He is not Harry Potter – Eddie Howe can only produce so much magic… | OneFootball

Eddie Howe is not Harry Potter.

There, I’ve said it.

However, the way some Newcastle United fans go on, you would think that Eddie Howe did have magical powers.

Magical powers that should guarantee far more than should be humanly possible.

The thing is, Eddie Howe is fighting against the odds all the time.

Yet some Newcastle United fans just won’t have it.

It isn’t a level playing field with those who shall not be named.

Alright, I will name two of them here, or else this article won’t lead anywhere…

Last Wednesday, Newcastle United defeated the Chelsea second eleven.

A bit blurred around the edges, in terms of whether some players are first choice or not, because they have actually got enough first team squad players to make up three teams!

However, the fact remains that Chelsea changed all eleven players from their Premier League side that won 2-1 against Newcastle on the previous Sunday.

That Chelsea second eleven was made up entirely of players bought by the current Chelsea owners these past 28 months at a cost of around half a billion pounds. That is their second eleven.

Newcastle United team v Chelsea:

Pope, Krafth, Schar, Kelly, Hall, Joelinton, Tonali, Longstaff, Willock, Gordon, Isak

At a rough rotting up, I reckon that Newcastle United starting eleven cost around £270m. This was the strongest team that Eddie Howe felt he could put out on the night. Yet the Chelsea second team costing well on the way to almost double the Newcastle United first team.

The thing is as well, that Chelsea second team they can put out, that has cost half a billion pounds and all of them bought in these last 28 months under the present owners, is also more expensive than the first team of players any other Premier League club can currently put out, apart from the other five members of the ‘big six’, the  self-appointed elite who are determined to prevent any other club challenging their outrageous financial advantages.

When it comes to Eddie Howe at Newcastle United, to get any positive result against one of the half dozen is a real achievement, when you consider how much more all of the ‘elite’ six have paid for their squads and how much their wage bills are, as well as countless other financial and structural advantages. Newcastle United of course also specifically and massively disadvantaged, by the fact that as every other major club was riding the Premier League boom times and putting countless building blocks in place for both the present AND especially the future, for a decade and a half we had Mike Ashley rowing in the exact opposite direction.

Mike Ashley was a kind of Harry Potter in reverse, more of a Voldemort, his (Ashley’s!) evil form of magic meaning zero building blocks/foundations put in place for the future and most (black) magically, at such a boom-time for every other major club, Mike Ashley managed to keep the commercial revenues at Newcastle United at the same level when he left, as they were when he took over, a decade and a half earlier.

Looking at that Newcastle starting eleven against Chelsea, half the team, half the outfield players, were ones that Eddie Howe inherited three years ago. The likes of Krafth, Schar, Joelinton, Longstaff and Willock, with indeed pretty much all of this quintet struggling to even get a start under Steve Bruce as time went on and he was dragging us to a third Mike Ashley relegation, a third in 13 Premier League seasons that had kicked off under Ashley.

Yet Harry Potter, sorry, Eddie Howe, has turned them and so many others into key contributors. Who says a manager doesn’t really matter, it is all down to the players…

Having said that, there is a glass ceiling to the kind of magic Eddie Howe can pull off in the longer-term.

Results like last Wednesday against Chelsea are astounding. Especially when you take into account that this is now three times Eddie Howe’s NUFC have faced Chelsea at St James’ Park and won all three, scoring seven goals and conceding only one.

What about this Newcastle United team v Arsenal:

Pope; Livramento, Schar, Burn, Hall; Longstaff, Bruno, Willock; Gordon, Isak, Joelinton

This time ‘only’ the four that Eddie Howe inherited, as Schar, Joelinton, Longstaff and Willock helped United convincingly beat Arsenal. An Arsenal who has so many financial and other advantages over Newcastle United.

However, on the bench against Arsenal, you had the likes of Dubravka, Osula, Miley, Almiron, Alex Murphy, Krafth and Kelly. Those seven first team squad players, only £10m in transfer fees has been spent in total on them since Eddie Howe came in and that was on Osula, whilst the other six were either inherited by Eddie Howe or signed for nothing (or nominal fee in Murphy’s case) since he arrived.

If Eddie Howe had the resources, the transfer market and wages power, that the likes of Mikel Arteta and Enzo Maresca have at their clubs, just what would Howe be capable of at Newcastle United.

Against Arsenal at St James’ Park, Eddie Howe has now won three out of four games against Mikel Arteta. Indeed, at SJP against Man U, Tottenham, Chelsea and Arsenal, Eddie Howe now has a record of Played 13 Won 11 Drawn 1 Lost 1. All of those wins against the financial odds, the advantages these other clubs have over NUFC.

It doesn’t mean it is impossible for Newcastle United and Eddie Howe to compete BUT it is a near-miraculous (magical…) achievement if they can, especially if doing so for a sustained number of years.

Any Newcastle United fan who doesn’t accept that Eddie Howe is doing a remarkable job, needs to give their head a wobble.