Eddie Howe has a choice to make in the coming days which will define whether he is a man of principle, or a patsy for his Saudi paymasters.
The Newcastle coach can choose to give an honestly held opinion on Saudi Arabia executing 81 men at the weekend. He can give an opinion on the Saudi bombing of Yemen. And perhaps their poor human rights record. Or he can cower behind a statement that he is just a football coach, here to make Chris Wood score goals and Allan Saint-Maximin track back more .
The price on the ticket of being a head coach these days is that you become the public face of the club, and must be able to answer on all issues engulfing your club. Ideally we’d have Yasir Al-Rumayyan of the Public Investment Fund and 80pc owners at a press conference every week.
