Eddie Howe is highly adept at showing the world a flawless poker face and it certainly came in handy as he prepared for Saturday’s potentially season-defining FA Cup quarter-final at Manchester City.
Until very recently it was tantamount to heresy for Newcastle fans to suggest their team’s manager might be incapable of walking across the river Tyne. Yet, almost imperceptibly, Howe has lost his previous immunity to criticism.
It dictated that his weekly media address on Friday was dominated by discussion of not merely the defensive disintegration that has seen Newcastle slide to 10th in the Premier League but festering discontent among some, although far from all, supporters.
When Howe was told that his side’s 3-2 defeat at Chelsea last Monday night had prompted an outpouring of anger from once loyal fans on social media he remained typically deadpan, barely flickering a facial muscle at the idea his players were “spineless cowards”.
“Am I surprised?” said Newcastle’s manager. “No. We’re in a results-driven business and I wasn’t happy after the game. I was angry. There was a lot of internal reflection, but for me to open myself up about it is not going to help me or the players. It’s about making sure I look at things objectively.
“It [the criticism] isn’t nice to hear, especially after what we stood for last season, but I understand emotional responses. Now it’s up to us to answer them.”
Although Howe never criticises players publicly, his deliberate refusal to debunk such evidently exaggerated, arguably rather unhinged, social media comments perhaps indicates a less than entirely emollient private attitude to a team struggling to replicate the consistency that prompted last season’s fourth-placed finish.
If a raft of injuries offer significant mitigation, all the indications are that the behind-closed-doors warm-weather training camp in Dubai Newcastle are bound for immediately after the City tie will not exactly be a jolly.
“I love my players,” said Howe. “I want to help them in every way in their lives and careers but behind the scenes I let them know in no uncertain terms if I’m not happy and they’ve got to do more.”
The mood on the flight to the United Arab Emirates will be dictated by the result against Pep Guardiola’s side. The prospect of a semi-final – and possibly a final – at Wembley could prove narrative-changing. It would also assuage recent flickers of boardroom concern.
Howe will be aware that, shortly after the Chelsea defeat, Newcastle’s minority co-owner Jamie Reuben posted a social media message containing the words “disappointed about the result”. It is safe to assume it would be noted by the club’s Riyadh-based Saudi Arabian overlords.
Given Reuben’s primary intention was to thank travelling supporters, it needed to be viewed in context but, nonetheless, it increased the pressure on the manager to choreograph a strong finish to a rollercoaster campaign.
“I don’t think the season is on this one FA Cup tie,” cautioned Howe. “We’re still very much in the hunt for trying to squeeze into Europe through the league.”
Winning the “Gulf derby” against Abu Dhabi-owned City will surely necessitate tightening a backline that, in the Premier League, has conceded as many away goals as Sheffield United (32) this season.
Unfortunately for Howe, Newcastle’s chairman, Yasir al-Rumayyan, does not court comparisons to Sheffield United’s owner, Prince Abdullah, a Saudi compatriot. Where Rumayyan makes no secret of his ambition to make his club “number one” everyone at Bramall Lane seems resigned to relegation.
Newcastle have no such worries but the former Liverpool defender turned TV and newspaper pundit Jamie Carragher claims their players look almost ready for their summer holidays.
“I don’t like to hear that,” said Howe, frowning momentarily. “He’s entitled to his opinion but that’s not how we are internally. Our training standards and intensity are still there. We’re determined to end the season well – regardless of what happens tomorrow.”
Nonetheless, Newcastle’s once famous intensity has diminished considerably. The fear is that, in the process, the team’s identity is going missing too. “The inconsistency’s been hugely frustrating,” Howe said. “When you went to watch Newcastle last year you knew you were going to see a team that’s hugely competitive, aggressive, solid and consistent.
“This year’s been slightly different: we’ve been inconsistent. We’ve just not been the same; we haven’t been able to maintain our rhythm. That’s what we’re searching for, that identity you can rely on.”
Howe rebuts suggestions that the FA Cup could represent one last hurrah for the nucleus of his side. “I don’t see a way we can have a mass overhaul in the summer,” he countered. “It’s almost impossible because of financial fair play rules. Any player we lose from our squad has to be replaced. It costs a lot of money to find elite Premier League players. I’m sure there’ll be trading, but I’m not sure how much.”
All available indicators suggest Howe is in little danger of dismissal this summer but the manager’s relationship with Newcastle’s incoming sporting director – Paul Mitchell, who recently vacated the same role at Monaco, ranks high on the shortlist to replace the Manchester United-bound Dan Ashworth – will prove pivotal to his medium-to-longer-term future.
Howe could do with beginning that bonding process from the position of strength traditionally enjoyed by FA Cup-winning managers.
