{"id":556656,"date":"2026-03-31T18:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T18:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/556656\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T18:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T18:40:08","slug":"eddie-howe-faces-seven-game-test-to-secure-newcastle-job-for-next-season-newcastle-united","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/556656\/","title":{"rendered":"Eddie Howe faces seven-game test to secure Newcastle job for next season | Newcastle United"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eddie Howe has seven games to reassure Newcastle\u2019s hierarchy that he remains the right manager<\/a> to lead the club into next season.<\/p>\n

Newcastle sit 12th in the Premier League and David Hopkinson, the chief executive, has made plain his displeasure at the recent 2-1 home defeat by Sunderland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have a stance on his [Howe\u2019s] future,\u201d Hopkinson said during a media briefing related to the club\u2019s latest set of, largely encouraging, financial results. \u201cWhat I can tell you is that the derby loss hurt. We take it seriously. There\u2019s nothing within us that thinks: \u2018Well, it\u2019s just three points and on we go.\u2019 It has resonated.\u201d<\/p>\n

A defeat that dictated R\u00e9gis Le Bris, Sunderland\u2019s manager, has choreographed a Tyne-Wear double derby triumph this season was dissected during an \u201cintense\u201d lunch meeting between Howe and Hopkinson last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spent a couple of hours in a one-on-one lunch with Eddie and we talked through a multitude of things including Sunderland,\u201d said Hopkinson, who remains hopeful Howe can secure another European qualification after Newcastle\u2019s recent 8-3 Champions League last-16 aggregate defeat<\/a> by Barcelona.<\/p>\n

\u201cEddie\u2019s our manager,\u201d he said. \u201cI expect to have a great run to the end of the season and we\u2019ll talk about the future when it\u2019s time. Right now, we\u2019re focused on this season\u2019s competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given that Hopkinson spoke glowingly of Howe shortly after coming to Newcastle last autumn and compared the former Bournemouth manager to Bruce Springsteen, the change in the mood music seemed striking.<\/p>\n

When pressed to clarify whether Howe\u2019s position would be assessed in the summer, Hopkinson said: \u201cI would not frame it that way. We are not looking to make a change at the moment. We are not having those conversations. We are still in the midst of our season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are focused on the seven matches we have remaining and not distracting ourselves with speculation about what we may or may not do in the summer. All of us have only got so much bandwidth and we are focused on finishing this season strongly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Howe, who signed a \u201cmulti-year\u201d contract extension in 2023, has claimed repeatedly that the sale of Alexander Isak to Liverpool for \u00a3125m<\/a> on transfer deadline day last summer has hindered the team\u2019s progress.<\/p>\n

Hopkinson, though, emphasised that Newcastle need to become a \u201ctrading\u201d club and said he endorsed offloading the striker at that moment, for that price. \u201cI wasn\u2019t here for the Isak situation,\u201d he said. \u201cBut, to me, Isak was a good sale.<\/p>\n

David Hopkinson said he will not comment on whether Newcastle are ready to sell their star players this summer. Photograph: Ben Whitley\/PA<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing forward our strategy is to buy well and sell well. Buying well does not necessarily mean spending the most money. It means working in the market place for the players that generate the most value for this club rather than the fee paid for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hopkinson played a straight bat when asked whether Newcastle were ready this summer to sell their much-coveted Italy international Sandro Tonali, or one of their other blue-chip players, including Bruno Guimar\u00e3es, Anthony Gordon and Tino Livramento.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not ready to answer that,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can make a box office signing but we might not be able to do that without selling somebody. What I do know is that players that leave this club will need to do so on our terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

The intention to trade \u201csmartly\u201d is necessitated by the desire of Newcastle\u2019s majority owner, Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund, to run the club as a sustainable business and the imperative to remain on the right side of tight Premier League and even stricter Uefa spending rules.<\/p>\n

The accounts reveal that the leasehold on St James\u2019 Park has been sold to PZ Holdings Ltd, for \u00a3172.1m. PZ Holdings is a subsidiary company controlled, jointly, by PIF and Newcastle\u2019s minority owners, Reuben Brothers. It is understood they have leased the ground back to the club for 50 years in a transaction that resulted in a \u00a3129m profit after scrutiny by the Premier League that judged the valuation to be a fair market rate.<\/p>\n

Although that deal contributed significantly to the club\u2019s post-tax profit of \u00a334.7m the Newcastle chief financial officer, Simon Capper, played down its significance, suggesting it was partly about administrative and financial housekeeping.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe motivation was very much to reorganise our property assets and get them into the correct legal boxes to go forward with our potential development, either at St James\u2019 Park or for a new stadium and to facilitate that with financing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The sale of St James\u2019 Park resulted in a \u00a3129m profit after the Premier League judged the valuation to be a fair market rate. Photograph: MI News\/NurPhoto\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Significantly, selling the leasehold to another company controlled by the club will permit Newcastle to borrow money through PZ Newco Holdings Ltd without paying exorbitant interest.<\/p>\n

Hopkinson feels the club are moving in the right direction after the financial results for the year ended June 2025 revealed record revenues and a 44% increase in commercial income.<\/p>\n

Newcastle did not play in European competition during the accounting period but won the Carabao Cup and qualified for the Champions League as turnover rose by \u00a315m to \u00a3335.3m.<\/p>\n

Newcastle\u2019s turnover remains roughly half that of rivals including Liverpool and Arsenal, but Hopkinson is not deterred. \u201cOur competitors are formidable and they\u2019ve already got a head start on us,\u201d said a chief executive who, in December, said he expected Newcastle to be \u201cin the debate\u201d<\/a> about the identity of the world\u2019s best clubs by 2030. \u201cBut all they\u2019ve got is a head start and we\u2019ve got a tremendous opportunity for growth right in front of us. We\u2019ve got to catch these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

One way to maximise commercial revenue would be to expand St James\u2019 Park or build a new ground but Hopkinson declined to provide an update on stadium plans or details of a potential new training ground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eddie Howe has seven games to reassure Newcastle\u2019s hierarchy that he remains the right manager to lead the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-556656","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-soccer","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}