Newcastle United should not miss the opportunity to replace Eddie Howe with Jose Mourinho as their manager this summer.
That is the bold verdict of YouTuber and Newcastle fan, True Geordie, who believes Mourinho represents the Magpies’ best chance of ending their 55-year wait to win a major trophy.
Howe has done an incredible job as Newcastle manager since taking over in November 2021. He steered the club to Premier League survival in his first season in charge, after inheriting a side who were in the relegation zone and hadn’t won a game all season.
In his second season in charge, he then steered Newcastle to Champions League qualification for the first time in 20 years.
He also guided United to their first cup final for 24 years, losing to Manchester United in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley.
However, this season, injuries have ravaged Newcastle. That being said, they still managed to be competitive in a Champions League group that included PSG, AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund and reached the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup and FA Cup.
They are currently eighth in the Premier League and while Champions League qualification is now an unrealistic ambition, qualifying for European competition next season is not out of their grasp.
However, Mourinho is without a club since leaving Roma earlier this year and is keen to find a new job in the summer.
“The Special One” has won 26 major trophies across spells with Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Manchester United and Roma, and has a well known affinity with Newcastle.
Mourinho worked as ex-Newcastle manager Sir Bobby Robson’s translator and assistant coach at Sporting Lisbon, Porto and Barcelona and called himself a “Little Magpie” because of the stories Robson would tell him about Newcastle.
With all of that in mind, True Geordie told the Kick Off podcast that, while Howe’s departure would come with a heavy heart, he feels appointing Mourinho is an opportunity that is too good to miss.
“I was thinking about this in the car the other day,” he said. “I’m driving around, you know when you’re debating s**t on your own and I really like Eddie Howe as a person and that’s part of the problem.
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“Because we had Steve Bruce who could not get through a single press conference without saying something that you’re like: ‘Oh my God’.
“I was on the train and he’s there and I’m like I don’t even want to go over to you and say hello. I don’t admire you. I don’t respect you.
“So now we’ve got Eddie Howe who carries himself with respect, he doesn’t drop his foot in it and he does tend to say the right things a lot of the time and he’s achieved huge things.
“He’s he’s giving us memories. He got us to Wembley. All right, we lost, but f**k me that was a hell of an achievement for a team that have never been to Wembley for over 20 years.
“We literally pushed the the very best of the Champions League to the bitter end to where the referee had to stitch us up to get PSG into the next round, so I’ve got a lot of love and admiration for him.
“But the problem is, logically, there’s a bit of me that goes what has he won though? I believe he can go on to win things but when there’s a manager on the market like Jose Mourinho, who is Sir Bobby Robson’s son in management terms.
“He literally built him. He literally taught him everything he knew as a young man and told him about Newcastle and where he’s from and Mr Robson and all of this.
“Could this be the fairy tale? I am a romantic, I actually thought Francis Ngannou had a chance against Anthony Joshua for Christ’s sake, so there’s a bit of me thinking about Jose Mourinho.
“If we are talking about the most winning managers in world football on the market right now, who’s won more than Jose? Has anyone who’s available right now?
“If there’s an opportunity for Newcastle United to get Jose Mourinho, in the way that our fans, even more than Chelsea fans, in my opinion, would fall in love with him, I just think is that an opportunity that we shouldn’t miss?
“Because with Jose, all we want as a club, all I want for the rest of my life is one trophy and if there’s a manager out there who could give you that it’s probably Jose.”