Newcastle United backed Eddie Howe after last season’s disappointing 12th-place Premier League finish when calls for his firing were mounting among fans, but questions are already being raised about how much pressure he could face if results fail to improve, which is bound to happen unless the Magpies make a 180-degree turn during the remainder of the transfer window.
The summer has turned turbulent with Newcastle losing both Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali, while Bruno Guimaraes continues to be linked with Arsenal and several top transfer targets have slipped away on the incoming front.
All of that has led former Manchester United chief scout Mick Brown to tell Football Insider that he believes all the late developments could leave Howe in a vulnerable position right from the start of the new campaign, even if the transfer setbacks are largely outside the manager’s control.
“Eddie Howe is going to be under huge pressure at Newcastle next season,” Brown told Football Insider. “They finished 12th last season which was way short of their expectations, but it’s not too much of a stretch to suggest next season could be even worse for them.”
Brown pointed to Newcastle’s weakening squad and the club’s struggles to reinforce it after missing out on top targets Victor Munoz and Johan Manzambi in the transfer market.
“They’ve already lost Gordon and Tonali, it looks like Bruno is going to follow them, and when you look at the squad, they’re weak in pretty much every position,” Brown said. “Now they’re missing out on the players they’ve wanted to bring in to strengthen the squad, so they’re much worse off than they were last season.”
Brown argued that, regardless of the circumstances, managers are ultimately judged on results, and that might be Howe’s fate for the worse.
“Unfortunately for Howe, it always comes back on the manager when results aren’t good enough, regardless of what the reasons for that are,” Brown said. “So if they go into next season performing well below their usual standard, and results aren’t going their way, that usually leads to the manager getting sacked and Howe could be in a tricky spot.”
Finally, Brown also suggested that Newcastle has developed some “big issues” in the transfer market after missing out on multiple priority targets across the last two summer windows.
