After the highs of finishing in the top-four last season, life has proven to be a lot tougher for Newcastle United this time around.
No-one can doubt that the job Eddie Howe has done is quite remarkable and he probably still has the support of the vast majority of the Newcastle fanbase.
But you just never know how the club’s Saudi-led ownership will react to the team possibly failing to make Europe this term.
If that doesn’t happen, the name of Jose Mourinho has been suggested to replace Eddie Howe in the dugout – he has also been touted for the Bayern Munich job.
Ally McCoist admitted that the former Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham boss coming in at Newcastle would be ‘box office’ and ‘we would be talking about it 24 hours a day’, as he told talkSPORT (12/03/24 at 7:55 am).
But he made it clear that, if he was in the St James’ Park boardroom, then he would still stick with Eddie Howe.
The former striker feels the Englishman still has the support of his own fans, even if there are noises outside of Newcastle.
Jose Mourinho at Newcastle United
On Mourinho being a better option than keeping Eddie Howe: “No, it wouldn’t actually,” said McCoist.
“It would be box office, it would be brilliant and we would love it. We would be talking about it 24 hours a day.
“But can everyone just calm down here? We said it before, Newcastle are having a little bit of a struggle. I still say they have to take a couple of steps back to move forward, it depends, we don’t know what the owners are like. We don’t know if the owners are going to panic and press a button.
“But if you are asking me, and I would bet you anything you like, if you are asking the vast majority of the Newcastle fans, they will say ‘everybody just calm down a wee bit. Take our time and we get the season out’.”
Trust in Eddie Howe
It needs to be noted that the Magpies have probably suffered the worst injury crisis from any Premier League club this season.
Plus, it’s not exactly Howe’s fault that Sandro Tonali is banned until next season.
That was his big-name signing and a player who was going to be at the heart of their success.
So, that has been a major blow, on top of Harvey Barnes’ injury issues, as well as Callum Wilson still being unable to stay away from the treatment room.
All of this doesn’t help Howe and he needs to be backed to go again next season because a refreshed Newcastle will be difficult to deal with.
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