Eddie Howe spoke to the media on Friday.
He did a number of different interviews, with Sky Sports, official club media, BBC Newcastle, as well one with a number of journalists.
The one with journalists (see below) the one that has attracted the most attention.
Quite amusing really that whilst the journalists clearly approached the first chance of pre-season to speak to Eddie Howe with the England question absolutely the massive/only item on their agenda.
Eddie Howe actually then chose to dismiss England as irrelevant and instead, use the opportunity to simply lay down how he wants things to be at Newcastle United moving forward.
So many slants/variations put on what Eddie Howe said (see below) BUT to me quite straightforward.
This is NOT Eddie Howe raising the possibility that he could leave in the coming weeks and not be in charge when the season kicks off, quite the opposite in fact, at least to me.
I would be astonished if Eddie Howe left Newcastle this summer and when I read/heard what he said on Friday, that simply confirmed it.
To me, Eddie Howe is saying he isn’t going anywhere now for sure, BUT in the future if the club goes in a different direction that means his role ends up not being how he wants it to be, then that could/would change.
Eddie Howe making the point that a lot has changed this summer in terms of personnel at board and senior executive level, with Amanda Staveley, Mehrdad Ghodoussi, and Dan Ashworth leaving, whilst Paul Mitchell and James Bunce have arrived (I think we will see more changes/additions high up at the club, including I would say for sure at least one addition to the board with Amanda Staveley stepping down).
Eddie Howe will never be in a stronger position than he is now, having done a brilliant job these last 32 months and England quite clearly are desperate for him to replace Gareth Southgate BUT know Howe won’t take the job. Plus as you have seen this summer with Chelsea forced to go for Maresca and Man U forced to stick reluctantly with Erik ten Hag, you know absolutely for sure that the likes of these two clubs and many others would love to have snapped up Eddie Howe.
So no wonder Eddie Howe is using this moment/situation to remind everybody at Newcastle United of the brilliant job he has done in terms of both improving the players he inherited back in November 2021 AND taking the leading role in deciding the major signings that have arrived these past two and a half years.
Eddie Howe decided on Kieran Trippier, Dan Burn, Matt Targett, Chris Wood and Bruno Guimaraes in his very first transfer window, as well as setting up the Sven Botman deal for the next window, the defender wanting to go right to the end of the Lille Champions League run that season, not leave halfway through.
Those signings all happened without any sporting director in place.
Then Dan Ashworth arrived and he assisted Eddie Howe in bringing in Nick Pope, Alexander Isak, and closing the Sven Botman deal that next (summer 2022) window.
That followed by more excellent signings in Anthony Gordon, Yankuba Minteh, Sandro Tonali, Lewis Hall, Tino Livramento, and Harvey Barnes.
No other Premier League club has recruited as well as this, in terms of quality AND value for money, in these last two and a half years.
So no wonder that Eddie Howe is spelling it out clearly, especially to the Newcastle United owners. That so far things have worked brilliantly at Newcastle United, so absolutely no need to change things, certainly with his player recruitment happens at the highest and most expensive level.
Eddie Howe welcoming the new arrivals at the club and giving special praise in particularly to Paul Mitchell as an outstanding appointment as the new Sporting Director. Whilst at the same time just making clear to everybody, where he (Eddie Howe) stands.
So long as it is Eddie Howe who has the final say on which players are signed, that it doesn’t become the farce that we saw previously when Mike Ashley simply employed puppets such as Steve Bruce and Alan Pardew, with them having no say on who was signed and sold.
I have no doubt that when we get to summer 2025, Eddie Howe will then have an idea of exactly how things have gone and the future direction of travel, then if he wasn’t happy with that direction of travel, he may well decide it isn’t for him.
However, that is very much getting into hypotheticals, and you could just as easily be asking the question of what would Eddie Howe do if Newcastle United were relegated next season, or what if Newcastle United won the Premier League?
We are all living in the here and now AND for me, Eddie Howe has made clear he isn’t taking the England job, or indeed any other job, at this moment in time.
Newcastle United is his sole focus and he will be there at St James’s Park four weeks today for that opening game against Southampton.
Eddie Howe talking to journalists on Friday about Newcastle United and the future – 19 July 2024:
“I absolutely want to stay but it has to be right for me and the football club.
“There’s absolutely no point in me saying I’m happy staying at Newcastle United if the dynamic isn’t right.
“I’m certainly not serving Newcastle United well if I do that.
“So, as long as I am happy, feel supported, feel free to work in the way that I want to work, I have not thought of anything else other than Newcastle United.
“I absolutely love the club.
“I love the supporters.
“I love where I am at in my career.
“There is no better place for me to be.
“That is how I feel.
“There has been a lot of change at the football club this summer.
“It has been a very difficult summer for everyone connected with the club.
“With change comes always a new feeling.
“You can point to PSR, Amanda [Staveley] and Mehrdad [Ghodoussi], a change in sporting director which, of course, influences me.
“These are all big changes. That is why I have made the points that I have because this has to work for Newcastle United
“It is not about me as the manager.
“I’m slightly irrelevant.
“It’s about making sure Newcastle United is as strong as it can be for the next season and beyond.
“We have all got to come together and make sure that we are the force that we want to be.
“For me, it’s not about England. That is absolutely someone else’s conversation, not mine. Mine is Newcastle United.
“To speak about something else while manager of Newcastle United is wrong.
“I don’t think I have to say the answer again. The answer is clear.
“At any football club it can’t be one man’s decision [when it comes to transfers] and I wouldn’t expect that to be the case.
“I think collaboration on every level is vital.
“There has to be a unity around every decision because it is so big now.
“That collaboration is important to me.
“It’s difficult because Amanda and Mehrdad have been incredible for the football club along with everyone else. It has been a real team effort since I have been here. I built up a strong relationship with them. They were very active and vocal and supportive.
“England is not even in my focus, it’s all about Newcastle United, it has been all summer.
“I think England is a very special job for someone. I am very patriotic and I’m not ashamed to say that. I love my country. I want my country to do well. I was gutted for Gareth and the lads that they did not win the Euros but I don’t have that job like a burning sensation in me, that I have to do it at some stage.
“I have been really happy for two and a half years at Newcastle United and I have loved every second of the relationships that I’ve had and the way I’ve been able to work.
“I think that has brought success.
“We’re in the flux of change, it’s just happened.
“I can’t say with a definitive answer where that will lead. I hope it leads to everything that I’ve just said. I’m not really seeking assurances.
“It will be a feeling because the club have made decisions.
“I don’t think I have the right to challenge those or want to challenge those decisions.
“The club has to choose its direction and that is absolutely their right.
“I’ve got no issue with that, but obviously, I have to be happy in my work.
“I have to feel that this is something that can benefit me and the football club for it to work.”
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