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Eddie Howe can once more be mentioned in the same breath as two of Tyneside’s most cherished figures. This time, though, it is for reasons far less flattering. Sir Bobby Robson and Kevin Keegan both departed Newcastle abruptly in the latter part of summer, with decisions that appeared badly timed and pushed the club into upheaval and difficulty. At least, unlike those two distinguished predecessors, Howe has gone before the new season has begun rather than after a handful of matches.

Yet the timing is still alarming. With less than four weeks remaining before the campaign starts, and after a 4-1 friendly loss to Bristol City, the side Howe assembled appears to be coming apart. Howe was a transformative and outstanding Newcastle manager, but the concern is that his five-year spell may end up looking like the exception in the club’s recent history: a successful era surrounded by underachievement.

Howe achieved something even Robson and Keegan did not manage by bringing silverware to Tyneside: Newcastle’s first trophy since 1969, and their first in English football for 70 years. Rewind 17 months to the day they lifted the Carabao Cup, and Howe was asked whether he deserved his own statue at St James’ Park. True to his modest nature, he brushed the idea aside. Was he, he was asked, a legend? “We don’t put ourselves in that bracket,” he said. “We will let other people decide that when we are long gone.”

Now he has gone; from Howe’s point of view, there may even be some relief in seeing a weight removed from his shoulders. His likely successor, Matthias Jaissle, will walk into a long list of problems, very few of them of Howe’s making, and many of them having made his job increasingly difficult over the past year.

The results underline the decline. Newcastle lost six of their final nine league matches last season, and nine of their last 17. They were beaten by Sunderland both home and away. A Champions League run that had initially offered encouragement ended in humiliating fashion with a 7-2 thrashing by Barcelona.

Howe had put together a team with a clear identity. But even while he restored the feeling that there was something special about Newcastle, perhaps that still was not enough for players already at the club or for those he wanted to sign. Newcastle carried the label of the world’s richest club, yet they were unable to spend accordingly and did not possess the attraction that such wealth was supposed to deliver.

With Howe leaving, it is now easy to imagine Bruno Guimaraes moving to Arsenal, which would make him the fourth major departure of a top-class player in under a year, after Alexander Isak, Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali. The total money raised will be roughly £370m; a reminder that Howe often improved players significantly, but also one that leaves a huge gap in the team. He may wish Elliot Anderson were still there to fill the midfield void, but the PSR-driven sale of the Geordie in 2024 now looks like one of the biggest mistakes the Newcastle hierarchy have made in recent years. Another example is the delayed exit of Isak, whom Howe would probably have preferred to leave earlier, last summer, however profitable that sale proved.

Those exits have been made worse by the lack of incoming signings, or at least by the failure to recruit the right ones, despite Newcastle spending £250m last summer. Up to that point, Howe had an excellent record in the transfer market, but from the 2025 intake only Malick Thiaw was a success. This summer has merely continued the pattern from the last one. Elite players have repeatedly rejected Newcastle: Victor Munoz and Johan Manzambi this summer, along with a number of forwards who would have been a better fit than Nick Woltemade or Yoane Wissa were last year. Looking at the way Newcastle have since unravelled, Hugo Ekitike, Benjamin Sesko and Joao Pedro are unlikely to have any regrets about the decisions they made.

When Howe’s reign is assessed in full, the failed £125m pairing of Woltemade and Wissa will feature heavily. So too will Isak, the forward who scored at Wembley against Liverpool to secure that long-awaited trophy, but who then helped trigger the beginning of the end when he started looking towards the exit.

Before all that, Howe had built an impressive side from the wreckage he inherited: a club still without a win in November, but one that went on to reach two finals, qualify for the Champions League twice, and produce performances good enough to defeat the very best teams.

Howe’s Newcastle were at their strongest when playing with maximum intensity. They found things more difficult when balancing commitments in England and Europe, partly because of injuries. Even so, there was still the landmark 4-1 destruction of Paris Saint-Germain, with Dan Burn soaring through the Tyneside air to score with a header. Howe masterminded many memorable nights at St James’ Park, the man from the south coast who became a hero in the north-east.

Now responsibility falls to the men from the Middle East: Jaissle, who has enjoyed success at Al Ahli, the Saudi Public Investment Fund, the owners who have largely chosen to remain silent, and their senior figures at St James’ Park, sporting director Ross Wilson and chief executive David Hopkinson. But at several points over the last year, it seemed Howe alone was keeping Newcastle together. His departure leaves the club looking like a shambles.