Ornstein provides Eddie Howe sack update as Newcastle CEO thinks he’s ‘leaving’

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·13 April 2026

Ornstein provides Eddie Howe sack update as Newcastle CEO thinks he’s ‘leaving’

Eddie Howe will be ‘part of the evaluation process’ to decide whether he will be sacked this summer but CEO David Hopkinson evidently thinks the Newcastle boss will be ‘leaving’, according to an update from David Ornstein.

Newcastle have now lost seven of their last ten Premier League games, with their latest defeat, to Crystal Palace on Sunday, pushing them down to 14th in the table, above only the teams fighting relegation.

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Hopkinson increased the pressure on Howe during the international break as the chief executive did little to dispel doubts over the Magpies manager’s future following Newcastle’s 2-1 defeat to bitter rivals Sunderland.

“I don’t have a stance on his [Howe’s] future,” Hopkinson said during a media briefing this week.

“What I can tell you is that the derby loss hurt. We take it seriously. There’s nothing within us that thinks: ‘Well, it’s just three points and on we go.’ It has resonated.”

Hopkinson went on to say that “Eddie’s our manager” and that “we’ll talk about the future when it’s time”.

That time will be at the end of the season, when ‘all parties intend to evaluate the managerial situation’, Ornstein confirmed for The Athletic, after revealing that the ‘Newcastle ownership continue to support Eddie Howe despite the club’s struggles this season’.

He wrote:

‘A review and any contingency work around the issue is considered by those involved to be standard procedure in such circumstances, although there have been no serious conversations yet about a change of head coach. ‘Howe commands a great deal of respect among the Newcastle hierarchy and is expected to be part of the evaluation process.’

Howe will presumably vote to continue as Newcastle manager after insisting he remains “100% committed” ahead of the damaging defeat to Palace, but the explanation of Hopkinson’s comments suggest he may be a dead man walking.

Ornstein’s report concludes:

‘The Athletic has been told that Hopkinson’s intent when speaking to reporters at a briefing called to discuss Newcastle’s latest financial results was to avoid the kind of public vote of confidence which often pre-empts a manager leaving.’

Presumably Hopkinson doesn’t believe a vote of confidence actually increases the chance of a manager leaving, much in the same way a sensible human being wouldn’t believe crystal skulls are crafted by the ancient inhabitants of Atlantis and are powerful centres of healing.

Which would mean his reticence to back Howe during the international break was based on the belief that Newcastle will pull the trigger and send him packing and an attempt to avoid the embarrassment of backing him just before they do.