Newcastle chief says club will fight to keep Eddie Howe amid England speculation

Newcastle will fight to hold on to Eddie Howe amid speculation linking him with the England job.

Howe is one of the bookmakers’ favourites to succeed Gareth Southgate, who announced he was standing down after almost eight years as national team boss on Tuesday 16 July.

However, Newcastle chief executive Darren Eales is determined to hold on to Howe, after confirming the 46-year-old had agreed a multi-year contract extension last summer.

Eales insisted everything was “hypothetical” at this stage, but asked if the Magpies would fight to keep Howe in the event of an approach from the Football Association, Eales said: “Yes, absolutely."

He continued: "We’re on an exciting journey and, as far as we’re concerned, Eddie is the man to lead us on that.

"In any organisation, if you are performing well there will be speculation from other clubs. But Eddie is under a long-term contract with the club.

“You see him, he loves the day to day of club football and we have an exciting project here in terms of the commitment from the ownership and the journey we want to go on. We are really excited about this season ahead.

“He’s a great developer of players. He gets the psyche of the club, and Newcastle, and the fans. We’ve seen that with the way the team and the supporters have that affinity.

“For us, he is exactly the right man for the project we are on at Newcastle United and that is why we are committed to a long-term deal with him. That’s why we think he’s the right man for Newcastle. We love him.”

Asked if he saw Howe being in the Newcastle dugout for the first game of the new Premier League season in August, Eales replied: “Absolutely, yes.”

Eales said there was not a “set number” for compensation, but that some sort of payment would have to be made as for any employee of the club under a multi-year contract.

It comes as the Newcastle boss revealed the club have met Premier League spending rules - despite having held on to big names Alexander Isak, Bruno Guimaraes and Anthony Gordon.

He suggested in January that the Magpies might have to sell players to meet profitability and sustainability rules (PSR), prompting speculation that the Sweden striker, the Brazil midfielder or the England winger could go this summer.

The Magpies have complied in large part due to the £35million sale of homegrown midfielder Elliot Anderson to Nottingham Forest and Yankuba Minteh’s switch to Brighton for a similar fee while leaving the core of head coach Eddie Howe’s side intact.

Eales said: “On all of these things, we are compliant. We did what we needed to do.

“We did not want to lose those players, but again we had to do the deals we had to do to leave the squad in the best place possible for Eddie moving forward.

“In that respect, with Bruno, Isak, Gordon, Joelinton and (Sandro) Tonali to come back, we’ve got Lloyd Kelly coming in as an addition already, Lewis Hall and Tino Livramento, we’ve got the squad to kick on.

“But we are always looking to add to that and that is the challenge now, that is what we need to do.”

To that end, Howe, Eales and new sporting director Paul Mitchell, who was appointed as Dan Ashworth’s replacement earlier this month following his defection to Manchester United, will attempt to land their remaining summer transfer targets having entered a new three-year PSR cycle relieved of the burden of their Saudi-backed owners’ sustained spending spree.

Work to increase revenues off the pitch continues apace and has already paid handsome dividends with the club having more than doubled its turnover since Amanda Staveley’s consortium completed its takeover in October 2021.

Eales said: “Our revenues have been rising and it’s been incredible to see – turnover from £140m to £180m to £250m, this past financial year will be north of £300m, so that’s over 30 per cent compound annual growth, which is a phenomenal rate.

“But we’re still behind the big six, so we know that if we’re going to be competing and punching above our weight, how we use our resources is really important.”

Newcastle missed out on European football for next season after their seventh-placed finish at the end of a campaign during which they returned to the Champions League for the first time in 20 years, and they are hoping the reduced demands on their resources this time around will work in Howe’s favour.

The departure of Staveley and husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi, who have provided the public-facing representation of the ownership group comprising PCP Capital Partners, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and the Reuben Brothers, has been characterised as the loss of two of the head coach’s biggest allies.

However, Eales insists their owners’ ambition remains undimmed.

He said: “As far as the PIF are concerned and Jamie Reuben on behalf of the Reuben family, they are committed.

"This is a big year for us now going forward as we go on that journey to become a club competing for trophies and being in Europe every season. That’s got to be our aim going forward.”

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