Rio Ferdinand reckons Eddie Howe will eventually have to make way for Unai Emery as Newcastle United manager. Speaking on his YouTube channel, Ferdinand forecast that the Public Investment Fund will one day revisit their pursuit of the Villarreal manager, who was their first choice before Howe was appointed as Steve Bruce's replacement in November.
Since then, Howe has done a remarkable job, steering the Magpies from a position joint bottom of the Premier League with Norwich on five points to 11th place. His record at the St James' Park helm - a 48 per cent win rate and 1.6 points per game - also compares favourably with Emery's one stab at Premier League management with Arsenal where, having taken over a Gunners team that finished sixth in 2017/18, he managed a 49 per cent win rate and 1.7 points per game before being sacked in November 2019.
With Newcastle having designs on Europe, though, Emery's credentials are difficult to ignore. The 50-year-old Spaniard is the most successful manager in UEFA Cup/Europa League history, winning the competition four times - on three occasions with Seville and once with Villarreal.
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His continental stock also rose further this season when he led the latter to an unexpected Champions League semi-final, overcoming Juventus and Bayern Munich in the knockout stages before eventually succumbing to Liverpool in the last four. Former Bournemouth and Burnley boss Howe, of course, is untested in Europe and, referring to the Newcastle managerial position on his YouTube channel, ex-England defender Ferdinand said: "Eddie Howe deserves the credit.
"He was the perfect guy, he’s no trouble, he’s very calm and very measured in his approach. They needed that because you can get carried away when you have all of this money in the club.
"He was very calm, this could have blown up in their faces, but he’s stabilised them. He’ll get moved on and he’ll have a lot of clubs waiting. I reckon they go and get Emery."
