Who would even replace Howe at Newcastle and take on tiny ‘PSR elbow room’? Not Maresca or Emery | OneFootball

The Newcastle fan sentiment towards Eddie Howe has turned: he has done a phenomenal job but no longer is he the definitive best man for it. Is Jesse Marsch?

The Mailbox also goes through the World Cup managers who might be available this summer, apropos of nothing.

Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com.

Where’s the beef?

MAW, LA Gooner, wondered where the Arsenal/Liverpool rivalry came from. Well, mate, simple….May 26th, 1982. Now that was peak bottling.

Speaking of which, I’m also minded of Liverpools 2008/09 collapse, the Slippy G season, their 20/21 title defense, and this season’s shambolic title defense after having spent a gazillion pounds. Istanbul aside, are Liverpool actually the biggest bottlers going? -Mark, Seattle. 

Howe’s that?

It’s been a while since I’ve written because my position hasn’t really changed since then — when Newcastle United couldn’t string together a run of form, and I was starting to doubt Eddie Howe — but it has developed.

I’m seeing growing Eddie Out sentiment in my limited social media exposure, although it’s still generally met with a strong current of hostility. Of course, the most aggressive of these folks are also riled by the idea of selling Tonali for £100 million because they can’t accept that we need revenue to extend our spending power under PSR/FFP, and selling players is the best source of revenue short of winning the Champions League.

I still think Eddie’s a fantastic coach, but he’s no longer getting the very best out of anybody but Bruno and Lewises Hall and Miley. I’m also still afraid he only has one tactical idea, and riffing on it with a back three isn’t changing anything as far as results go.

Ultimately, though, he’s handicapped by the financial rules (which I don’t believe are actually corrupt, but don’t work as advertised) and just can’t assemble a squad of speedy, silky first-touch passers like Pep or Ancelloti or whoever can in the jobs they generally take.

Thus, the club will be limited in its options to replace Howe. Brand-name managers don’t want a shallow squad with little resale value outside its most indispensable players and little PSR/FFP elbow room. Even managers like Iraola, Hurzeler and Glasner may have expectations for their next jobs that are beyond our reach. Enzo Maresca surely does.

Unai Emery recognized the club’s situation before anybody outside the club and so rejected us before Eddie was offered the job. He’d have little reason to reconsider.

Thomas Frank or Arne Slot might be options, if they’re sacked, but might not. I understand Marco Silva hasn’t yet signed a new contract with Fulham. Jesse Marsch is doing well with Canada, and has thrived in a multi-club setup, which PIF reportedly wants to establish.

I’m probably not hipster enough to know which hottest new German, Portuguese, or Italo-Hungarian coach is the new hotness.

/s Ruben Amorim is reportedly available. Oh, and how was I unaware that Erik Ten Hag had been fired by Bayer Leverkusen after only three matches? He could probably be prised out of his Technical Director role at Twente. /s

In the end, I’m not sure that any of them would be better at Newcastle than Eddie Howe. Like I said, my opinion has changed, but it has developed. If Eddie gets the sack, I’ll mourn him a while, but I’ll be excited for what’s to come. Heck, I’ve supported NUFC long enough that scaring the sh*t out of PSG in Paris alone makes this an unwasted season. Chris C, Toon Army DC (Imagine Jason Tindall as interim manager. I dare you.)

In defence of Howe: he’s won a trophy which is the main thing along with two CL qualifications. He has overseen some excellent signings and has improved players who were previously bang average. He has developed a style of play which has been effective (until this season). The club hierarchy mismanaged last summer horrendously and TBF many people thought by the end of the summer the business done was decent (oh how wrong we were). And on formation/tactics and criticisms of not switching to something else, real life isn’t like playing Football Manager, you can’t select a formation and just see how it goes, it takes time on the training pitch which they’ve not had with a punishing schedule.

The case for the prosecution: the signings who have underperformed have been Howe’s preferred signings (Elanga, Ramsey, Wissa) although I will credit him with Thiaw who has been on the radar for a long time. His style of play has regressed and his in-game management is predictable and pedestrian to match the predictable and pedestrian tactics. Players who he was getting a lot out of have been woeful this season (Tonali, Gordon). Most damning is that this is the 2nd season he’s had in Europe and its almost a direct repeat of burning out our best players, repeat injuries, having to field the same underperforming players game after game (Trippier, Tonali, Gordon) and all after spending £300m.

The only seeds of hope are that with more rest between games (assuming we’re out of the FA Cup and CL by March), we could go on enough of a run to just about get into the top 7.

I would like nothing better than to feel that Howe will get through this season, have time over the summer with a proper transfer plan with a competent Sporting Director in place to strengthen the squad well, and tweak his tactics to evolve our play to include more creativity in Woltemade or new signings, to ditch the one dimensional play with umpteen ineffective crosses, and bring in fresh, younger faces to replace players like Trippier who has been immense for the club, but are not top level players anymore.

More likely what we’ll see is a return in this summer to the same failed targets from last summer. Trafford will be our GK target, we’ll be linked to Wharton and Anderson but with no hope they will come to us instead of the big 6 or the likes of Madrid, so it will be time wasted. Up front we’ll sniff around Pedro and Delap again or stubbornly insist Wissa will come good or Woltemade will turn into Isak. We might end up with decent professionals from other PL clubs but we’d have to overpay for them and they’d be more of what we’ve got. In terms of outgoings we wouldn’t be too hurt by losing Tonali and if its £100m it would come in handy, but we’d definitely collapse like a souffle if we lose Bruno. Livramento wouldn’t be a huge loss because I’ve no faith in his fitness but Lewis Hall is a top player and has been carrying the team.

