Newcastle United’s hunt for a manager has burned on for two weeks since they sacked Steve Bruce. Having been denied in the hunt to sign Unai Emery from Villarreal, Newcastle bosses have turned their attention to former Bournemouth man Eddie Howe and an agreement is very close, according to reports.
Emery turned Newcastle down following a reported disparity between his representatives and the club’s hierarchy over the long-term vision of the club.
The Spaniard supposedly felt a lack of direction for such a big project and was concerned at the frantic nature of their manager search.
This left the club in the dark over who their new manager would be, having already failed in the battle to sign Xavi, Antonio Conte and Paulo Fonseca amongst others.
But with Howe now being touted as their man, reports intensified that he could become the new manager.
And the BBC have reported that an agreement is close, with hopes that Howe could be in the dugout come Saturday evening’s fixture against Brighton.
Howe has been out of a job ever since he left Bournemouth following their relegation in 2020.
He reportedly turned the Celtic job down after Neil Lennon was sacked, waiting for the perfect opportunity to grasp.
And that has now come in the form of the Newcastle job, with their enormous budget a huge pulling power to anyone wanting the job.
Howe will apparently inherit £190million to spend should he become boss of the Tyneside outfit.
And with his attacking contingent of Callum Wilson, Matt Ritchie and Ryan Fraser all familiar with Howe from his time at Bournemouth, there is an expectancy for him to hit the ground running.
The trio all played for Howe at some stage from the start of his second spell at the Cherries in 2013 until his exit in 2020.
And Newcastle fans should expect attacking football upon Howe’s arrival, if former comments made by the ex-Portsmouth defender are to be believed.
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“We always decided to go on the attacking side because we know that if we pictured Bournemouth at our best, it was free-flowing attacking football, it was not sitting back, soaking up pressure and defending,” Howe said to Sky.
“We prided ourselves on that and worked on that continually to be better at our attacking play. We looked at that as our best form of defence, to attack and attack hard.
“I don’t think you can be something you are not; my mindset is to try to win games first, rather than not lose. My mindset when I go into a game, even if people will think we have set up differently, we are deep-lying, we are passive, it’s always to win the game. Always.”