It is absurd to dismiss Eddie Howe but he faces a tough task at Newcastle | Jonathan Wilson

Manager’s Bournemouth stint raises questions about whether he can tighten defence and getting players’ buy-in will be tricky

And after all that, it turned out it was Eddie Howe all along. When the Saudis took over Newcastle United on 7 October, Howe was immediately mooted as a realistic short-term appointment. He is young, likable, plays attacking football and has recent experience in the Premier League. Perhaps he wouldn’t be the ultimate long-term choice, the manager to take Newcastle to Champions League glory, but then perhaps he would. He is only 43, and there was plenty of promise in his time at Bournemouth. He would, at the very least, have been a viable short-term solution.

And Howe may yet thrive. It’s absurd to dismiss him, as some have, as the man who took Bournemouth down. He was also the man who took the south-coast club from the fourth tier into the Premier League and kept them there for five years despite a limited budget, while playing football generally considered attractive.