Newcastle United owners told to make ‘ruthless’ decision and sign Bundesliga winner

That’s according to former Liverpool striker and pundit Stan Collymore, who believes Newcastle’s Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund owners could choose to part ways with head coach Eddie Howe in favour of a ‘bigger’ managerial name. As it happens, one such manager has become available with Bayern Munich sacking Julian Nagelsmann.

And Collymore feels The Magpies should speak to the 35-year-old.

“If Bayern Munich can get rid of a coach like Nagelsmann, who had the club competing for the Bundesliga title and was unbeaten in Europe, then Newcastle United can definitely part ways with Eddie Howe,” he wrote in his CaughtOffside column.

“The Magpies’ owners should, at the very least, put the feelers out and ask Nagelsmann if he’d like to take charge. They don’t even need to tell Howe that they’ve made contact with him but come on, they have to at least go and find out if he’d like to come to the north east.

"That is how they will improve because they’re not going to get to the promised land with Howe in charge.”

Howe has helped transform Newcastle from prime relegation candidates to Champions League challengers in little over a year in charge as well as reaching a first major tournament final since 1999. It is hard to picture another manager doing a better job than the former Bournemouth boss at St James’ Park.

But Collymore added: “Now before you say it – I know a lot of fans will be thinking ‘but that’s not the way Newcastle are doing it, Stan’ and that is true; it isn’t how they’ve gone about their business, so far – but if they snapped up a manager of Nagelsmann’s reputation and went on to qualify for Europe and win a trophy, then, believe me, the feeling would quickly go from ‘Eddie Howe’ to ‘Eddie who?’

“The Saudi owners are in it to win it, they won’t care how the fanbase feels towards Howe, Sven Botman, Bruno Guimaraes, Alexander Isak, or any other individual. They won’t care that Dan Burn is a boyhood fan. He could have ‘Howay the Lads’ tattooed across his arse cheeks and it won’t matter to the owners.

"They’re not here to mess around. They want to take Newcastle United to the very top and compete with the likes of Manchester City.

“At the moment, they’re testing the waters and seeing how far they can go without spending a ridiculous amount of money but once the excitement dies down and they decide to take the club to the next level, they will be ruthless, mark my words.”

While Newcastle’s owners are willing to be ruthless in order to achieve success and Howe will need to keep Newcastle on an upward trajectory, they will remain loyal to the manager that has performed above and beyond all expectations during his time at the club so far.