I’d resign if I wasn’t still the right manager for Newcastle United: Eddie Howe

LONDON – Days after he said he was “not doing my job well enough at the moment”, Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe defiantly made his case, insisting he would resign only if he felt he was no longer the right man for the job.

He made the initial comments after the Magpies were booed off the pitch following a 3-2 loss at home to Brentford at St James’ Park on Feb 7.

A run of one win in eight games has seen Newcastle’s defence of the League Cup comprehensively ended by Manchester City, Howe’s side miss out on direct qualification to the last 16 of the Champions League and drop to 12th in the English Premier League.

Speaking on the eve of his side’s Premier League clash at Tottenham Hotspur on Feb 10, Howe insisted there was “no doubt in my mind” that he was the right person to manage Newcastle.

“That’s why I’m sitting here,” he said on Feb 8.

“If there was doubt, I wouldn’t be – because the club is the most important thing. I’ve never put myself before the club.

“If I didn’t think I was the correct man to take the team forward and I couldn’t give the players what they need, then I would step aside and let someone else do it.”

The 48-year-old Englishman took the job in November 2021 with the club mired in a relegation battle and was the first managerial appointment after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund took over the club a month earlier.

He has twice delivered Champions League football and won the club’s first domestic trophy for 70 years.

But the Magpies’ recent form has led to questions about whether he has hit a glass ceiling on Tyneside.

Despite being backed by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, Newcastle have been hampered by financial sustainability rules that have consistently left Howe frustrated at not being able to bolster his squad in the transfer market.

Newcastle have taken all three points in just two of their last 15 Premier League away matches, drawing five, and have lost their last three in London ahead of a trip to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Former Bournemouth boss Howe admitted the club were going through one of the roughest patches of his reign, but said he can turn things around.

“Those experiences I have been through countless times before stand me in good stead for this moment,” he added.

“The collective spirit is what we’re after. We’re after the collective fight from all the players and if you have that resolve within the group, you can do amazing things again, so it can turn very quickly.

“The momentum is against us at the moment. We have to swing it back and then the world can look a very different place within a couple of games.”

Their opponents Spurs are also struggling, sitting 15th in the league with their manager Thomas Frank under even more pressure than Howe.

Tottenham have won just one of their last 10 Premier League matches.

In other key matches on Feb 10, fourth-placed Manchester United visit West Ham United hoping to keep interim boss Michael Carrick’s perfect run going. After just four matches, he has already surpassed his predecessor Ruben Amorim’s longest winning run.

Fifth-placed Chelsea will be hoping to keep pace with the Red Devils when they host Leeds United on the same day. AFP, REUTERS