Eddie Howe missed his own welcome party and his team were far from perfect – but the apathy at St James’ Park is no longer
If this was Newcastle United’s Christmas Day come early, it was more Home Alone than the Queen’s speech – thrilling, dizzying and with a lot of collateral damage to pick through at the end. This day, intended as Eddie Howe’s coronation, did not go to script at all – but does it ever at St James’s Park? From the moment on Friday night it was announced that the new head coach had tested positive for Covid and would miss his own welcome party, one suspected this wasn’t going to be the straightforwardly triumphant start that was hoped for.
Having known each other for the best part of a quarter-century and coached together for 13 years, Howe and his assistant Jason Tindall had an extraordinary – and socially distanced – beginning to an experience that already promised to be unique.
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