Eddie Howe’s Newcastle exit explained as Matthias Jaissle set to take over at St James' Park

Eddie Howe is set to leave his role as Newcastle United head coach, according to The Athletic's David Ornstein. Howe has informed the club of his decision to step away after five years in charge, with Matthias Jaissle of Al Ahli lined up as his replacement.

The timing is striking. Howe chose to stay on at the end of last season, but has since had a change of heart and will leave in the coming days.

His Newcastle's exit comes 25 days before the club's first Premier League game of the new season, a home match against Liverpool on August 23. Howe oversaw all three of Newcastle's preseason fixtures this summer: a win over Darlington, a draw with Gateshead and a defeat to Bristol City.

All parties initially chose to continue working together before Howe then informed Newcastle of his decision to take a break and depart after five years as head coach.

The process appears to have been building for some time, with Howe understood to have raised the idea of leaving with the club's hierarchy weeks before it became public, only agreeing to stay on until a successor was identified.

The transfer frustration behind the decision

Growing frustration with Newcastle's transfer business looks to be a central factor in the decision, Howe had been prepared to lead the club into the new season, but only if the squad was strengthened. Instead, a run of high-profile departures left him increasingly concerned about the team's competitiveness.

Newcastle have already lost Anthony Gordon to Barcelona and Sandro Tonali to Tottenham this summer, Bruno Guimaraes is also expected to leave, with Arsenal in advanced talks over a transfer. That comes a year after Alexander Isak's departure to Liverpool for a British-record fee, a sale Howe's recruitment team struggled to adequately replace.

Watching Isak leave last summer, followed by Gordon and Tonali this year, with Guimaraes and Lewis Hall also facing uncertain futures, appears to have convinced Howe that he was not the right man to oversee what is becoming a significant rebuild at the club.

He is understood to love Newcastle and its supporters, and the split looks to have been a mutual parting rather than a sacking - according to several reports, Newcastle wanted him to stay and tried to persuade him otherwise.

A difficult final season

Newcastle finished 12th in the Premier League last season, a sharp decline after two Champions League qualifications under Howe. The club also exited the Champions League to Barcelona, and won only five of their final 17 league matches.

There are indications Howe was ready to walk away as early as February, following a 3-2 defeat to Brentford.

Part of the strain appears to stem from misalignment between the coaching staff and the club's executive side, with Howe having taken on de facto sporting director and chief spokesperson duties during a period when Newcastle had neither role filled, following Darren Eales' departure for health reasons.

The club's financial position under Profit and Sustainability Rules, since replaced by Squad Cost Ratio regulations, is also likely to have played a part. The constraints reportedly forced Newcastle into deals it did not want to make, limiting Howe's ability to rebuild the squad on his own terms.

Weighing the personal toll

Beyond the football reasoning, there is a suggestion that mounting criticism from parts of the fanbase over the past year took a toll on Howe personally.

This account is less consistent with the picture of a calm, planned exit described elsewhere, so it should be treated as one possible thread rather than a settled explanation. What seems clearer is that Howe simply reached the conclusion that the time was right to move on.

Throughout, Newcastle's hierarchy, including chief executive David Hopkinson and sporting director Ross Wilson wanted Howe to remain and had built a close working relationship with him, built on a belief that managerial stability was a competitive advantage.

Matthias Jaissle lined up as successor

Matthias Jaissle, 38, is the man Newcastle have identified to replace Howe. He currently manages Al Ahli, a Saudi club largely owned by the Public Investment Fund, the same body that controls Newcastle, and his arrival would make him the first German head coach in the club's history.

Jaissle came through Stuttgart's academy as a centre-back and won one cap for Germany's under-21 side. He spent his senior playing career at Hoffenheim, making 65 league appearances before a knee injury forced his retirement in 2014 at the age of 25.

He moved into coaching quickly, becoming assistant manager at Danish side Brondby in 2017. Two years later he joined Red Bull Salzburg as head coach of the under-18 side, before taking his first senior role at FC Liefering in January 2021, guiding the second-tier club to a second-place finish in the second half of that season.

That form earned him the Red Bull Salzburg job in 2021, succeeding Jesse Marsch. Over two seasons in Austria, Jaissle won back-to-back Bundesliga titles in 2021-22 and 2022-23, added the Austrian Cup in 2021-22, and took Salzburg into the Champions League knockout stage for the first time in the club's history.

His teams played a 4-4-2 diamond shape built on aggressive pressing and fast transitions, the identity associated with the wider Red Bull football project.

Jaissle joined Al Ahli in 2023 and has since won the AFC Champions League Elite in back-to-back seasons, 2024-25 and 2025-26, becoming the first coach to win the Asian Champions League in consecutive years. He also won the Saudi Super Cup in 2025-26.

At Al Ahli, working with a squad including Riyad Mahrez, Ivan Toney and Edouard Mendy, he has generally used a 4-2-3-1 system rather than the diamond he favoured at Salzburg.

Eddie Howe's Newcastle legacy

Howe was appointed on November 8, 2021, replacing Steve Bruce with the club sitting 19th in the Premier League, five points from safety after 11 games, following the Saudi-backed takeover of the club weeks earlier.

By December, with Howe now in charge, Newcastle had accumulated only seven points from 14 matches, but the team pulled clear of relegation trouble to finish the season safely.

His first full campaign, 2022-23, brought a fourth-placed Premier League finish and Champions League qualification for the first time in more than 20 years. That season also saw Newcastle reach their first Wembley final in 24 years, though they lost the Carabao Cup final 2-0 to Manchester United in February 2023.

In January 2024, Howe led the club to victory over Sunderland in an FA Cup Tyne-Wear derby, their first win over their rivals in almost 13 years, and Newcastle finished seventh in the league that May despite scoring 85 goals, their highest Premier League tally on record.

The high point of Howe's tenure came in March 2025, when Newcastle beat Liverpool 2-1 in the Carabao Cup final to win their first major trophy in 56 years, and their first domestic trophy since the 1955 FA Cup.

Dan Burn scored in the final, and Howe became the first English manager to win the League Cup since Steve McClaren with Middlesbrough in 2004, and the first to win either the FA Cup or League Cup since Harry Redknapp's 2008 FA Cup triumph with Portsmouth. Newcastle went on to secure a fifth-placed finish that May, sending them into the Champions League for a second time under Howe.

The following season brought a reversal. Alexander Isak left for Liverpool in a £125million deal on deadline day in September 2025, and Newcastle's form declined through the campaign, including a heavy 7-2 defeat to Barcelona in the Champions League. The club finished 12th in the Premier League, a stark contrast to the top-four and top-five finishes of the two previous seasons.

Across nearly five years in charge, Howe managed Newcastle in 223 matches, winning 114, drawing 42 and losing 67. He leaves as the club's most successful manager of the modern era, having taken Newcastle from a relegation battle to two Champions League qualifications and a first major trophy in 70 years, achievements now bookended by a difficult final season and his decision to step away.