It is hard to imagine Eddie Howe having a heart to heart with one or two Premier League managers, but Pep Guardiola? That has always felt different. There is a reason why the pair shared a long embrace after Newcastle United went toe-to-toe with Manchester City at St James’ Park earlier this season.
“I said to him how I admire him for the way he approaches the game,” Guardiola revealed.
Expect similar scenes regardless of what happens at the Etihad on Saturday. The gap has narrowed, but Guardiola has not looked over his shoulder like other members of the established order. Guardiola has even declared that Newcastle will be a ‘real threat to fight for the title’ in the coming years.
Howe, similarly, has spoken of his opposite number in glowing terms and described the team Guardiola built at Barcelona as the best he has ever seen. The Newcastle boss even welcomed the Manchester City boss’ recent contract extension.
“I just think Pep’s really good for the English game,” Howe said. “I really do. He’s an innovator. He’s very good at what he does – arguably the best ever that we’ve seen here – and he’s taken the game to another level. That’s why it’s so good for us all to go up against him and try to find solutions to problems.”
Dig a little deeper and that mutual respect has extended beyond the dugout in recent years. Former owner Mehrdad Ghodussi talked up the similarities with Manchester City, following the club’s own sovereign wealth takeover, and said the Magpies wanted to take the ‘best of other clubs and apply it to Newcastle’. Ghodoussi and Amanda Staveley even visited Manchester City’s state-of-the-art training base for inspiration just a few months after the buy-out while head of youth recruitment Paul Midgley, head of national youth scouting Paul McLaren and lead video analyst Ciaran Hughes have all joined Newcastle from the champions.
Away from the game, too, the clubs clearly have common ground having repeatedly voted against associated party transaction (APT) regulations. It was Newcastle, for instance, who provided a written statement in support of Manchester City and gave a witness testimony when the champions launched a legal fight against these rules.
Newcastle’s buy-out ended up proving a central point to Manchester City’s argument. The champions’ legal team went as far as to claim that the evidence on which the Premier League relied in order to introduce APTs included ‘fear mongering about the takeover of Newcastle United’.
The tribunal even heard that a panicked unnamed executive emailed the Premier League on behalf of his club and 10 others to request that notice be given of a vote to introduce a short-term ban on related-party transactions just five days after the takeover in 2021. When cross-examined by Manchester City’s barristers over two-and-a-half years later, this senior figure openly admitted that the Newcastle buy-out ‘heightened’ concerns and ‘encouraged the clubs to seek action’.
The tribunal accepted that the acquisition was the ‘catalyst for the consultation process’ leading up to the APT regulations being introduced and agreed that there was no document recording any discussion about a revision to PSR rules until Richard Masters, the top-flight’s chief executive, wrote to member clubs following the aforementioned email. As Manchester City now launch a fresh legal battle against what the champions have repeatedly termed ‘unlawful’ APT rules, Newcastle will certainly be watching on with interest. This is a case that could have huge consequences.
View news Source: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/newcastle-united-find-ally-man-30972565
