Alex Ferguson, Eddie Howe, Manchester United and Newcastle United – Important lessons | OneFootball

Here’s a quick story about a manager.

The manager arrives in November with United struggling in 19th position, a big club staring into the abyss of a relegation battle. He manages to steer the team to an 11th place finish, comfortably clear of danger then rockets them into the top three the next season. The next few years sees the manager implement his ethos and strategy across the club and remodel the team in his image via some shrewd signings and it ultimately pays dividends as he wins major silverware in his third full season.

By now, you’ll all have worked out that I’m talking about Eddie Howe.

Except that’s not the full story, as there was one little lie in the above. This is not a story about “a” manager but a story that could be applied, word for word, to one of two managers. Eddie Howe at Newcastle United is one, and the other is Alex Ferguson when he joined Manchester United.

I’ll just give a second for that twist to sink in and for the more cynical among you to reach for Google to fact check me.

Once these doubts are alleviated, this will surely bring further derision from some quarters. I detested the version of Man Utd that Alex Ferguson built, but you’d have to be either bitter, biased or downright daft, to argue that he is not the best manager we’ve seen in the Premier League era.

A rational argument against this comparison may be that Ferguson did not have PSR rules to contend with, and he had the backing of one of the world’s biggest clubs. Initially, I would argue that Man Utd were not the behemoth they would grow into in subsequent decades in 1986 and secondly, I think it does Fergie a disservice to suggest he only brought about success by being a chequebook manager. For anyone too young to remember, here’s what happened next:

Despite facing rejection from the likes of Gazza and David Hirst (ask yer da) Ferguson built his Man Utd side into league champions by 1993. When elements of this team started to age, he replaced some with the signings this success brought, and others with youth products who had been brought up with the same ethos shared across the entire club, so could transition to the first team seamlessly. No matter who left and who came in, that ethos was central to the club’s success, so the team that won the Premier League in 1993 was obviously considerably different from the side that won the Champions League in 2008, but all variations of this side were built around the same club approach. It was like Trigger’s broom, only with trophies.

This is what Newcastle United have hit on with Eddie Howe.

The youth situation maybe needs to catch up, which requires the support of those working at that level, but the incredible progress of the past few years has been down to the manager’s incredible record of driving high standards regardless of personnel. This could be magnificently illustrated if Nick Woltemade was to become as big a success as Alexander Isak, especially if our erstwhile number 14 doesn’t hit the heights on Merseyside. It’s not player x or player y, it’s the way Howe runs the club. He is the jewel in the crown.

The appointment of Ross Wilson as Sporting Director could, I believe, be a critical part of our future success. Wilson apparently has a good existing relationship with Eddie, and has even been in contact with him ahead of his official joining. He will work with the manager as opposed to look to assert his own power, which seemed to be the approach of Paul Mitchell. Mitchell’s achievements at Newcastle seemed to amount to failing spectacularly to sign Marc Guehi and initiating the discord with Isak that led to his summer strike and the subsequent chaos, so you’ll forgive me for not bemoaning a departure from his methods.

There is a baffling element of Newcastle United fans that seems to take issue with Eddie Howe having so much control, arguably extending to the sporting director working at the manager’s direction. The reason this is the case is because Howe has earned it. Despite the boardroom churn above him, the manager has delivered a great escape, two Champions League qualifications and that elusive trophy, all while maintaining a quality team despite changing personnel. In fact, you could argue his early success was at a quicker pace than Ferguson’s, with Howe’s finishes of 3rd, 7th and 5th showing more consistency than Fergie jumping to 2nd before posting 11th and 13th placed finishes.

I’m sure many will say that the model of the manager being in charge is a thing of the past.

How does that work then? There’s a right way and a wrong way and never the Twain should meet?

Surely the fact this has worked for us for close to four years is evidence enough that it’s a decent plan, to leave the big decisions to someone extremely competent, regardless of what it says on his email sign off. While the Ferguson-ran Man Utd was winning titles, they were challenged regularly by the chop-and-change Chelsea model, with three different managers winning the league for them around the Ferguson victories. There’s different routes to success and methods come in and out of fashion. Look at the comeback of the long throw.

I’ve heard some ludicrous opinions, mainly on YouTube or Twitter, that Howe is not an “elite” manager. This does not translate to SJP, where the manager is pretty much universally appreciated, but there seems to be an element of the TikTok crowd that obsess over the concept of “elite” as if going over the top in support of Messi, some Formula 1 team, or one of the world’s biggest clubs, is a reflection of how they themselves will only accept the elite. For some, it’s clever marketing of their own content but for the vast majority it’s a window into an unfulfilled life.

This mantra has touched this part of the Newcastle fanbase unfortunately, as those unable or unwilling to grasp the concept of PSR restrictions parrot ludicrous theories. The fact we are competing with clubs with £300m more turnover per season than us, is a testament to Eddie Howe’s alchemy, and if we switched him for the brand of chequebook manager the Yewchoobs deem “elite” they would undoubtedly fail to cope with such unprecedented restrictions. We can only hope this attitude doesn’t pervade, as the possibility of the England job arising next summer may seem like a much steadier option when Howe is undoubtedly considered.

There was a similar attitude in the comparison story I’ve used throughout and it’s a cautionary tale. An infamous FA Cup tie at Nottingham Forest in 1990 saw Ferguson apparently on the brink of the sack, with fans supplying bedsheets screaming for his head. Forest were beaten that day, Man U went on to win the cup and the rest is history. The alternative timeline where Lawrie McMenemy took over after this tie would have surely seen the next couple of decades turn out sweeter for Newcastle, so a pox on Mark Robins for his winner that day and all it led to.

I’ve actually pondered at times whether it might have helped our cause to be in the winnable Europa League this year, as Man Utd moved on from that initial success by winning the old Cup Winners Cup. I’m sure we’ll all be happy with a rewarding Champions League run though, and there’s still the domestic cups to have a proper good go at. Either way, if history proves the best teacher, we’re on course to win the league in 2028. Providing we stick with The Man.