Newcastle United’s best manager ever: Where does Eddie Howe rank against Kevin Keegan and Sir Bobby Robson?

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Eddie Howe is making history at Newcastle United but where does he rank among the club’s best managers ever?

Newcastle United enjoyed their most successful season in recent memory in the 2024-25 campaign as they finally ended their long wait for a trophy by winning the Carabao Cup.

Eddie Howe also guided the club back to the Champions League, even if a late drop in form meant they only qualified by the skin of their teeth.

It was a slice of huge luck that Newcastle had earned, though, and Howe will have yet more chances to make history in 2025-26 as the Magpies compete in Europe’s top competition.

There’s also the chance that Newcastle could challenge for the Premier League title, though they’ll need some serious signings in the summer transfer window first.

Should Howe win such a major honour, then he would undoubtedly be Newcastle’s best manager ever, and some may argue he is already up there.

But where does Howe currently rank among legends like Sir Bobby Robson and Kevin Keegan?

Here’s how the win percentages of Newcastle managers compare.

• Who is Eddie Howe? The heroic manager who finally brought a trophy back to Newcastle United

Newcastle United managers with the best win percentage

Here is the full list of Newcastle managers and their win percentages during their stints in charge.

Alan Shearer and John Carver’s brief stints have been included, but other caretaker managers who were in charge for just one or a couple of fixtures have not.

Neither has Jason Tindall for the brief time he took charge during Howe’s illness.

Can Eddie Howe become Newcastle United’s best-ever manager?

Howe ranks extremely highly and sits third in the Newcastle managerial table overall, just behind Keegan and leader Chris Hughton.

Hughton’s impressive rate is helped by the fact that a large chunk of his games in charge came in the Championship, and he wasn’t in the hot seat for a long time.

Keegan remains second and is still probably Newcastle’s best manager in recent history, given his remarkable Entertainers are still talked about with reverence to this day.

His win rate would be even higher if it weren’t for his second stint in charge in 2008.

His 21 games in that nine-month return had a win percentage of just 28.57%, dragging him down from 54.98% during his first tenure to 52.94% in total.

Yet, he is still above Howe, but could be overtaken if Newcastle have a strong campaign.

Howe does sit above everyone else in the rankings but Robson, Frank Watt, Stan Seymour, Joe Harvey, Andy Cunningham and Doug Livingstone all still compete with him for the title of Newcastle’s best manager of all time.

Can Howe overtake them? Well, if he delivers a league title or European triumph, he absolutely can.