Eddie Howe’s future could boil down to the mood at the end of the season – but last night he vowed to fight on as boss
07:00, 23 Mar 2026Updated 07:23, 23 Mar 2026
Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe(Image: Getty Images)
Newcastle United will hold a major performance review at the end of the season when the efforts of Eddie Howe and his backroom team will be looked at closely by the powers that be.
With seven games to go, the 2025/26 season – that once promised so much – could yet splutter into a bottom-half finish with no European football on offer. As of a couple of weeks ago, preparations for pre-season were under way with sporting director Ross Wilson and CEO David Hopkinson looking at a European pre-season tour and a competitive transfer kitty for Howe.
But in an alarming week, that has resulted in a 7-2 battering against Barcelona and now a 2-1 loss to Sunderland, there has been a change of mood on the terraces. This is no longer just online discontent as fans were vocal in their anger within the stadium after a loss to Sunderland.
Bearing in mind, Alan Pardew had season tickets thrown at him and a supporter needed to be restrained in 2014, this was rather mild in comparison. That was back in the Mike Ashley era though when the club didn’t have a pot to pee in!
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Last season’s Champions League qualification and Carabao Cup win should not be forgotten and offers Howe credit in the bank. But that credit is whittling down to zero as things stand with some supporters.
With a three-week break, the word in Saudi Arabia last night was that PIF chiefs, including Yasir Al-Rumayyan will listen to the views of Wilson and Hopkinson. They will guide PIF at the moment but the reality is that bigger questions may come the way of Howe in the summer.
After spending £700m, Newcastle, in their fourth full season since the takeover, should be at least pushing for a Europa League slot and domestic trophies. During that time Sunderland have rose from League One – and whether Newcastle like it or not – they are not currently the North East’s leading team in terms of league position.
Howe said that PSR was having an effect on Newcastle and also brought up the sale of Alexander Isak to Liverpool at the start of the season. But for some fans that won’t wash.
A glance up at Hopkinson as Anthony Taylor signalled the end of the derby, and perhaps the season in terms of being even a slight success story, was telling. Hopkinson looked like a man deep in thought and very concerned with the way the campaign is spluttering out.
Al-Rumayyan has spoken about being ‘No 1’ before but the Magpies are way off that spot at the moment. Hopkinson wants Newcastle to be world class by 2030 but it will take an incredible amount of work and money to be up there by that time.
Howe said: “The rules have made it very difficult to have momentum to go with the speed it (the club) initially went with.
“I don’t know a way we can beat that system. We have to follow the rules that are set, the club desperately want to be ambitious but there is a limit to what we can spend.
“That has a knock on effect on everything we do. To not recruit for that many windows, I don’t know a team that would not suffer from that. We certainly have, and then losing Alexander Isak last summer was a considerable blow. But again we can’t feel sorry for ourselves and use excuses.
“We have to find a way to be successful despite all of those things. But with that there has to be an understanding of the type of conditions we are under.”
Howe went on: “Every transfer window is so, so important. And unfortunately for us we have had some difficult windows where we haven’t recruited. Last summer was tough to say the least, it is the hardest transfer window I have ever had, so of course we don’t want to lose momentum.
“We want to bring the best players to the club and not lose our best players. So that combination is so important but it becomes more challenging for us because we don’t have the revenues of the other clubs.
“I don’t know how many times I can say it. All we can do is accept the criticism. Whatever words you want to use, I am not going to challenge them. We have to develop.”
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