Newcastle United fans should understand by now…be careful what you wish for

It’s hard to escape the noise surrounding St James’ Park at the moment, listen to a sports phone-in or scroll through social media and you’ll quickly be told that Eddie Howe is under serious pressure and that Newcastle United fans are increasingly calling for his dismissal.

The problem is, that narrative doesn’t seem to match what I’m hearing among friends and other Newcastle United fans I speak to regularly. The mood feels far more measured.

There is frustration, naturally. Performances haven’t been good enough and results have dipped. But that’s a long way from a fanbase united in wanting the manager out.

If anything, there seems to be more concern about why things have gone wrong, than a rush to change the man in the dugout.

That distinction matters, because once the idea takes hold that “the fans have turned”, it can quickly become a convenient explanation , and justification for decisions that may not address the real issues.

This season’s drop-off didn’t come out of nowhere. Recruitment has played a major part. The signings made in the summer haven’t delivered the level of impact many hoped for, and when combined with very limited activity in previous windows, the squad has been left stretched. A lack of depth was always going to catch up with us, particularly once injuries and fatigue set in.

Eddie Howe will have had a say in recruitment, and he won’t be blameless, but it’s also important to remember the wider context. For a significant period, Newcastle were operating without a Director of Football and without a CEO. That’s not a minor issue, it’s a serious structural problem that inevitably affects decision-making in the transfer market.

When Howe arrived, there was no Director of Football in place at all. The club had identified Dan Ashworth but he then remained at Brighton on gardening leave for months. During that time, Eddie Howe was effectively operating without senior football leadership above him. Even since then, Newcastle are now on their third Director of Football structure during Howe’s time at the club, hardly the stable environment you’d want for long-term planning.

It’s also clear that not all of the players brought in were first-choice targets. Had the club managed to land the players originally identified, we may well be looking at a very different league table. Instead, compromises were made, and those compromises are now being judged in hindsight.

Which is why it feels short-sighted to ignore Eddie Howe’s wider body of work. Since arriving at Newcastle United, he has overseen a transformation few would have believed possible at the time, when we were winless in the Premier League. From a relegation battle to competing regularly with the so-called Big Six, Newcastle have gone toe-to-toe with clubs boasting far greater resources and squad depth.

That doesn’t mean Howe has been perfect. He hasn’t. Mistakes have been made, both tactically and in recruitment. But football clubs improve by learning from mistakes, not by constantly resetting and starting again.

History should be a warning here. Newcastle know better than most how quickly things can unravel after a managerial change. The periods following the departures of Kevin Keegan and Bobby Robson weren’t steps forward; they were years spent drifting, lurching from one appointment to the next, with no clear direction.

Sacking a manager is easy. Getting the right replacement, at the right time, within the right structure, is far harder.

That risk feels particularly relevant now. Newcastle United haven’t been especially active in the most recent transfer window and the club’s off-field structure is only just beginning to settle. To remove Eddie Howe in this environment, without absolute clarity over succession and strategy, risks repeating mistakes the club has made too many times before.

So before we accept the idea that “the Newcastle United fans want him gone”, it’s worth asking how accurate that really is.

Online noise doesn’t always reflect the wider supporter base and frustration shouldn’t be mistaken for impatience.
Newcastle United have spent years trying to build stability after a long period of stagnation. Undermining that at the first sign of difficulty would be a dangerous move.

If nothing else, we should understand this by now: be careful what you wish for.