Where Does Eddie Go From Here?

Inconsistent effort in games, awful away form, last minute goals conceded, no change to starting formations, no change to tactics after substitutions, top players off form....

Even Eddie's most loyal supporters are now beginning to voice big concerns,

And I'm one of them.

Small holes sink big ships but big holes sink them even quicker.

For me, the big hole that started NUFC to sink to this seasons's level was the summer transfer window. It was supposed to be transformative... it was anything but.

We lost our one truly elite player, Isak; replaced him with our 5th choice ST and a 29yr old; signed our 2nd choice RW, Elanga, that no other top club wanted; paid £40M for Ramsey who Villa haven't missed; brought in Ramsdale on loan who was discarded by Arsenal and ended up at Southampton.

Our best signing has been Thiaw, and at £35M he was the cheapest.

The first 11 has been weakened not improved

Missing out on our top targets who all opted to go elsewhere may - and I say may - have improved the squad. But it definitely hasn't improved our best 11.

For all that Woltemade has done... he is no Isak.

Isak could pull a goal out of nothing, burn CB's for pace, and go on a run that opened up space and scoring chances for others. That isn't Woltemade's game.

That 'second class' summer signing spree has left us with a weaker first 11 when we needed exactly the opposite to challenge on four fronts. Harsh, but true.

Some fans will say that we have been unlucky, should have had penalties, more points etc... but every fan of every team can roll out those reasons.

The fact is top teams make their own luck and we've repeated too many mistakes and poor performances this season - we are exactly where we deserve to be in the League.

Did the summer crush morale?

The euphoria of winning our first trophy in decades sent expectations sky high for this season, especially as PIF were prepared to spend big on going to the 'next level'.

Isak's determination to abandon ship, and the constant rejection from our top targets won't have just affected us fans... it will definitely have affected Eddie and the squad.

Whatever image us fans, Eddie and the squad had of NUFC being a big club the summer transfer window showed that when the traditional big boys are interested we are also rans.

That would have been a crushing blow of reality across the club and especially to our best and highly ambitious players like Bruno, Tonali, Gordon and Botman.

Those players knew we needed a big upgrade in quality to be genuine challengers across the four competitions and our transfer failure will have hit home hard.

Consciously or sub- consciously I think morale and confidence in NUFC across the squad will have been affected. And... Eddie Howe will have felt that too.

Where does the season - and Eddie - go from here?

The positives; we are in the SF of the Carabou Cup and in with a real chance of qualifying for the knock out stages of the CL. We also have a home draw in the FA Cup.

The negatives; only a miracle run will see us qualify again for the CL.

Worst case; by the end of January we could be out of both cups, out of the CL, in a mid table or worse position in the League. Nothing would surprise me or many fans.

I'm going to repeat the opening paragraph of this post...

Inconsistent effort in games, awful away form, last minute goals conceded, no change to starting formations, no change to tactics after substitutions, top players off form....

Eddie has multiple issues to sort out and with matches coming thick and fast little time on the training pitch to address one, never mind them all.

But, sort them he has to, because for the first time he is under real pressure to prove that he is still the man to lead Newcastle United forward. PIF will be watching.

That winning run we've been waiting for all season has to start against Burnley.

Another loss doesn't bear thinking about.

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