Newcastle face Bournemouth on Saturday with the manager under increasing pressure at St James’ Park
Eddie Howe has reason to believe that April really is the cruellest month. This time last year Newcastle’s manager was hospitalised with pneumonia and, 12 months later, he can barely switch on a radio or glance at a newspaper without receiving yet another reminder he is “under pressure”.
As fans and pundits debate whether Cesc Fàbregas, Xabi Alonso, Andoni Iraola, Oliver Glasner or AN Other might perform a superior job, one thing is clear: Howe has six games to reassure Newcastle’s hierarchy that he remains the right man to lead his 14th-placed team through what promises to be a significant summer rebuild.
In order to remain on the right side of European and, to a lesser extent, Premier League spending rules, Newcastle will almost certainly need to sell at least one, and probably two, of Sandro Tonali, Anthony Gordon and Tino Livramento before September. Should, as seems likely, the team fail to qualify for Europe, that trio may all demand to leave regardless.
Whatever happens, inward recruitment needs to be much shrewder than last summer when the £125m raised from the acrimonious sale of Alexander Isak to Liverpool went towards a £220m investment in Nick Woltemade, Yoane Wissa, Anthony Elanga and Jacob Ramsey.
