Gary Neville believes Eddie Howe has already shown a few subtle signs he is the right man to lead Newcastle United in this relegation fight we find ourselves in.
The Sky Sports pundit has pointed out how ‘calm and relaxed’ the 44-year-old has looked since taking the job, believing his experience with Bournemouth and ability not to ‘panic’ when the going gets tough will be key to our survival hopes.
That said, he does feel like it could be between the bottom clubs – Norwich, Newcastle, Burnley and Watford – meaning we’ll have to come out on top of this four-way battle to stay up this season.
Speaking on Sky Sports, he said:
“I do think those bottom four teams, they’re the ones that you’re going to be looking at.
“At the end of the day, Eddie’s got experience of being down there before.
“He looks really calm and relaxed, he won’t panic and he knows there’s a long, long way to go.
“Even with ten games to go, five games to go, we’ve seen teams put miraculous runs together and come out of it.
“At this moment in time there’s no reason to panic, even though looking at that table it can be a little bit depressing for those teams at the bottom.”
As Gary says, there is a long way to go – even if the current Premier League table, our lack of wins and awful defensive record makes for worrying reading.
Although it’s daunting to think we must finish top of a mini-league involving Norwich, ourselves, Burnley and Watford, it is still very possible that the likes of Southampton and Leeds – both on 16 points – are dragged into a dog fight.
