In June, Eddie Howe found solace in the natural beauty of Johnston Canyon, Canada, as he hiked with his wife and three sons. Having recently overcome pneumonia, the trip was a rejuvenating retreat that also tested his physical stamina.

Little did Howe know that the real challenges were yet to come. The ensuing summer and football season have proven to be the ultimate challenge of his mental and physical fortitude.

The unfolding events at Newcastle were predictable to those in the know. The dramatic upheaval within the club has been brewing ever since the dramatic removal of co-owners Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi during the summer of 2024.

Opinions on Staveley and Ghodoussi were divided. Some insiders viewed them as disruptive meddlers, while others saw them as bold visionaries. Regardless of perspective, their departure unraveled the club’s post-takeover structure, leaving Howe, his staff, and players feeling the impact.

This change left the team disconnected from both the remnants of the past and the new developments that followed. Newcastle United seemed anything but united. Contractual disputes were rife, and there was a pervasive sense that the football side’s concerns were acknowledged but not acted upon. Promises of resolution were made, yet nothing materialized.

This season’s script has been in the post ever since the Shakespearean coup to oust co-owners Amanda Staveley (right) and Mehrdad Ghodoussi (left) in the summer of 2024

Eddie Howe (right, with chairman Yasir Al Rumayyan) lost two trusted allies, players lost confidants and fixers, and supporters lost the reassurance of a visible and engaged leadership

It’s less than 12 months since Howe delivered Newcastle’s first major trophy for 70 years

How did it come to this point? For over a year, Howe grappled with the consequences. The once harmonious environment gave way to tension, as it seemed the owners had ignited internal conflict within their own club.

Howe became that confidant, that fixer, all the while robbed of his own. He was needlessly – and negligently on the part of the decision-makers – pitched into battle with his own sporting director, Paul Mitchell.

In one story that captures the unrest, it is said, he addressed the club’s youth recruitment team and declared that Peter Beardsley would never be a footballer in the modern game. A controversial take based on physical genetics and discarding genius, but all the more contentious given Beardsley’s son was one of the scouts. 

Such antagonism was also felt by Howe, his backroom team and the players, who won the Carabao Cup and qualified for the Champions League last season despite some other factions within the club, not because of them. After no first-team signings in three windows and players lost in that time, it was a dual sporting achievement that did not get the wider recognition it deserved.

But what is more astonishing, of late, is the failure of a vocal minority far closer to home to recognise what has gone before. There is both a lack of appreciation for the success delivered and understanding of the turbulence endured, which culminated in last summer being navigated, not particularly successfully, without a sporting director or chief executive.

This, of course, is the way and the want of the online Anger-ithm, amplifying dissent and elevating above ground some who belong in a sewer. Yet, such amnesia has also crept into pockets of St James’ Park.

There was one incident in the Gallowgate End during last weekend’s 3-2 defeat by Brentford when an older fan vowed to drag two younger adults over their seats if they did not get off their phones and back the team, a flashpoint sparked by their half-time booing. This, he told those around him, was the time for supporters to support.

None of this is to say Howe gets a free pass, especially not when £250million was spent on six players in the summer. It was not, however, the window they envisaged or needed. There was frustration, indecision and, in the end, panic.

For over a year, Howe dealt with the fallout. Harmony gave way to friction. The owners had pulled the pin on a grenade inside their own club

Howe was needlessly – and negligently on the part of the decision-makers – pitched into battle with his own sporting director, Paul Mitchell

Insiders concede Alexander Isak should have been sold at the start of the window, having made it clear he wanted to go. There is also a belief among some that a deal for Brighton’s Joao Pedro was there to be concluded, had a proper transfer structure been in place, or Staveley still been at the club.

Mitchell left at the end of June, a month in which Newcastle moved at a glacial pace on incomings. Why was an outgoing sporting director left in charge of negotiations for players when his exit was confirmed weeks earlier? Rival clubs and intermediaries thought it was madness. There was confusion and, amid the carnage, a battlefield promotion for Andy Howe, Eddie’s nephew, to take the lead on signings.

It was an inheritance laced with hidden taxes, such as the legacy of Mitchell’s terse negotiations with Burnley for James Trafford the previous summer and ill-feeling towards Newcastle. This, it is thought, cost them the goalkeeper, who ended up at Manchester City.

When reports started to emerge of Howe being the de facto chief executive, sporting director and head of recruitment, it did not sit easy with the head coach, and not because he was unwilling to absorb responsibility. He and assistant Jason Tindall were carrying the load of the executive vacuum and joined often daily Zoom calls throughout the close-season. Their commitment was acknowledged by those above and all involved were working towards a common goal, but they knew that key components of a functional football club were missing.

Even now, more than four years into their ownership, it baffles some why the Saudis do not have any day-to-day presence on the ground and why their external communication is virtually non-existent, including any updates on a new training ground or stadium, although progress on the former is due in the spring. 

The infrastructural investment that would help push back on spending rules has, so far, not been as forthcoming as many expected. Too many hierarchal hires have not worked, either. 

Howe is now working with, in effect, his third chief executive in David Hopkinson and third sporting director in Ross Wilson. Those new relationships are strong and there is a renewed sense of togetherness, but they came too late for a critical summer when Newcastle were at their weakest.

