There has been practically endless speculation about the future of Eddie Howe as Newcastle United boss since the summer.
Between Gareth Southgate stepping down as England manager and the bookies installing Eddie Howe as favourite for the job, to the loaded answers to questions on the future following the departures of Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghoddousi and the subsequent arrival of Paul Mitchell, everything Howe has said for the last few months has been picked through for double meanings.
There are still those who claim that Howe's position at the club isn't as secure as it would have been had Staveley and Ghodoussi remained at the club.
The husband and wife duo had forged an excellent relationship with Eddie Howe and there was a feeling that he was invincible with those two protecting him at the club.
So strong is the bond, that now there appears to be some movement on Staveley's next investment into Tottenham Hotspur, there is speculation that should her £500 million buy-in come off, they will make a move to bring Eddie Howe with them to the New White Hart Lane.
Amanda Staveley recently spoke about the Spurs project to the media (via Newcastle World) where she admitted she would ideally still be at Newcastle.
“My preference would have been to stay with Newcastle, but life doesn't always work out exactly how you want it to.
“Nothing is going to replicate that. I fell in love with Newcastle, the club and the people and that can't change, but I didn't want to get in Newcastle's way. It's got to be about what's best for Newcastle.
“Mehrdad and I are keen to be hands-on. We're hard-working people, I love to be very busy and to engage and I love football. Very sadly, we have to move on to other projects and that might involve us taking a stake in another club or buying another club and that's difficult. But it's possible.”
Newcastle World also claims that they've heard several sources claim that Staveley would approach Howe should the deal with Spurs go through.
Tottenham have been fairly unsettled when it comes to managers late with Ange Postecoglou one of the rare ones to get a second season.
We're confident that by the time anything happens with Spurs, all of the niggling doubts that surfaced over the summer for Howe will have been ironed out and he'd refuse the move. At least we hope so, anyway.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Liverpool
|
14 | 18 | 35 |
2 |
Chelsea
|
15 | 17 | 31 |
3 |
Arsenal
|
15 | 14 | 29 |
4 |
Manchester City
|
15 | 6 | 27 |
5 |
Nottingham Forest
|
15 | 1 | 25 |
6 |
Aston Villa
|
15 | 0 | 25 |
7 |
Brighton
|
15 | 3 | 24 |
8 |
Bournemouth
|
15 | 3 | 24 |
9 |
Brentford
|
15 | 3 | 23 |
10 |
Fulham
|
15 | 2 | 23 |
11 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
15 | 12 | 20 |
12 |
Newcastle United
|
15 | -2 | 20 |
13 |
Manchester United
|
15 | 1 | 19 |
14 |
West Ham United
|
15 | -8 | 18 |
15 |
Everton
|
14 | -7 | 14 |
16 |
Leicester
|
15 | -9 | 14 |
17 |
Crystal Palace
|
15 | -6 | 13 |
18 |
Ipswich
|
15 | -13 | 9 |
19 |
Wolves
|
15 | -15 | 9 |
20 |
Southampton
|
15 | -20 | 5 |