Eddie Howe sack? Newcastle ‘slump survival’ claim trumped by PIF desire ‘to be number one’

Eddie Howe might just be the best of many very good decisions made by the Newcastle owners, but just because the Saudis were right to hire him doesn’t mean they would now be wrong to sack him. They didn’t get in the sportswashing game for mediocrity.

Champions League football, remarkable player improvement and the return of vibes to St James’ Park are all significant sources of goodwill for Eddie Howe at Newcastle, but banked credit diminishes quickly in football, and seven defeats in eight games won’t be taken lightly by owners whose primary concern is the image their football club helps to wash.

Howe still has the backing of the Newcastle fans, who – in the main – are more than willing to accept the excuse for their awful run of form. It’s impossible to argue for Howe’s sacking – perhaps by pointing out that picking up one point from losing positions doesn’t suggest his is a dressing room full of drive and confidence – without his supporters talking of injuries, with ‘decimation’ the word of the season on Tyneside.

And when critics have the cheek to point out that the team doesn’t look all that bad – six of the starting XI against Liverpool were bought under the current regime – Toon fans, and north-east journalists peddling the ‘loyal support’ line as mouthpieces for Amanda Staveley, insist those players are entirely knackered as a result of being forced to play so often.

Bruno Guimaraes has played more football than any player in Europe’s top five leagues this season. But Bruno Fernandes, Gabriel Magalhaes, John McGinn, Declan Rice, William Saliba, Kyle Walker, Tomas Soucek, Diogo Dalot, Mohamed Salah and Edson Alvarez have all played more than Kieran Trippier, the next most overworked Newcastle player. Frankly, being shattered comes with the territory.

Staveley and the other domestic power-brokers at Newcastle remain steadfast in their support of Howe. They recognise the difficulty of balancing European and domestic commitments with a squad shallow in comparison to the rivals they beat to Champions League qualification last season.

They were at least two years ahead of schedule at the start of this campaign and The Telegraph reported last week that ‘Howe will survive any slump because they believe he is the perfect manager for the Newcastle United they want to build over the next few years’.

It’s about as unequivocal backing as any manager could hope for in modern football; one that borders on negligence – he would ‘survive any slump’, would he? – if indeed it’s an endorsement of any worth at all. Saudi chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the Public Investment Fund, holds all the power, and PIFs interpretation of Howe may be entirely different.

The Saudi image is one of power and prosperity, and faced with a situation in which FFP rules prevent them from using their bottomless cash reserves to buy the best players in world football, one way in which the Saudis can show they mean business is to land a world-class manager, who they will hope can lead them to glory, but will at the very least be a name they can bandy around palace functions and have glowering down from skyscraper billboards in Riyadh without people asking ‘who the hell is that?’

“That’s Jason Tindall, but just behind him is the manager of Newcastle United.”

Al-Rumayyan has said “we have an ambition and aspiration to be number one” in football, but Newcastle are a long way off that target as things stand. Despite being the richest owners in world football, they’re nowhere near the richest club. They can’t buy their way to the top like Chelsea or Manchester City – they need to make money to spend money, and winning games of football is crucial to their revenue.

There will be no further funds from European football this season having finished bottom of their group, and they’re way off the pace in a bid to qualify for the Champions League next season. It’s not just about prize money but the ability to attract the biggest sponsors, who aren’t going to be flocking to get their name on the shirts of a mid-table side.

Howe supporters will ask if there’s any manager who could take this squad, given the injury issues, back into the Champions League. To which the answer would be ‘of course there bloody is’. Whether they can select or persuade the right person for the job is the question.

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But what we do know is that PIF have got near enough every decision right so far. Guimaraes, Trippier, Alexander Isak, Sven Botman and Nick Pope are just a few of the excellent signings, with Anthony Gordon chief among the additions to illustrate their transfer smarts, or at least the nous of the people they’ve put in charge of making those decisions, like Dan Ashworth.

And hiring Eddie Howe may well be their best decision yet. He’s been brilliant; he’s been exactly what the needed. But he’s not going to be there forever, and just because hiring him was a stroke of genius doesn’t mean sacking him now isn’t the right thing to do. The Saudis can’t be seen to do nothing, and surely won’t allow one of their great sportswashing tools to sit idle for long.