie Howe’s position over the last 24 hours, with the vocal minority now suggesting that his position at the club should be under threat.
The Chronicle have responded to this, as a Lee Ryder ‘exclusive’ reports that Eddie Howe will be handed plenty of time to turn things around on Tyneside.
He writes that PIF and Yasir Al Rumayyan are concerned by the nature of recent defeats on the road, but are offering full support and backing for Howe and his staff.
Ryder also reports that PIF see the 47-year-old as the ‘man to lead the project’, especially now he has a newly-appointed board around him, including Ross Wilson (sporting director) and David Hopkinson (CEO).
He adds that no part of Hopkinson’s 100-day review has discussed Howe’s position at the club, with our new CEO and PIF owners keen to throw their backing behind the boss – not sack him.
The Telegraph’s Luke Edwards has also reported on Howe’s position, insisting Howe has ‘plenty of goodwill in the bank’ from his four years of work at Newcastle and a ‘proven track record’ of responding to tough patches of form, even if PIF will not be impressed by our start to the league season after a £250m spend over the summer.
Should Howe face criticism and be under pressure to improve? Yes. But is it far too soon to discuss a potential change in the dugout? Absolutely.
Let’s hope Howe takes advantage of the time he will quite rightly be given and finds a way to get us back up the league.