Eddie Howe has left Newcastle United as manager, and his probable replacement is Matthias Jaissle. The departure came after a 4-1 friendly defeat to Bristol City, with less than four weeks remaining before the new Premier League season begins. It follows a campaign in which Newcastle finished 12th in the league.
According to BBC Sport, rumors about Howe's departure had been circulating since the beginning of this year, when Newcastle sat 13th in the Premier League and securing Champions League football for the following season was already looking highly unlikely. Howe had communicated his intent to leave after finding the difficulties of building a squad he was happy with had become too much to manage. He had publicly acknowledged the constraints in March, saying "there's a limit to what we can spend" despite the club's stated ambitions.
Howe's tenure lasted four and a half years. It included Newcastle's first domestic trophy in 70 years, the Carabao Cup, won last year. That achievement had placed him in rare company on Tyneside. Yahoo Sports noted that Sir Bobby Robson and Kevin Keegan had both left Newcastle suddenly in late summers, decisions that sent the club into transition and trouble. Howe's exit carries some of the same timing problems, though it comes before a season has started rather than after it has already gone wrong.
The numbers from the final stretch of last season were difficult. Newcastle lost six of their last nine league games, nine of 17 in total. They were beaten home and away by Sunderland. Their Champions League campaign ended with a 7-2 defeat to Barcelona. In the EFL Cup, they made the semi-finals only to lose 5-1 on aggregate to Manchester City. They exited the FA Cup in the fifth round.
The financial picture adds further context. Newcastle's Saudi Arabia-backed takeover in 2021 by the Public Investment Fund was supposed to transform the club into one of the world's best. Seven months ago, chief executive David Hopkinson said he could put them "in the debate about being the top club in the world" by 2030. That ambition looks distant now. The club has been forced to sell players to generate income under Premier League spending rules. Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali have already departed. Striker Alexander Isak was sold to Liverpool for £125 million last September. Captain Bruno Guimaraes is reported to be on his way to Arsenal. The combined proceeds from recent departures are around £370 million, according to Yahoo Sports.
Transfers into the club have been limited. Newcastle missed out on Swiss midfielder Johan Manzambi, who went to Aston Villa, and Spanish winger Victor Munoz, who signed with Liverpool. The failure to bring in the right players compounded the losses on the other side of the ledger.
Howe was asked about getting his own statue at St James' Park 17 months ago, the day Newcastle won the Carabao Cup. He deflected the questions with characteristic modesty. Asked whether he was a legend, he said: "We don't put ourselves in that bracket. We will let other people decide that when we are long gone."
Now Jaissle steps into a club with significant gaps to fill, a transfer window still open, and a season beginning in under a month.
