Eddie Howe has set out to win games to give him the ‘best chance’ of staying at Newcastle United as the Magpies boss looks to end the club’s long wait for silverware.
Howe took charge of a relegation-threatened side little more than three years ago and the Newcastle head coach has since overseen a remarkable transformation at the club. Newcastle qualified for the Champions League in 2023 and narrowly missed out on a place in Europe last year following an injury-ravaged campaign.
Although Newcastle currently lie in 10th place, after an inconsistent run of results, the black-and-whites sent a timely reminder of their qualities in a 3-3 draw against Liverpool at St James’ Park on Wednesday night. The challenge now is to produce such performances on a more regular basis after Newcastle defeated Arsenal and Spurs; knocked Chelsea out of the Carabao Cup; and got a point versus Liverpool and Manchester City yet failed to beat Crystal Palace, West Ham, Brighton, Everton, Fulham and Bournemouth
Newcastle are just three points off fifth, but former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan has repeatedly referred to Howe as a gatekeeper and even previously likened the Newcastle boss’ situation to Mark Hughes’ at Manchester City in 2009. Not that Howe has given it a second thought.
“It’s wasted emotion,” Howe told Up Front when Jordan put it to him. “It’s wasted energy thinking, ‘Oh, what if I’m a gatekeeper? What if this happens?’ You can’t influence it.
“All I can influence is trying to win games and my best chance of staying in the role and being the guy who can take the club forward long-term is to win matches. All my focus, all my energy, goes on that and I’m a great believer that the end result will be the end result. All I can do is give my best.”
Newcastle travel to high-flying Brentford on Saturday and the black-and-whites will also take on the Bees in a huge Carabao Cup quarter-final clash at St James’ Park later this month. Howe has long visualised what it would be like to end the club’s trophy drought and that desire ‘burns inside’ of him, particularly after Newcastle lost the final in 2023.
“I made it clear when I came here that it was my personal dream to try and bring some silverware to this unbelievable club,” he added. “It’s been too long. There’s a desire from everyone internally to make that happen. We came close. We want to go closer.”
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