One week before the window closed, a PIF delegation and co-owner Jamie Reuben made a failed attempt to persuade Isak to stay at his Northumberland home. The next day, the transfer team, including Howe, faced up to the reality of needing to sign two strikers in six days. They had, all summer, come second in the race for top targets such as Pedro and Hugo Ekitike, likewise with Liam Delap and Benjamin Sesko.

When reports emerged of Howe being de facto chief executive, sporting director and head of recruitment, it did not sit easy with him, and not because he was unwilling to take responsibility

Mitchell’s terse negotiations with Burnley for James Trafford in 2024 is thought to have cost them the goalkeeper who ended up at Man City and knocked them out of the League Cup

Within 48 hours of being made aware of Nick Woltemade’s availability, he was on a private jet to Newcastle at a cost of £69m, the price a penalty of the transfer’s timing. Yoane Wissa followed at an equally inflated £55m, but he suffered a serious knee injury before kicking a ball and looks way short of rhythm and confidence even now. 

Insiders say that Wissa and Woltemade need a full pre-season under Howe before judgement is returned. Winger Anthony Gordon is currently keeping them out of the team at centre forward, and justifiably so.

Howe owns those moves and every signing – just like he does the success of Malick Thiaw and others such as Isak, Bruno Guimaraes, Lewis Hall and Sandro Tonali before that, as well as the more recent travails of his strikers, Jacob Ramsey and Anthony Elanga.

No player comes in who he does not want or admire. But nor does he want, from the past five windows, six first-team arrivals in one and none in the other four. That is why this season was always going to be one of transition and the manager, by his own admission, is still trying to work out what his best team looks like in terms of personnel, shape and strategy.

When he conceded on Monday that they’re struggling to score goals and keep them out, it had echoes of David Moyes’ infamous quote, when in charge of Manchester United, of his side needing to be better at passing, creating chances and defending. 

That is on Howe to fix and, 24 hours later at Tottenham, he did. The 2-1 win in north London came on the back of a player-led inquest in the wake of Brentford – a third straight defeat to leave them 12th – when full-time boos prompted even louder debate in the dressing-room. They resolved that they owed the manager and themselves something better, and duly came good on that promise.

But that was not before Howe revealing on Monday that he would step aside if he did not think he was the right man for the job.

For the first time, it felt like some of the outside noise had permeated his ordinarily robust exterior. For the first time, there were genuine conversations among observers over his future on Tyneside. For the first time, checks were made on what the weeks and months ahead could look like for Howe and the club.

Yoane Wissa and Nick Woltemade cost a combined £124million in the closing days of the summer transfer window – and now both find themselves out of the side

Howe knows that Tottenham, as big a win as it was, does not mean a corner turned. Nor does a run of losses mean terminal decline 

The response was unified – he wants Newcastle and Newcastle want him. Even still, there was, and is, a lingering danger that some of the short-sighted opinion polluting various platforms could cloud judgement.

Howe knows that Tottenham, as big a win as it was, does not mean a corner turned. Nor does a run of losses mean terminal decline. I pushed him on this on Friday, and it felt like a question he has been waiting to answer.

‘The words patience and understanding – they’re rarely accepted, I think, in football management when you’re talking about your team,’ he began. ‘People want clarity on where you are, they want to know whether you’re good or bad. In the middle isn’t accepted.

‘For me, we were well aware going into this season that it was going to be different for us. For everything that happened in the summer, and we hadn’t recruited in so many windows but then we signed six players. With that comes change.

‘Then we go into a new season with no pre-season or training time with them. That is very difficult and it has ended up being inconsistent and a little bit up and down. Don’t get me wrong, we could have done better and there are certainly things that we could improve, but I think longer term we’ll be better for it, if we can work through this season and this period.

‘The biggest thing is to find a clear identity, and then we can see what the future looks like with this team. If it’s positive then that could be a great thing. All we ask from anyone on the outside is that there is some understanding. But we also understand that we are under pressure and that we have to try to win while doing it.’

Perversely, Howe has not helped himself. Finishing fourth, seventh and fifth and winning a first domestic trophy in 70 years, with a wage expenditure still just the eighth-highest in the Premier League, raises expectation and breeds complacency among a section of fans.

He won an FA Cup tie at home to Bournemouth last month, on penalties, that his team could have done with losing in 90 minutes. They were jaded by the time they lost 2-0 at home to Manchester City in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final three days later. In fact, they’ve been fatigued ever since. 

Newcastle’s squad were jaded by the time they lost 2-0 at home to Manchester City in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final – and they’ve been fatigued ever since

At Tottenham came reassurance of a team fighting for Howe and the badge, and a moment after when Bruno Guimaraes and Kieran Trippier pushed their boss towards the away fans

The concern, earlier in the week, was that Howe had started to wear that exhaustion, after four years of being manager, mediator, spokesman and ambassador, not to mention the one club employee who has consistently performed and overachieved.

But then, at Tottenham, came reassurance of a team fighting for him and the badge, and a moment post-match when Bruno Guimaraes and Kieran Trippier pushed their boss towards the away fans. They sang his name and roared in approval when he punched the air, and there you had supporters supporting when someone needed it most.

Next up, the FA Cup at Aston Villa today and a Champions League play-off in Azerbaijan on Tuesday. That 6,000-mile round trip in itself is a reminder of how far Newcastle have come.

Just like that winding trail in Canada, success is rarely a straight road, and this season has brought some painful detours. But, with Howe, they have the best guide. If they are to reach the summit, as is the club’s stated ambition, it is far more likely with him leading the climb than anyone else.