Report now says it's business as usual at St James' Park as club dismiss claims of unrest

The 'civil war' narrative surrounding Newcastle United's manager and sporting director reached peak ridiculousness at the weekend.

Reports started circulating at the weekend that Paul Mitchell would be forced out of the club before Eddie Howe as the two Newcastle men struggle to see eye-to-eye.

It's a lazy narrative borne out of a couple of poorly worded interview answers which the media has pounced on to sew discontent at the club.

It doesn't matter how much either Howe or Mitchell says there are no issues, needy journalists will seize upon any opportunity to find a double meaning in what they're saying to fuel their narrative.

The club has rubbished claims that they're looking to replace Paul Mitchell already

Today, though, The Chronicle has been the voice of reason stating that everyone is working towards the same goal of trying to close the gap to the "Big Six" while reiterating that the board wants Mitchell and Howe to work "hand in glove" towards that goal.

We thought the whole 'civil war' rhetoric was finally dying down until we read about the club looking for a replacement for Mitchell already.

All it took was a quick glance at the story to know just how stupid it was. Mitchell has only been in the role five minutes and has barely even got started yet.

It's time to move on and get things back on track

We're sure those journalists who are still getting precious clicks from spouting rubbish about disharmony won't be done yet, but at least some outlets are trying to sweep it all aside.

Of course, we bought into it all a little bit at the start as a lot of what has been said was ambiguous, but on reflection, we all just made a big deal out of nothing.

Let's hope we can just move on now as there's a lot of work to be done to get this club back on track and especially to get the team back to what they were.