Eddie Howe is leaving Newcastle United, according to widespread reports. But the fact he’ll depart on his own terms speaks volumes for the job he’s done at St. James’ Park.
Newcastle United find themselves at the end of an era.
After just under five years in charge, Eddie Howe has reportedly called it quits and will leave Newcastle with immediate effect, roughly three weeks before the start of the 2026-27 Premier League season.
While his departure might not be hugely shocking, the timing of it arguably is rather surprising as one might have expected him to depart at the end of a disappointing 2025-26 campaign.
Nevertheless, Howe will leave having made a significant impression on the club, both in terms of the football his team played and the success (relative to what they’d known over the prior 25 years or so) they enjoyed.
Of course, it’s impossible to discuss Newcastle’s rise to a position of greater prominence under Howe without mentioning the considerable caveat of financial backing by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which completed its takeover of the club a month and a day prior to Howe’s appointment in 2021.
But the manager still deserves praise for the work he carried out. With great investment came great expectations, and there were certainly times when he ensured Newcastle lived up to them.
Newcastle’s Reacquaintance with Success
Howe was philosophical when appointed by Newcastle. He was fully aware that looking too far into the future was a “waste of energy and time”, which seemed an especially valid point given the unclear management style of the new regime.
Investment was expected, for sure, but that hasn’t always brought immediate results and can sometimes create different problems.
Howe’s focus was on the short term, implementing his style of play on the squad and looking to make marginal gains during his first few months.
Getting things right in the short term would maximise the possibility of there even being a long term, though he acknowledged the “task ahead is huge”.
After all, Howe took over with Newcastle 19th in the Premier League. Again, we cannot ignore the impact of the club’s overlords, especially given they went on to spend just shy of £100 million in the January transfer window just two months after Howe joined, but he guided them to an 11th-place finish and comfortable safety.
In fact, from the day of Howe’s appointment until the end of the 2021-22 season, Newcastle’s 44 points won was the sixth most in the Premier League. The January reinforcements helped, of course, as Howe presided over just a single victory in his first nine league games, before a run of six victories in seven matches from 22 January onwards. But the manager still had to make sure the team gelled, and they did.
Some more not-insignificant spending followed in the summer of 2022, though their biggest investment by far, Alexander Isak for a reported fee of €63m, missed parts of the season through injury. Either way, Howe took Newcastle to another level entirely in 2022-23, guiding them to a fourth-place finish and a return to the Champions League.
They’d not played at that level for 20 years, when Sir Bobby Robson had been in charge.
It was their form until February that really laid the foundation for their return to the Champions League. Between the start of the season and 11 February, Newcastle lost just once in the league, a slender 2-1 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield. Sure, there were plenty of draws, but Howe made Newcastle difficult to beat and capable of blowing teams away. There was the 3-3 draw at home to defending champions Manchester City, 4-1 wins over Fulham and Southampton, a 4-0 hammering of Aston Villa, and a 5-1 battering of Brentford – all before December.
Newcastle struggled somewhat to juggle domestic responsibilities with Champions League football in 2023-24, eventually finishing seventh, which was insufficient for any continental competition the following campaign. But without that added distraction, they did enough to qualify for the Champions League again in 2024-25 via a fifth-place finish thanks to the Premier League getting an additional qualification spot.
Most importantly, though, this coincided with Newcastle beating Liverpool 2-1 in the EFL Cup final to win their first major trophy since 1969.
The 2025-26 campaign may have seen Newcastle slump to a 12th-place finish, their worst under Howe, but his legacy was secure. His successes had earned him significant credit, not to mention time, something few other managers get. It was expected he’d have another season – one more without having to juggle Champions League football – to push Newcastle on again.
But he seemingly felt he’d reached the end of the road.
Delivering on a Promise
In Howe’s first press conference as Newcastle manager, one of his chief aims was to play exciting football. For him, that was a priority, and it ought to be for any Newcastle boss.
A few weeks later, he went deeper on that target.
