Eddie Howe: A Legend Up There With Joe Harvey, KK & SBR

Eddie Howe gave me something that I'd waited 64 years for...

Seeing my beloved Newcastle United winning a cup at Wembley.

For all the great times under KK and SBR we were always the Best Man and never the Groom. And frankly, I'd had enough of being a good loser. I wanted to be a winner.

Eddie gave me that glorious day at Wembley, made all the more glorious that it was against Liverpool, the team who thrashed us in my first Wembley final back in 1974.

That's why Eddie Howe will always have my undying thanks until my last breath.

There is a load more I could say about Eddie Howe and what he gave to Newcastle and the fans. Suffice to say, he is a legend.

And now, how did it come to this?

60 months from disaster

A strange heading you may think.

But most of you will have seen or heard of that TV show '60 Seconds From Disaster' where the disaster was traced back, quite often, to something that seemed innocuous.

Well...

Eddie Howe stepped through the doors at SJP c60 months ago, and now he is stepping out.

Just like that TV show, if you wind back, the outcome was IMO almost inevitable.

Pre PIF takeover

Regular readers know I'm coming up to my 73rd birthday and attended my first match in 1962, being lifted over the turnstiles by my dad Bill to save the old thrupence to get me in.

In 1969 I was lucky enough to be at SJP for the first leg 3-0 win that saw us lift the Fairs Cup after we won 3-2 away to finish 6-2 up on aggregate.

What followed were relegations, promotions, relegations again, losing the FA and LC finals, selling our best players like Gazza, Waddle and Beardsley, lousy times in the old 2nd Division, and then even during the great years of KK and SBR still now winning nowt.

All before PIF and Eddie Howe arrived five years ago.

So where does 60 months from disaster come in?

After we lost that 12pt lead to Man U in the 95/96 season I reckoned that was it - we'd never get the chance of winning the title again.

Why? Because the PL was changing massively with Sky throwing millions at live matches and billionaires like Abramovich, the Glaziers and Sheik Mansour throwing more millions into the pot at Chelsea, Man U and Man City.

The other elite clubs like Arsenal and Liverpool also benefitted from huge investment and Spurs grabbed a share of it as well.

Eventually Sir John hall backed out and Ashley was happy to use the club as an advertisement for Sports Direct and just tread water without any top honour ambition.

All of this led me to believe that if any new billionaires wanted to buy a club, it wouldn't be Newcastle United?

Why?

Because billionaires would want to win the title and CL.

The Big 6 had got so far ahead of NUFC that the investment required would be huge to bring in the players needed to challenge.

Not only that, those elite players would already be on massive wages and would want to sign for clubs who could compete now, not join a hope project,

Plus, as much as we love Newcastle and the area, these top players and their partners would want to strut their stuff around London and Manchester, not the Bigg Market and Quayside.

Even if we signed players who turned out elite, just like Gazza, Waddle and Beardsley before them, those bright lights and established prestige clubs would still have a big pull.

To sign the elite players the Big 6 wanted, and to keep the ones we had, we'd have to pay mega wages well above what they were offered elsewhere.

And then... PIF bought us

Like most fans the thought of going from a thrupenny bit club to having the richest owners in the world was sensational and unbelievably exciting.

That was until the realities of PSR and the PL's decision to ban inter-company sponsorship hit home - the latter deliberately introduced after the takeover to limit PIF's financial clout and Newcastle United's assualt on the established Big 6.

And that's where the 60 months to disaster clock started ticking.

Eddie Howe, unrated by many fans, came in and took us from the brink of relegation to the CL and our first domestic trophy in 60 years.

Along the way we signed players who weren't on the radar of the Big 6; Bruno, Botman, Isak, Hall, Tino, Gordon and Tonali and astute buys like Trippier and Burn.

Together with Eddie's improvement of the old guard, NUFC were challenging for not only a top 6 place, but at the end of the 24/25 season the expectation was ,with the transfer coffers bulging, we could sign the 'next level' players for a title tilt.

And then...

The clock started to tick down to where we are today.

Isak, wasn't going to settle for £200Kpw when he could get £300K at a club in the established top 6.

Then, one after another the 'next level' players we targeted turned their noses up at us and signed for top 6 clubs who weren't even in the CL.

Sounds familiar?

Exactly the same scenario that made me think we'd never be bought by ambitious billionaires.

And, what message did last summer send to the top players we had who were expecting those next level signings to add more cups and even a title to their mantlepiece?

Dead simple. It wasn't happening.

Even worse the players we signed, Thiaw apart, were no better than the ones we already had.

You can bet as the PL form stuttered and faltered, that the previous upward positive beat in the camp was only going one way... down.

And you can bet Eddie Howe saw that and knew it.

Fast forward to the last few weeks.

Gordon and Tonali gone. Bruno wanting away. Persistent rumours about Tino and Hall.

Munoz and Manzambi snubbing us. It's deja vu all over again.

Eddie Howe knew his credit in the bank with many fans after last season's performances was near to empty.

But, he'd lost Isak and his top targets. He had to try and cope with four competitions, including an extended fixture CL, with new signings not up to scratch.

And now, he was faced with trying to meet fan expectations of a much improved season without another three top players to choose from.

I believe that Bruno wanting to leave was the last straw,

The challenge he faced in the coming season to meet that expectation was too great a risk to his reputation and legacy at NUFC.

The reality of where Newcastle are in the PL pecking order was stark - and not something that is going to change any time soon, if at all.

That reality gave Eddie only one option; to leave.

That reality I believe has also already well hit home to PIF.

They underrated, or never considered, that even if the financial restrictions hadn't been in force getting top players to sign for Newcastle, and keep them, would not be easy.

The financial restrictions make it almost impossible.

So, IMO, top players leaving, top players not signing, and Eddie Howe departing, was the inevitable end of 60 Months From Disaster,

We now start the journey all over again with the new manager.

Where will it end?

I'm not sure.

Eddie Howe believed he had taken us as far as he could.

PIF might be thinking the same.

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