Saturday night’s post-match press conference at Newcastle felt like a big moment for Eddie Howe. It felt emotional – and he picked his words very carefully after the defeat to Brentford.
It was the first time Newcastle have been booed off at both at half-time and full-time in a long, long time. It represented the lowest point since the Saudi Arabia takeover of the club nearly five years ago. They are sitting 12th in the Premier League after three straight losses, and were knocked out of the League Cup last week.
Howe is someone who commits his life, his heart and his soul to Newcastle and has done that since he arrived back in November 2021. No one can question that. But he obviously is questioning how he can do his job better - whether that be tactics, team selection and training.
The problem for Newcastle right now is that they can't really train. The schedule is absolutely brutal at the moment - they're in the middle of six games in 17 days.
They've not had a free midweek since the international break in November. That is, of course, the same for Man City, Liverpool and Arsenal. But it feels that those three teams' squads are better equipped to deal with the schedule.
Newcastle had an opportunity last summer to improve the squad in terms of recruitment. They signed five outfield players.
But only really one of those five have worked out so far in Malick Thiaw. Four of them - Yoane Wissa, Nick Woltemade, Jacob Ramsey and Anthony Elanga - the jury is still out on - at best.
And when you're spending £250m and you've got all these games, you're playing a game every three days, you need the majority of those players to work. So it now feels that the issues from last summer are really coming home to roost.
Howe's recruitment at Newcastle has been incredible up until now. Players like Tino Livramento, Lewis Hall, Sandro Tonali, Bruno Guimaraes, and Dan Burn have all come in and become huge characters on Tyneside - and they've all improved as players. They're the heartbeat of the team.
There is still time for those four summer signings to work, but they're running out of time.
Howe is a generational manager who's brought so many amazing times, so much joy, so much love to the club - and has built a connection between the city and that football club. He's right up there alongside Kevin Keegan in terms of what he's done for the football club.
The high levels of disrespect he has been shown on social media feels different from the match-going fans, who are desperate for Howe to have time and for him to turn it around.
And Howe, of course, will still think he can turn it around. He's been in the trenches a couple of times already with Newcastle, and turned it around.
Howe has the full backing of the hierarchy at Newcastle. But as any manager will tell you, he recognises that if you keep losing games and keep struggling, at some point there is going to be a change.
And look at the fixtures coming up: Spurs away on Tuesday, Aston Villa away in the cup on Saturday, they're straight back from that - and then off to a 5,000-mile round trip to Baku in the Champions League, then Man City away the following Saturday. It's absolutely brutal right now. There's no time to recover.
What Howe was doing in his press conference against Brentford was an attempt to take the pressure away from his players and blaming himself. As he said last week, what Newcastle need to do at this moment in time is protect the confidence of the players at all costs.
And Newcastle need a spark from someone, whether it is an Elanga, whether it's Woltemade, or someone to go on a goalscoring spree. They need to find something.
Those players aren't just low in energy right now with the amount of games, they're really low in confidence as well. And it's a really, really difficult thing to get back.
February 10: Tottenham vs Newcastle - Premier League, kick-off 7.30pm
February 14: Aston Villa vs Newcastle - FA Cup fourth round, kick-off 5.45pm
February 18: Qarabag vs Newcastle - Champions League play-off first leg, kick-off 5.45pm
February 21: Man City vs Newcastle - Premier League, kick-off 8pm
February 24: Newcastle vs Qarabag - Champions League play-off second leg, kick-off 8pm
February 28: Newcastle vs Everton - Premier League, kick-off 3pm
