Howe Admits Fan Fury 'Really Hurts' After Cherries Spoil St. James' Party
Eddie Howe's homecoming turned sour as his former club Bournemouth secured a 2-1 victory at St. James' Park, leaving the Newcastle boss nursing wounds both tactical and emotional.
There's nothing quite like the beautiful game's capacity for cruel irony, and Eddie Howe got a masterclass in it at St. James' Park as his former employers Bournemouth waltzed into his current living room and helped themselves to a 2-1 victory.
The Newcastle manager, who clearly didn't get the memo that football is supposed to be fun, admitted afterwards that hearing the frustrations of the Toon Army 'really hurts' – though presumably not as much as watching his side capitulate at home to the team that gave him his big break in management.
It's a peculiar kind of torture, really. Howe spent years transforming Bournemouth from League Two also-rans into Premier League mainstays, only to now find himself on the receiving end of their tactical know-how. The Cherries clearly hadn't forgotten the lessons their former gaffer taught them, even if Newcastle seemed to have missed the class entirely.
The home defeat at St. James' Park will have stung particularly badly for a manager who's made his reputation on meticulous preparation and tactical nous. When your former club rocks up and schools you in your own backyard, it's the sort of result that has supporters reaching for their phones to call talk radio shows with 'solutions' that invariably involve bringing back someone who left the club in 1997.
The Geordie faithful, never ones to suffer in silence, made their feelings abundantly clear after the final whistle. Credit to Howe for acknowledging their frustrations rather than retreating behind the usual managerial platitudes about 'processes' and 'taking it one game at a time.' His admission that the supporters' displeasure causes him genuine pain at least suggests he's aware of the magnitude of the problem.
Of course, awareness and solutions are two entirely different beasts in football management. Bournemouth's visit to Tyneside was supposed to be a routine afternoon's work against a side they'd theoretically outgrown. Instead, it's become another stick for critics to beat Howe with, and another reason for Newcastle supporters to question whether their club's ambitions match their expectations.
The pressure is clearly mounting on the Newcastle boss, and defeats like this – at home, against supposedly inferior opposition – are exactly the kind that cost managers their jobs. Whether Howe can turn things around remains to be seen, but he'll need to find answers quickly before those fan frustrations become something rather more terminal than mere hurt feelings.