Eddie Howe held his weekly sermon at Benton today talking to the press ahead of Newcastle United’s clash with Manchester City on Saturday lunch-time and was asked about that sensitive topic – money.
Before getting on to the subject of the game ahead, there were questions to be answered surrounding the fall-out from last week’s meeting with a Manchester club when Newcastle met Manchester United at Wembley, missing out on that elusive silverware once again.
The assembled press asked Howe this morning: “After Sunday’s final defeat, do Newcastle need a lot more quality brought in?”
Money isn’t everything – but it helps
It’s a tough question, but one that needed to be asked given the apparent gulf in class on Sunday, and I don’t mean any disrespect to Newcastle’s players by saying that, it’s just clear that Manchester United have more quality available to them, where they were bringing on the likes of Marcel Sabitzer, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Jadon Sancho, Newcastle were introducing Jacob Murphy and Matt Ritchie.
Howe was diplomatic as ever, though, never one to belittle the ability of his players: “It’s a difficult one for me to say yes, categorically, it’s only money [that can make NUFC successful]. Because that takes away my one of my core beliefs; the players, So for me to say, yeah, it’s only down to money, I might as well not invest the time and energy that I do with my players now.
“But I think there is an element of truth in that, that you need investments to really compete at the elite levels, we’re talking, you know, to disturb the top group of teams very difficult without that investment. So I do feel we’ve got more to go.
“But I do also believe in the coaching process. And I believe we can get more out of our players that we currently are and I’ll always have that belief no matter how well we’re doing.”
Howe highlights the importance of good coaching
I love that Howe never lets up in his pursuit of being better and pushes his players to do the same. That mentality is what has got us into the European spots and a cup final with a squad of players that previous managers couldn’t get a tune out of. Yes, he’s had the benefit of some quality signings, but every Newcastle fan sees the results of Howe’s philosophy and often sum that up with one word: Joelinton.
Results haven’t gone our way lately, but the reality is we’ve only been beaten twice in the league this season and that is a phenomenal record when you consider that we had to wait so long for our first win just last season.
With the combination of Howe’s tenacity and PIF’s money, Newcastle can and will be a force to be reckoned with in the Premier League in seasons to come.
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