Newcastle's Struggles Continue Amid Uncertainty
Newcastle’s year from hell shows no sign of easing. In the 2026 form table they sit 17th, two points above Wolves – a side already condemned to relegation in real life – and drifting towards a fight they thought they had left behind.
Saturday brought another familiar punch to the gut. A third straight 2-1 league defeat, this time at home to Bournemouth, means eight losses in their last 11 Premier League games. Sunderland beat them in the derby. Only a shambolic Tottenham have been worse in the calendar year. For a club that recently dared to dream of titles and Champions League nights, this is a brutal comedown.
Cup exits have only deepened the gloom. Manchester City knocked them out of both the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup with minimal fuss, ending their defence of the latter. Barcelona then tore up what was left of the script, smashing Newcastle 7-2 at Camp Nou in the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie to crush any lingering European fantasy.
For a long time, Eddie Howe stood above the chaos. He was the man who kept Newcastle up, then twice took them into the Champions League, then ended a 70-year wait for a major trophy by beating Liverpool at Wembley in the 2025 Carabao Cup final. Those achievements bought him enormous credit with a fanbase that had waited decades for a team like this.
This feels different.
St. James’ Park, usually protective of its head coach, turned. Boos rained down at the weekend, a raw verdict on a side sliding towards irrelevance. Newcastle are still, just about, within reach of the pack chasing Europe, but the sheer number of teams above them and the weight of their own form make another continental campaign look increasingly fanciful.
Club legend Alan Shearer, speaking on The Rest is Football podcast, voiced what many are thinking. He admitted he did not know what would happen to Howe, questioned whether the head coach would want – or be allowed – to “go again”, and concluded: “I don’t see Eddie Howe in charge of Newcastle next season, unfortunately. I look at his interview and I’m not sure the fight is there.”
Whether Howe’s future is his decision to make is far from clear. Sky Sports report that he is safe for now, with his position not due to be reviewed until the end of the season. Yet that reassurance comes as Newcastle stumble towards what could be their lowest league finish since relegation in 2015-16.
Before Bournemouth’s visit, Howe insisted his “fire” for the job still burned “very, very strongly”. After another damaging defeat, his words sounded heavier.
“I am very aware that eight defeats out of 11 is not good enough,” he admitted. Winning games, he said, is the simple remedy, “but it’s very hard to deliver. Momentum is against us and you can feel that in the big moments in games. There was a lack of goalmouth action from our perspective and we haven’t defended anywhere near well enough. We’re not quite there at the moment. What’s happening is systemic. I’m beginning to say the same things over and over again. That’s a great frustration.”
The boos cut him deeply. Speaking to Match of the Day, Howe called it “disappointing when you are not delivering for your supporters… when you feel you are letting people down who come here and support us.” Criticism, he said, has to be accepted. “That’s the game we are in.”
He tried to draw a line between the noise and his own drive. “There is so much media attention on the club because it is such a huge global fanbase, and you understand that you are in the business to win. I understand the frustrations of everybody else. My own internal motivation never changes regardless of results. I want to help players grow and develop and try and produce a winning team.”
That task has been sabotaged by a transfer strategy that has badly misfired since Alexander Isak’s acrimonious exit last summer. Howe was heavily involved in the recruitment to replace the Swede. The outlay was enormous: Nick Woltemade, Yoane Wissa and Anthony Elanga cost around £180 million combined. The return has been meagre.
Woltemade looked a masterstroke in the autumn, scoring freely and appearing every inch Isak’s heir. Then the goals stopped. His last league strikes came in December, a brace against Chelsea, and his form has fallen off a cliff since the turn of the year. Wissa, signed with Premier League pedigree, missed most of the first half of the season with a knee injury and has not found his rhythm since, failing to score in the league in 2026. At various points, Anthony Gordon and William Osula have been asked to lead the line instead.
Elanga has been another disappointment. The consistency that made him such a threat at Nottingham Forest in 2024-25 has vanished. No league goals, a solitary assist, and the season now in its final stretch. Jacob Ramsey, brought in as a forward-thinking midfielder capable of playing wide, has also struggled to adapt, his start disrupted by an ankle problem.
The problems do not stop with those coming in. The mood music around the club points to a summer of departures, perhaps on a scale Newcastle have not seen in years. Speaking before the Bournemouth game, Howe effectively acknowledged that an era might be ending.
“There’s a few players out of contract and you’ve got some big players who have done amazing things for the club maybe entering their final few months of their time here,” he said. “You’ve got possibly players leaving in the summer and that natural evolution on that side, which happens at a football club.
“So, I can understand why the ‘end of a cycle’ might be used. What that looks like is unknown. It’s always unknown. It’s almost impossible to predict a summer transfer window and say, ‘this will happen’ or ‘that will happen’. It’s been impossible in every window I’ve ever managed because the moving forces in football are so difficult to predict.”
Those comments did little to lift the mood. They only sharpened the focus on players whose futures lie elsewhere. In his post-match press conference on Saturday, Howe paused for seven long seconds when asked whether his squad still shared the “fire” he had spoken about so passionately earlier in the week.
The likely candidates are clear: Sandro Tonali, Bruno Guimaraes, Tino Livramento and Gordon are all attracting serious attention, while Kieran Trippier’s departure at the end of his contract has already been confirmed and long-serving defender Fabian Schar could follow. Remarkably, reports suggest Woltemade or Wissa might be moved on after just a single season.
Tonali has been heavily linked with Arsenal and Manchester United. Guimaraes is also on United’s radar and is known to be admired by Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola. Livramento has suitors at Arsenal and City and is expected to be allowed to leave. Gordon is the latest marquee name to be at the centre of intense speculation, with Bayern Munich reportedly keen on the £75m-rated England winger as competition for Luis Diaz on the left. The 25-year-old is said to be open to a move. Woltemade, at this stage, has only been loosely mentioned in connection with Bayern and Chelsea.
All of this outgoing traffic would be designed to fund another rebuild and keep the club on the right side of the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules. Yet the context has changed. Newcastle’s immediate future is being shaped against a backdrop of uncertainty around their owners, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, who are tightening their spending amid the Iran war and other economic priorities, including the 2034 World Cup.
Last week, club chairman and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan confirmed that the fund was reviewing “some deals and investments”. A 70 per cent stake in Al-Hilal was sold for £276m, and there are strong rumours that PIF could even pull the plug on LIV Golf, the expensive breakaway project launched to rival the PGA Tour in 2022.
According to the BBC, PIF remain “totally committed” to Newcastle and insist the club will be “unaffected” by this reassessment of priorities. The assurances are clear enough. The reality will only be known when the transfer window opens and the cuts – or lack of them – begin to bite.
What is certain is that Newcastle are heading into a summer of upheaval, on and off the pitch, with a team in reverse and a manager staring down the barrel of an unwanted transition. Already in the eye of the storm, Tyneside may only just be feeling the first gusts.
