Manager stats revealed 

©IMAGO

The last week has been nothing short of catastrophic for Newcastle United. The Magpies crashed out of the Champions League in embarrassing fashion as they were smashed 7-2 at Barcelona, before succumbing to a 2-1 home defeat to arch-rivals Sunderland in the Premier League this Sunday. Newcastle have now not beaten the Black Cats at St James’ Park for 16 years. Their season has come crashing down in five days. Eddie Howe’s team are out of both domestic cups as well as Europe, and are now as low as 12th in the table – even being leapfrogged by Sunderland after Sunday’s defeat.

Regaining Champions League football is now all but impossible – they are nine points adrift of fifth-placed Liverpool – whilst even earning any kind of European qualification now looks an uphill task. Howe was appointed in 2021 shortly after the Saudi investment in Newcastle, and initially done a great job to see the team fly up the table. He has attained Champions League qualification twice and won last season’s EFL Cup – ending the club’s 70 year trophy drought. However, this season, Howe is in the worst position he has ever been in his Newcastle career. Stagnant? Going backwards? Let’s take a look at the numbers.

Are Newcastle going backwards under Eddie Howe?

If we look at the points-per-game (PPG) record of Newcastle in the league since Howe arrived in the 2021/22 season, we can see that this term they have hit a new low under his stewardship. Across the 31 Premier League games this season, Newcastle have taken just 1.35ppg. That’s by far the worst record since Howe joined the club. The previous lowest was in the 2023/24 season, in which they took 1.58ppg and finished seventh. Interestingly, they also had to content with Champions League football that season, suggesting that the demands of playing in Europe’s premier club competition is having a negative impact on Newcastle’s domestic form.

As illustrated in the graphic above, last term Howe’s team took 1.74ppg – only bettered by the 2022/23 campaign, where the Magpies finished fourth and took an impressive 1.87ppg. Now, there are a number of reasons away from Howe’s management that could have contributed to this drop off. Firstly, last summer’s recruitment is looking worse with each passing week at the moment. Newcastle splashed out a combined €133 million for strikers, Nick Woltemade and 29-year-old Yoane Wissa – neither of them played a single minute across the two Champions League legs against Barcelona, despite being fit and available.

Anthony Elanga’s €61.4m move from Nottingham Forest has also not worked out so far – he is still yet to score a Premier League goal in 27 appearances. The jury remains out on Jacob Ramsey after his €45m move from Aston Villa. In total, Newcastle spent €279m, and have seen very little return. Their now-vilified former superstar Alexander Isak is gone, and nobody has filled his shoes. Nevertheless, the business to get a Premier League-record fee for the Swede is looking smarter, with him failing to have an impact at Liverpool before breaking down with a serious injury.

Despite this, Howe needs to take some responsibility on his shoulders too. This squad is too good to be 12th in the Premier League at this stage of the season. He, himself, has also been known to be involved in the recruitment at the club so must also shoulder some blame there. Given the riches behind the essentially state ownership of Newcastle, expectations are likely to be high. Howe still has money in the bank metaphorically due to the fantastic job he has done in previous years, but if we don’t see an improvement before the end of the season, don’t be surprised to see a change in the dugout at Newcastle next term.