My heartfelt apology to Eddie Howe

My last article (‘I’m sorry but it is time for Eddie Howe to go’ published 15 December 2025) on The Mag was a scathing criticism of Eddie Howe, where I was calling for him to be sacked.

I would like to apologise to him and any of you who were offended by it.

I’m writing this now when we are still in three cup competitions and are sixth in the Premier League after three league victories in a row and a rekindling of The Entertainers.

However, cast your mind back to the first half of the season, where we seemed to be heading towards the bottom of the table. We had a striker who was injured and our players seemed to have lost their way and desire. The summer transfers, apart from Malick Thiaw, seemed not up to standard.

Eddie Howe appeared to have run out of ideas and stagnated…but put yourself in his position.

Our best striker for decades was underhandedly tapped up by Liverpool, when our team and new recruits were set up to feed him goals. Our first and indeed second choice of new players were cynically headhunted by some of the usual six clubs. PSR and now SCR continue to restrict our development. Yet somehow Wor Eddie battled the storm and brought back our Mojo.

This was in the face of yet another injury crisis and a relentless schedule of games.

Yes – we may not win any of these cup competitions – but at least we will go down fighting, as usual battling substandard and seemingly biased referees.

We have been left with third choice recruits and have had to evolve our style of play since Rentokil removed our rat infestation.

None of this though is the fault of a man whom I believe has the potential to be our greatest ever manager.

Just look what has happened already this season ,when even well performing and popular managers were sacked, teams sliding into oblivion and enraged fans.

But…both the recruitment crisis and the attrition rate of players due to playing through cold winters without a break and the difficulty of replacing them, could have been avoided.

In the four years of ownership why hasn’t the same attention and increase in investment been directed at out academy? Why has it only produced one world class player in Lewis Miley?

Also, why has our traditional grass roots development facility, the legendary Wallsend Boys Club, not been brought closer to NUFC.

Yes – we could win things with kids and have built such a strong squad where internal development would have coped with injury absences and failed transfers.

It’s all very well funding a new state of the art training ground but what’s the point if young players aren’t developed to provide our future stars.

So sorry again for my attack on Eddie Howe.

At the same time, I hope next season to see at least two “future Lewis Mileys” amazing fans with their ability.