Eddie Howe has said he would offer Newcastle his resignation if he believed he was no longer the right man to lead the presently struggling club.<\/p>\n
Howe\u2019s team visit Tottenham on Tuesday night aiming to end the run of three straight Premier League defeats that has prompted their slide to 12th place. Victory would be their first in an away match since December but the 48-year-old manager remains confident he can navigate his fatigued side out of their slump.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the key question I always have to ask myself is: \u2018Am I the right person to take the team and the club forward?\u2019 There\u2019s no doubt in my mind [that I\u2019m the right man],\u201d said Howe, whose players have sometimes failed to cope with a relentless fixture list prompted, partly, by their ongoing involvement in the Champions League.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there was [doubt] I wouldn\u2019t be [here] because the club\u2019s the most important thing. I\u2019d never put myself before the club.\u201d<\/p>\n
Howe appears cautiously optimistic that arguably the most testing period of his near four and a half years in charge at St James\u2019 Park will prove a temporary phase.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I didn\u2019t think I was the correct man to take the team forward and could give the players what they need, then I would step aside and let someone else do it,\u201d he said. \u201cThe momentum is against us at the moment. We have to swing it back \u2013 the world can look a very different place within a couple of games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the manager is understood to retain the full support of the Saudi Arabian-owned club\u2019s UK-based hierarchy, some Newcastle supporters are becoming noisily disgruntled as they deconstruct the team\u2019s tactical approach.<\/p>\n
Howe\u2019s preferred high-intensity, hard-pressing, often counterattacking style \u2013 or \u201cgoing for opponents\u2019 throats\u201d, as he puts it \u2013 has real merits but he acknowledges there are serious questions to be answered about his players\u2019 frequently poor ball retention. Not for nothing have the Brentford manager, Keith Andrews, and his Leeds counterpart, Daniel Farke, described recent games at Newcastle as \u201cchaotic\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are challenges for us in possession,\u201d said Howe, whose players look increasingly exhausted. \u201cI think we need to be better with the ball. I think that was evident on Saturday [during the 3-2 home defeat by Brentford<\/a>]. The control aspect of our game was poor. It was a very transitional game.<\/p>\n