Gary Neville believes Newcastle’s new owners will replace Eddie Howe with a high-profile manager like Mauricio Pochettino in a “couple of years” time.
Speaking on the latest episode of The Overlap, Neville said: “Eddie Howe will do the job for a couple of years at Newcastle, maybe longer. But I think at a certain point they will bring in a manager that will be a (Mauricio) Pochettino or a different (manager).”
Neville predicts that Pochettino would only go for a “top six club” or Newcastle should he return to the Premier League, feeling his aspirations “would be higher” than a club like Aston Villa after spells at Tottenham and PSG.
According to Sky Sports, Pochettino was the Saudi PIF’s top target to replace Steve Bruce back in 2020, but it seems naïve of Neville to believe we’ll go for a bigger name before long, as a manager with European pedigree does not guarantee success in the league or on the continent.
As we’ve seen by our recruitment, our new owners haven’t obsessed over marquee signings or flashy names since buying the club last October. This also applies to Howe, who seems to be the perfect fit on Tyneside as a hard-working, meticulous coach with fresh ideas and a high ceiling.
Mehrdad Ghodoussi recently stated that he’d “love Eddie (Howe) to be the next (Sir) Alex Ferguson“, so it feels like he is someone they have huge faith in for the short, medium and long term.
Personally, I find it difficult to envision a future without him at the helm, with these comments from Neville doing Howe an injustice. The gaffer has completely revolutionised the squad in the last ten months and I can only see us moving in the right direction in the near future.
Gary Nev is being massively disrespectful to Eddie with those comments, he’s already shown he’s up to the task of going toe to toe with so called top managers. We’ve only fallen short because of the fact our squad isn’t packed with superstars like Man city or Liverpool et al and also because we’ve been done over by VAR on occasion too.
Eddie is not being given any credit here by Gary for the outstanding work he is doing and it’s like a form of ***** stirring , I think a lot of pundits who played for top teams see Eddie and the team as a threat to their former clubs.
kimtoon(Quote)