Eddie Howe has proven a roaring success for Newcastle United.
While results are not going his way now, the Newcastle manager has seemingly earned enough credit in the bank to earn the backing of the club’s PIF owners.
Still, it could have all been so different.
After sacking Steve Bruce, the owners originally targeted a move for Unai Emery, then of Villarreal.
He, however, snubbed the chance to move to St James’ Park before joining Aston Villa last year.
Emery has since doing a sterling job at Villa Park and has his team sitting in the upper echelons of the Premier League, earning the praise of one Alan Shearer.
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Speaking on the Rest is Football Podcast, Shearer poured praise on the Villa manager.
“He is doing a great job,” he said.
“Don’t forget he was on Newcastle’s list originally when they were looking for a manager. But he has come into the Premier League and knew what it was about as he was here before.
“He has obviously gone away and come back as a much better manager. He’s a great coach, he has got Villa flying.”
Unai Emery: Newcastle got lucky with Eddie Howe
Being rejected by Emery so early into the PIF era was a major blow at the time. With a relegation battle on raging back then, the optics weren’t great.
It was lucky, then, that Howe turned out to be a huge success.
At that point, he had not managed since Bournemouth’s relegation in 2020, meaning Newcastle were taking a risk.
Thankfully, he returned to work as a new manager and has since overseen a remarkable turnaround in fortunes.
Things might not be going particularly well right now but Howe has earned the collective trust of supporters, as well as those in charge of the club.
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