The £25m dilemma facing Eddie Howe as preparations begin for trip to Brighton and Hove Albion

Eddie Howe was forced to shake up the squad on Saturday as Newcastle United hosted Ipswich Town at St James' Park.

It was Eddie Howe's first game back in the dugout following his hospitalisation with pneumonia and it wasn't just a simple case of having to put out the same eleven players that played the last seven games in a row.

A change had to be made as midfielder Joelinton was sent to see a specialist about a knee problem that had been an issue for a while.

In his place, £25 million man Joe Willock was given another shot in the midfield trio as he so often has when one of the established three has had to miss out.

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Fans are tired of the failing Joe Willock experiment

A quick look on social media and even around other fan sites would suggest that patience is starting to run out when it comes to the Joe Willock experiment.

When it's announced that Willock is starting, you will see so many posts on X or Facebook saying how it's a 'big game' for Willock and it's time for him to step up.

The fact that so many of those posts exist, and now the fact that I'm writing this as others have written something similar today, suggests that at this point Eddie Howe is exhibiting the Albert Einstein definition of insanity - trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

We get flashes of what we paid £25 million for, but they are so few and far between that we have to wonder where the line is.

What does Eddie Howe do if Joelinton is ruled out against Brighton?

We doubt Joelinton will be given the green light to play this weekend at Brighton, which leaves Eddie Howe with a call to make: Does he persist with Willock even though it's clearly not working, or does he change things up?

For us, and we imagine for many of you too, the fact that Lewis Miley is sitting on the bench being overlooked every week is infuriating. We understand the desire to protect him, but there are four games left - let him loose.

He can't improve if he doesn't play. He got a fair few minutes on Saturday and looked a much better player than Willock had. It also begs the question: Do we sell Joe Willock in the summer?

I expect we'll keep hold of him as he's homegrown and we can't lose all English players with European football coming up, but keeping him just for numbers won't go down with Willock himself, and he could push for a move.

Just for the record, and we feel like we shouldn't have to say this, but ... no Sean Longstaff, please. Thanks. We love him, he's one of our own, but Miley is already miles ahead of him.