Eddie Howe has not spoken to Paul Mitchell in the nine days since Newcastle’s director of football claimed he had inherited an unclear transfer strategy, unfit for purpose.
Tensions between Howe and Mitchell have been simmering since the latter’s appointment in early July and although they appear to have reached a truce it seems fragile. “I’ve had no contact from Paul,” said Newcastle’s manager, who maintains he is “very, very proud” of every player he helped sign between January 2022 and Mitchell’s arrival. “But I don’t think that’s unusual – we’ve got different jobs.”
Mitchell claimed last week he and Howe were “over-communicating” and sharing hour-long nightly telephone chats but Howe said such conversations had happened only during a transfer window blighted by Newcastle’s failed pursuit of Crystal Palace’s Marc Guéhi.
Howe’s principal concerns on Friday centred on Mitchell’s suggestion that the transfer strategy the manager had been very much part of was “unclear” and “unfit for purpose”, with Newcastle arguably overpaying for certain players. “I think a few things on that,” said Howe, who played a key role in recruiting a raft of widely admired internationals including Bruno Guimarães, Sven Botman, Kieran Trippier, Anthony Gordon, Alexander Isak and Sandro Tonali.
“I’m very, very proud of every single player we signed during that period. It’s very easy to look back at any transfer window and make a judgment on the players you signed three years down the line. Our objective at the time was to stay in the Premier League and, when you look back, that work was good. I’m very, very proud of the body of work we did and the players we have now from the legacy of those transfer windows. We love them to bits. I think everyone can hold their heads up very high.
“I will take ownership of that because, ultimately, I was always the final decision-maker on those signings … I’d certainly like to find a few more players like them. Recruitment is never as easy as everyone thinks.”
As for the so-called “Toon tax” Mitchell believed was paid on early signings after the takeover by majority Saudi Arabian owners, Howe demurred. “We definitely walked away from deals early on where we thought there was a Newcastle tax,” he said.
Mitchell claimed that, after inheriting transfer plans, he was able to play only a supporting role this summer but Howe seemed less sure. “ I don’t think it’s right for me to make individual comments on Paul’s press conference,” he said. “I don’t think that will help our situation.”
Howe reacted similarly when asked about Mitchell’s view that the scouting system was unfit for purpose. “Whatever you think about the scouting structures I thought the results were very good,” said Howe, somewhat pointedly.
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Although he declined to agree that Newcastle were in a state of civil war Howe hardly offered an emphatic rebuttal of that notion. “The civil war stuff?” he said. “Absolutely not, in my experience. But I’m cocooned in my work and absolutely focused on the players and training.”
Returning to his relationship with Mitchell, Howe sidestepped an inquiry as to where it sat on the “bromance barometer”. “I don’t think it has to be that way,” he said. “It has to be a collaboration for the greater good, which is always the football club and getting positive results. I will always fight for something I believe is for the greater long-term good of the club but it has to be collaborative. It can’t just be one person dictating what happens.”
There have been suggestions that, in an attempt to reduce injuries, Mitchell wants Howe to modify the team’s intense, hard-pressing playing style but the latter suggested his modus operandi would remain. “That’s the style of play we want,” he said as he prepared for Sunday’s trip to Wolves. “We ask a lot of the players but I think they’re capable of delivering that. At our best we are very difficult to play against.”