Eddie Howe Leaves Newcastle United: Jaissle Set to Take Charge
Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United story is over. Not with a sacking, not with a slow fade, but with a manager deciding he has had enough and asking for a break from the game he has dragged this club back into.
On Thursday morning, the news broke that Howe is set to part company with Newcastle with immediate effect, ending a reign that began in November 2021 and reshaped the club’s modern history. Fabrizio Romano reported that the decision has been made and that Newcastle, backed by PIF, have already moved for his successor.
The man they want is Matthias Jaissle. The 38-year-old German, currently in charge of Al-Ahli in the Saudi Pro League and already well known to PIF, is in advanced talks to become Newcastle’s new head coach. Romano described him as the “top candidate” and said a deal is “close.”
A golden era, cut short
Howe leaves as one of the most transformative managers Newcastle have had in decades. He took a club staring nervously at the bottom of the Premier League and pushed it into the Champions League – twice. He delivered the 2025 Carabao Cup, Newcastle’s first major trophy in 70 years, and turned St James’ Park into a stadium that once again expected big European nights, not just survived another season.
His success was not built on a superstar squad alone, but on the man-management and detailed coaching that unlocked levels many thought these players didn’t have. That bond between Howe and his dressing room became a defining feature of this era.
But the foundations have been shaking.
Stars out the door, manager soon to follow
Newcastle’s recent transfer windows have stripped away some of Howe’s key pillars. Alexander Isak forced through a £125m move to Liverpool last summer after a long, draining saga. This summer, Sandro Tonali and Anthony Gordon have gone. Bruno Guimaraes is pushing to leave as well.
The exodus has bitten hard. What once looked like a project building towards a sustained Champions League presence has, in the space of a year, started to feel fragile. The pressure has been relentless, on and off the pitch.
David Ornstein reported in The Athletic that Howe initially chose to stay at the end of last season, but has since had a change of heart and informed the club he wants to step away from football for a while. Newcastle, he wrote, will give their blessing. The split is described as amicable, with the club well prepared and talks with Jaissle already at an advanced stage.
Jaissle waiting in the wings
If Howe’s departure is a jolt, the identity of the man set to replace him underlines how tightly aligned Newcastle are with their Saudi ownership group.
Jaissle has built his reputation with Al-Ahli, winning the Asian Champions League twice. Like Newcastle, the Saudi club are majority owned by PIF, which makes the pathway from Jeddah to Tyneside a short one in boardroom terms, even if the footballing step is enormous.
At 38, Jaissle would arrive as a young coach with continental pedigree but no Premier League experience. That alone will change the feel of the club overnight. This will not be a continuation of the Howe era; it will be a reset.
Warning signs that were ignored
The clues were there months ago that this might not last.
Back in March, Graeme Bailey reported that Howe’s position was under serious review after a bruising season. Newcastle laboured to a 12th-placed finish, a world away from the Champions League highs, and were beaten twice by Sunderland – a wound that always cuts deeper on Tyneside.
By April, Fraser Fletcher was detailing how Howe was fighting for his future while some of his best players were already looking for the exit ahead of the summer window. That prediction has come to pass almost line by line.
Howe kept his composure publicly. He fielded questions about his job with the same calm tone, insisting he remained focused and that his long-term vision for Newcastle had not changed. Internally, the strain was clearly building.
Howe’s own words
On May 1, Howe spoke about how he approached the role, revealing the juggling act that had defined his time at St James’ Park.
“I have to retain that confidence. I don’t think it serves anybody to not have that long-term vision,” he said. “So, it’s interesting how you do the job, because you pretty much look at it day to day, how can we prepare for Brighton with one eye on next week, and one eye on the summer, and then one eye on next season?
“That’s always how I have managed.
“You look after long-term interests whilst taking care of the very short-term aims that you need, and that will never change.
“Regardless of results, you have to have that for the benefit of the football club. You always have to think of the football club first. We need to win games.”
On the transfer front, he laid out a clear philosophy, one that now feels at odds with the upheaval that followed.
“I think there will be an element of change within the team, and I think that there always has to be with every transfer window, ideally,” he said. “The aim is to always try to recruit in every window and ideally not that many players, so you don’t have the jump of six new players coming in like we had last summer.
“It’s more of a drip feed approach, which I think is the best chance to have consistent success, but change and evolution of where the team goes is really exciting because with some smart additions, and really good recruitment decisions, I think you can improve really quickly, as some teams from last summer have shown.
“Recruitment is our big focus.”
Those words now read like the blueprint of a manager who wanted evolution, not the kind of disruption that has unfolded around him.
What comes next for Newcastle?
Newcastle insisted at the end of the season review that Howe and assistant Jason Tindall would stay on. The club framed it as a vote of confidence in their project and their manager. Since then, the landscape has shifted again, and Howe has decided the time is right to walk away.
The club now turns to Jaissle, a coach with trophies on his CV and the trust of PIF. He will inherit a squad in flux, a fanbase that has tasted Champions League football and silverware, and a club that has just lost the man who delivered both.
The Howe era ends with Newcastle changed beyond recognition from the team he found. Whether Jaissle can take that transformation to the next level – or hold it together at all – will define the next chapter at St James’ Park.