“There’s a lot of memories that spring to mind of those games in the 1990s and just after,” he said. “Newcastle tended, at that period of time, to have memorable games against most teams. There are standout moments you think back to; I can still picture some of the goals and the scenes in my mind.
“It’s up to us to try to recreate those times – the attacking verve, the swagger that Kevin Keegan’s 1990s Newcastle had, the flair the individual players possessed and the team identity. It’s something we’re desperate to do.”
It’s fair to say Howe achieved this aim.
His Newcastle side wasn’t perfect, but there were times when they looked like the embodiment of the quintessential modern Premier League team. They were tough, intense, adventurous, powerful and quick. And they scored goals.
Across the full four seasons Howe was in charge, only Man City (339), Arsenal (319) and Liverpool (310) scored more Premier League goals than Newcastle (274) did. And, as you may have noticed, those other three teams make up the four Premier League champions across that period.
That aforementioned intensity was undoubtedly a part of this, as across the same period, only City (35) scored more league goals following a high turnover than the Magpies (31, level with Liverpool).
This was a key part of their identity, which seemed to suit both the mentality of the players they signed and the ethos of the club.
But arguably the most impressive aspect of Howe’s reign is his ability to improve players.
Yes, we’ve mentioned the significant investment over certain periods of his time, but he can still justifiably claim to have developed many players to an impressive degree.
Some of them have been moulded into best-in-class players (or near enough) by Howe. Isak, Anthony Gordon, Dan Burn, Elliot Anderson – who’s recently joined Manchester City in a reported £116m deal – for just an estimated £35m in 2024. Regarding that transfer, Howe said in May: “His was a sale we regretted when we were doing it. We knew the player’s quality. It was a very painful transfer, one we had to do. We had no choice.”
There’s two sides to the debate, of course. Newcastle will have argued the rules in place served only to preserve the status quo, whereas others have pointed out they prevented billionaires chucking endless sums of cash into clubs in order to buy success. The validity of those arguments isn’t for us to decide on.
However, there is clearly a link from this to one of the overriding prevailing identifiers of the Howe era: Newcastle’s struggles juggling Champions League and Premier League action.
His worst seasons in charge in the Premier League were when they also had Champions League football to contend with. The differences aren’t necessarily stark; for instance, in 2023-24 they only took six points fewer than the following campaign.
But it’s reasonable to suggest the impact was significant.
The club’s hope with that first UCL qualification was for it to be the start of them qualifying every season, evidence of them becoming one of English football’s leading powers.
But that hasn’t happened. Newcastle have been erratic, and last season saw them suffer even more than their first campaign back in the UCL. Whether it was an issue of the squad, injuries or even mentality, they dropped the most points from winning positions in the Premier League (27) and gained the fewest from losing positions (3). They also failed to get above 2.0 points per game (on a five-game rolling average) for the first time in a campaign under Howe.
Ithiel Piñero / Data AnalystNewcastle haven’t become a “destination” club that players see as the pinnacle; it would seem, judging from Isak’s departure to Liverpool last summer, Tonali’s exit to Tottenham, and Bruno Guimaraes’ potential move to Arsenal this year, that Newcastle remain a stepping stone to greater things.
It doesn’t appear coincidental that Howe’s exit comes hot on the heels of resigned comments he made about his captain possibly moving to Arsenal, which very much looked like evidence of him losing transfer control.
It should be noted that there were sections of the Newcastle fanbase who felt he should have left at the end of 2025-26, and his standing had diminished in some quarters – in fact, The Telegraph claim one of the reasons he’s chosen to leave is that “abuse left him mentally and emotionally drained”.
Ultimately, though, Howe did a stellar job. Back in November 2021, few likely expected him to last so long in the job and have the impact he’s had. He got them back into the Champions League and became the first manager for 70 years to win a trophy for Newcastle.
He leaves on his own terms rather than being pushed. Only the most appreciated and revered coaches get to do that, which in itself should be seen as evidence of a job well done.
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Eddie Howe’s Newcastle Reign a Story of Transformation, Ambition and Ultimately Frustration Opta Analyst.
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