Why visit of Newcastle's Saudi owners is being talked about
Howe took charge of a winless side deep in relegation trouble, but went on to end Newcastle 's 70-year wait for a major domestic trophy by lifting the Carabao Cup last season. They also qualified for the Champions League in 2023 and 2025. However, this campaign has been his most testing yet, which is saying something.
Only relegated Burnley and Wolves have lost more Premier League games than Newcastle 's 16. Howe's ability to outperform clubs with bigger wage bills has been a trademark for much of this time at Newcastle , but his side find themselves below Crystal Palace , Sunderland , Everton , Fulham , Brentford , Bournemouth and Brighton in the table with four games to go. Newcastle have played 54 matches in all competitions, which is uncharted territory for the group, who reached the last 16 of the Champions League and a third League Cup semi-final in four years.
This drained side have been knocked back by injuries to influential players like captain Bruno Guimaraes at key moments. Newcastle are also still feeling the effects of a turbulent transfer window last summer. David Hopkinson and Ross Wilson have since arrived, but the club operated without a chief executive and sporting director during a pivotal trading period.
Newcastle missed out on a host of top transfer targets, including Joao Pedro, Hugo Ekitike, Benjamin Sesko and James Trafford, and have seen little return from a £100m-plus net recruitment drive that Howe was heavily involved in. Finally, having decided to hold firm for so long, Newcastle ultimately buckled and sold Alexander Isak on deadline day after the striker pushed to join Liverpool for a British record £125m. Howe's future & likely sales - why Newcastle face key summer As intense as last summer was, though, there could be even more activity in the coming months.
Such a rebuild is clearly going to require smart trading given the financial rules in place. A theory has been put forward externally that Newcastle would benefit from dropping out of Europe as it would enable them to spend up to 85% of their football-related revenue and net profit/loss from player sales under the Premier League's new squad cost regulations, as opposed to the 70% figure for those competing in Uefa's competitions. However, that is not the view inside St James' Park because Uefa's football earnings rule runs over a three-year period, so those accounts would still have to be submitted to European football's governing body if Newcastle were to qualify the following season.