Eddie Howe Leaves Newcastle as Jaissle Set to Take Over
Eddie Howe is set to step away from Newcastle United, bringing a dramatic close to a five-year spell that dragged the club from relegation anxiety to the Champions League and long-awaited silverware.
According to The Athletic, Howe has informed the board he wants a break from football, reversing his decision at the end of last season to stay on. The departure is described as amicable, with no boardroom bust‑up, no public rupture. Just a manager who has reached the end of his own line.
Newcastle, though, have not been caught cold.
Jaissle lined up as successor
The club are in advanced talks with Al Ahli head coach Matthias Jaissle to take over at St James’ Park. The 38-year-old German has emerged as the clear frontrunner, helped in no small part by his relationship with Newcastle’s majority owners, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), who also control Al Ahli.
Jaissle’s coaching résumé is already weighty for his age. At Red Bull Salzburg he built a reputation as one of Europe’s sharpest young tacticians, winning back-to-back Austrian Bundesliga titles and the Austrian Cup with a ferocious, high-tempo attacking style that fits neatly with modern elite demands.
His move to Al Ahli in 2023 has only strengthened that profile. There, he has delivered consecutive AFC Champions League titles in 2025 and 2026, proof that his methods travel and that he can handle the pressure of a project backed by serious money and serious expectations.
If, as expected, he takes the Newcastle job, he will walk into a club he already understands from the ownership side – and an environment that will expect him to hit the ground sprinting, not just running.
Howe’s legacy: from 19th to nights under the lights
Howe’s departure closes one of the most transformative chapters in Newcastle’s modern history.
When he replaced Steve Bruce in November 2021, Newcastle sat 19th in the Premier League and looked exactly that: flat, fragile, and staring at the drop. Howe stabilised them first, then accelerated them.
Survival came swiftly. The real statement followed. In 2022-23, Newcastle surged into the Champions League places, turning St James’ Park into one of the most intimidating grounds in England again. Those midweek European nights, the noise, the black-and-white flags – they were the physical manifestation of Howe’s work and the owners’ ambition finally colliding.
His defining moment arrived in 2025. Newcastle beat Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final, ending a 70-year wait for a major trophy. For a club steeped in frustration and near-misses, that afternoon felt like a dam bursting.
Yet football rarely allows a clean, upward line.
The 2025-26 campaign bit back. Newcastle slid to a 12th-place finish in the Premier League and were thrashed in the Champions League last 16 by Barcelona. The energy that had driven their rise seemed to drain away, worn down by injuries, expectation, and the sheer grind of competing on multiple fronts.
Even so, Howe appeared safe. PIF representatives offered him full backing during end-of-season talks at Matfen Hall. There was no sense, publicly at least, that his position was under immediate threat.
Then came his change of heart.
A club in transition, again
Howe’s decision lands in the middle of another turbulent summer on Tyneside. The squad is already being torn up and reassembled.
Anthony Gordon has been sold to Barcelona for £69.3 million. Sandro Tonali has joined Tottenham Hotspur in a £100m deal. Both departures are high-profile, both reshape the spine of the side that had carried Newcastle back into Europe.
And the uncertainty may not be over. Arsenal are actively pursuing Bruno Guimaraes, the midfielder who has become the heartbeat of this team and a symbol of the project’s ambition. Lose him as well, and the rebuild becomes even more severe.
This is the landscape Jaissle is poised to inherit: a club with money and ambition, but also with key pieces already gone and others under siege. A fanbase that has tasted the Champions League and a trophy and will not easily accept a step back. An ownership group that wants a dynamic, front-foot style and has chosen a coach whose entire career has been built on exactly that.
The pressure will be immediate. So will the opportunity.
Howe walks away having restored pride and relevance to Newcastle United. Jaissle, if and when he arrives, will be judged on whether he can turn that platform into something even bigger – or whether this proves to be the high-water mark of a thrilling, fragile rise.
