Eddie Howe has transformed Newcastle United from relegation candidates to the Champions League.
This is not Newcastle United’s first foray into the Champions League group stage. The Toons participated in the group phase 20 years ago, up against the likes of Barcelona, Inter Milan and Juventus.
But the return to the European top comes after two tumultuous decades for one of Britain’s best supported clubs, whose legion of long-suffering fans have a new Messiah.
The transformation of the club under Eddie Howe has been nothing short of phenomenal. The numbers behind the revolution spell it all out.
When Howe took over in November 2021, Newcastle sat in 19th spot in the Premier League table. His record up to the start of this new season was 38 victories, 18 draws and 17 wins for a 52% win tally.
Even more significant was the top- four finish and a chance to pit their progress, and prowess, against Europe’s elite again. No one expected the game-changing corrective delivered by the purchase of Newcastle in 2021 by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to kick in quite so quickly.
Mike Ashley, the unloved and largely disengaged previous owner, had spent more than a decade trying to sell the club, leaving it in an almost permanent state of limbo.
Howe, who turns 46 next month, is described as a man with tunnel vision that somewhat encompasses a 360-degree view. He looks across everything, yet never takes his eye off the prize in the distance.
The groundwork for their success last season was laid with work on fitness and creating a “united” team mentality. Howe laughed when reporters earlier this year told him that defender Dan Burn, one of the leadership group among the players, had declared: “Intensity is our identity”. He was smiling because the mantra he drills into the squad at every training was coming back out in their own words.
Howe’s amalgam of emotionally intelligent man-management and high- calibre coaching has transformed one of the slowest, least athletic sides into high-pressing, high-energy, high-paced crowd pleasers.
It has helped that the £250 million Newcastle have spent on new players since the takeover has been significantly better invested than the similar sum poured into squads at other clubs over the same time span.
Bruno Guimarães (£35 million from Lyon), Sven Botman (£35 m from Lille), Alexander Isak (£60 m from Real Sociedad), Nick Pope (£10 m from Burnley) and Dan Burn (£13 m from Brighton) have proven shrewd purchases, and the £12.5 m invested in luring Kieran Trippier from Atlético Madrid has furnished not only Howe with an excellent right-back, but also the squad with a standard-setting, bar- raising captain.
Howe says Newcastle is the only job he wants, and he intends to stay for as long as the club will keep him. He signed a new, long-term contract at the start of this campaign and, with his wife and three sons now settled on Tyneside, he insists there is no offer for which he would quit St James’ Park.
Good news for Newcastle fans, with Howe winning many hearts and minds through hard work and decency.
Photo by EPA/PETER POWELL
