Challenging times ahead for Newcastle - Shearer

Thank you, Eddie Howe. You gave me the best day of my life as a Newcastle fan.

Whatever the reasons are for him leaving the club, I think every supporter of my age or younger - and I am 55 - would say the same.

Eddie will always be a legend in the eyes of the Geordie public for ending our long wait for a major trophy with that epic day he gave us at Wembley when we won the Carabao Cup in 2025.

I had craved that moment for my entire life. I had been to Wembley before as a Toon player and I had been there before as a Toon fan, and we'd all had the same feeling of walking away empty-handed.

He will be remembered for changing that, and we have to say a massive thank you for everything else he has done since he took charge in November 2021, when the club were 19th in the Premier League, five points adrift of safety after 11 games.

Eddie kept us up that year, then finished fourth, seventh and fifth in the next three seasons, with some amazing nights in the Champions League along the way. He did a brilliant job.

The best way of showing how far we have come under him is that we finished 12th last season and it was a disappointment, but I would not blame him for that, either.

What happened last summer massively hindered Newcastle, with Alexander Isak leaving and the club missing out on their main transfer targets.

Unfortunately, that trend has continued this year. I would not be surprised if it influenced Eddie's thinking about whether to stay or go, and it also makes me worry about what will happen next.

Speaking purely as a fan, I think we have to get ready for a tough season and some very challenging times ahead.

'You cannot keep selling your best players'

The timing of Eddie's exit is the biggest surprise for me - three weeks into pre-season, and with only three weeks to go until the Premier League starts again.

I don't know exactly what has gone on behind the scenes for this to happen now but I guess, from his point of view, he was seeing his best players being sold - first Isak, then Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali this summer - and with speculation over captain Bruno Guimaraes' future too.

He has probably thought it was a tough enough job anyway, but it is just getting tougher.

You cannot keep on selling your best players and then hope to be in contention at the top of the table - I hope I'm wrong but it is probably inevitable that Bruno will be next to leave.

Whatever Bruno's intentions were before, when Eddie was in charge, then he must look now and think well, we are selling our stars and now the manager, who he clearly had a great rapport with, has gone too.

It's not just the players leaving that is a bad look, it is seeing a series of attempted signings fail to get over the line as well.

Hugo Ekitike, Johan Manzambi and Victor Munoz all went to Liverpool or Aston Villa ahead of Newcastle in the past 12 months and now it also looks like James Trafford has chosen Leeds instead.

That's something else that Eddie has maybe looked at, because there has to be a reason why Newcastle are not getting so many of their targets.

Losing the manager on top of all this is a huge blow, especially a high-calibre one like Eddie who is going to get some huge job offers from home and abroad off the back of his achievements at St James' Park.

I think even someone really experienced would find the situation a difficult one and Matthias Jaissle, who is expected to get the job, is only 38.

While he has been successful with Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia, you cannot really compare that to working in the Premier League, which is a completely different beast.

'Newcastle is a changing football club'

Take a step back and, whether we like it or not, we can all see what is happening with all the ins and outs at Newcastle. Whatever statements come out of the club, it is clear the landscape has changed.

It is a changing football club - in terms of its owners' aims and ambitions and their transfer strategy, which all seem massively different to the way they were even three years ago.

Back then the sky seemed to be the limit, and the talk was about competing with the very best.

Now, the approach seems to be to sell their best players and replace them with younger, hungry and up-and-coming prospects. If it was that easy to do it successfully and still compete at the top of the table, then everyone would do it - but it isn't.

The club's spending always had to comply with the Premier League's profitability and sustainability rules but it still felt like the plan was to battle it out for silverware every season.