Do Howe’s accomplishments merit another season? That is the cruel debate which is going around Newcastle podcasts, fan boards etc. If we miss out on European football yet the bulk of the squad and key players like Bruno, Hall, Botman, Barnes, Joelinton are kept we’ll be well placed to push again for Europe next season with only a domestic schedule to worry about. But what we thought we were aiming for was consistent top 6-7 finishes and European football, and that with nearly £300m invested in the squad that this was achievable.

Can Howe actually evolve as a manager and a coach to meet that requirement? I need a lot of convincing. James, Leeds

World Cup managers

They say it’s tricky to sign top players while they are away on world cup duty so it’s probably similar with their managers. Anyway , here’s a quick run down of who may be available if their national teams are pants.

A group of three : Roberto Martinez , Leo Scaloni and Carlo Anchelotti are at risk because the expectations will be ski high . Bobby brown shoes, already a nations league winner, might just realise that this is as good as it gets and stay .

Carlo meanwhile has one more top reign in him before cruising off into the sunset . Lionel Scaloni feels like a ‘one season under Abramovich’ type.

Didier Deschamps and Tuchel are both set to leave naturally even if they do okay / well, probably making way for Zinedine and Eddie Howe respectively .

With the caveat that England may try to persuade the Duetchlander to stay on if he gets to the semis or , rejoice !  the actual final.

That leaves MauricioPochettino and Ronald Koeman . Easily sackable and shoe-ins for struggling prem clubs .

Spain with De la Fuente seem perfectly settled.

Dark horse is Austria’s manager and Austria could surprise , Tony Popovic is his name , no me neither .

As a foot note, Lopetegui ? (  Currently in Qatar getting wincingly over paid ) –  Do me a favour ! Peter ( Jogi Löw is being whispered about as a possibility at Madrid )  Andalucia .

Big transfer fee? Really?

Why do people go on about Viktor Gyökeres’s transfer fee as if Arsenal broke the world transfer record and paid £100 billion for him?

He signed for around £55m. Yes, there are an additional £9m in performance‑related add‑ons, of which apparently £1m has already been triggered.  For these to be triggered it seems he would need to stay at the club for four years and contribute large numbers of goals on a regular basis — something the people who complain about him being an “expensive” flop think won’t happen.

So, for argument’s sake, let’s say he ends up costing Arsenal £60m.

In the last two transfer windows the following wingers/attackers/forwards/strikers were signed for similar amounts: Cunha ~ £62m, Mbeumo ~ £65m, Šeško ~ £66m, João Pedro ~ £55m, Ekitike ~ £69m, Semenyo ~ £64m, Woltemade ~ £65m, Wissa ~ £50m…

Note: Gyökeres cost half the amount Liverpool paid for his international teammate Isak, even though Gyökeres has a better goals-to-games record for Sweden.

Heck, Palace just paid £48m for Larsen, who has scored a whopping one goal this season.

I get it — Gyökeres looks more like Højlund (£64m) than Haaland.

Do I wish he scored more goals?  Yes.  He has scored 11 goals in around 2,000 minutes of football, which means that if he were to play full 90‑minute games like in the old days he would be talked about as a striker who scores every other game.  Has he been the best buy in the players listed above? No.  But equally not the worse.

Then there’s this strange thing where he’s compared to Jesus and Havertz, as if these two are somehow cheap, low‑quality players.

Brazilian international Gabriel Jesus cost £45m in 2022 and German international Kai Havertz cost £65m in 2023, so adjusting for inflation Jesus was about £51m, Gyökeres £60m and Havertz £68m.  Again, I get it — if Jesus and Havertz were so great we wouldn’t need Gyökeres, although we’d also be the only top‑six team to have one recognised out‑and‑out attacker.

Gyökeres cost what an average Premier League attacker costs at top Premier League teams, and he’s been performing at an average level.

Maybe this is as good as it gets.  We will probably still be able to sell him for a decent amount next season, à la Núñez (£64m), who also came from Portugal with an amazing goals‑to‑games ratio but could not replicate that form in the Premier League and was sold at a small loss. Núñez also won the Premier League and EFL cup as Liverpool’s main number 9, so as an Arsenal fan I’ll be over the moon if Gyökeres and Arsenal could mimic that.

Cheers, Paul K, London 

Premier League pugilism

I think the most apt comparison of this season’s EPL narrative is like a Battle Royale Tournament or a WWE Royal Rumble if you will.

In the past few seasons of the 20 competitors it has been 2 or 3 teams swatting away the weaker opponents and a clear hierarchy of who is stronger amongst that 20 has developed over the season.

This season it seems nearly all the other teams are fairly close in strength (barring the obvious outliers) so 2nd to 17th are battering the cr@p out of each other, with only Arsenal proving resolute enough to be still standing at the end.

This doesn’t diminish the achievement, and doesn’t make the league poorer or less exciting. It does make the bookies job harder however.

Arsenal are like heavyweight boxers who will tire out his opponents taking hits and trading jabs and are happy to win on points. Everyone going up against them are terrified of opening their defense stance as they know Arsenal only needs the one right hook(ed cross into the box) to land the knockout blow. Norbuck, NZ

Pep right up

”Manchester City have been “let down” by manager Pep Guardiola “repeatedly straying into commentary on international affairs“, Jewish community leaders say.

The Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester & Region has “implored” Guardiola to be “more careful with his language” at a time when anti-semitism is rising.”

Many would argue that the Jewish community have been ”let down” by the zionist ethno-state of Israel ”repeatedly straying into actual war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide”.