Eddie Howe was not expecting much of a reception when he got back home after becoming the first manager since Sir Bobby Robson to steer Newcastle United into the Champions League. “The dog probably won’t even get up and give me a wag,” he said. “He will probably be asleep on the sofa.”
But Howe has a smiling tendency to downplay and deflect. He had claimed he would celebrate the 6-1 demolition of Tottenham with a tea and a biscuit. Securing a top-four finish, he said, might prompt something slightly stronger. “I hope it is not with a tea and biscuit,” he said. It has been Howe’s way not to mention the Champions League; he claimed it had just “crept up on us” and that he had only started to think about it seriously in the last few weeks. Which, if true, would make Howe the exception at St James’ Park.
