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The Newcastle manager is not prone to dramatics or grand media pronouncements. So by his usual demeanor, his press conference following Sunday’s 3-1 defeat qualifies as a furious tirade. His side scored first but West Ham were ahead by the interval, while also hitting the post and having a penalty revoked by VAR, leading Howe to execute a three substitutions at the break.

“That was the frustrating thing about the first half,” Howe said. “Virtually any player could have been substituted and I believe this indicated of our performance level in that moment during the match and it’s very, very rare for me to feel that way. In fact, I cannot recall having done so since I’ve been manager of Newcastle, therefore I believed the team required a significant change at half-time. This explains why I did what I did.”

Anthony Gordon, Nick Woltemade and Emil Krafth all came off at the interval and Newcastle did stabilise somewhat in the latter period, without ever appearing like they could fight back into the game against a side that had won only one of their previous nine fixtures. Considering how packed the centre of the standings is, with a mere three-point gap separating third from 11th, and a nine-point margin between second and 17th, a sequence of twelve points from 10 games has not placed the Magpies adrift but, equally, they cannot end the campaign in thirteenth place.

The Problem of Expectations

The challenge to an extent is one of perception. In the Saudi Public Investment Fund, the club have the wealthiest backers in the world. The expectation when the PIF bought a majority stake of the team in recent years was that it would have a transformative effect, as the former Chelsea owner had at Chelsea or Sheikh Mansour had at Manchester City. The difference is that those two owners took over before the introduction of financial fair play regulations (and the ongoing allegations against Manchester City relate to if they breached those guidelines once they were in place).

Financial restrictions limit the ability of proprietors, no matter how wealthy, to invest funds on their teams and therefore probably might have hindered any Middle Eastern effort to raise the team to the level of City. However there is no need for Newcastle’s spending to have been quite as cautious as it has been; they could have invested further and remained within the limit – or just accepted a fairly minor Uefa fine given their major issue is more with the European than the domestic regulation.

Stadium Spending and Financial Regulations

Besides which, stadium development is exempted from Profit and Sustainability assessments; the easiest way to raise income to generate additional PSR flexibility would be to expand or renovate the stadium. Given the site of the home ground, with protected structures on two sides, practically that likely implies constructing an entirely new venue. There was talk in March of possibly undertaking the nearby relocation to a local park – opposition from local groups could surely have been overcome with a promise to build a replacement green space on the current ground location – but there has not been any progress on that proposal. There has been significant cutbacks from the PIF on a range of projects as it shifts focus on local investments; the approach to Newcastle seems entirely in keeping with that strategic shift.

The Alexander Isak Situation

The star striker episode was born of that tension. A bolder leadership could have portrayed his sale as essential to free up capital for additional spending; rather there was a unsuccessful effort to keep him. That meant Newcastle started the campaign amidst a feeling of disappointment even with the signings of Woltemade, Yoane Wissa, Jacob Ramsey, Malick Thiaw and Anthony Elanga. The opening was indifferent: a single victory in their first six fixtures.

But it appeared a turning point was reached. They secured five in six prior to Sunday, a run that included convincing wins of Union Saint-Gilloise and a Portuguese club in the European competition. This explains the display against West Ham was so surprising. The problem maybe is that the team's style is extremely intense, very high-octane; a minor decrease in intensity can have significant effects. Perhaps the strain of Premier League, European and Carabao Cup matches, five games in 15 days, had got to them. Woltemade featured in each of those matches and appeared especially fatigued.

The Nature of Modern Soccer

That’s the nature of modern the sport. Managers have to be ready to make changes. The manager has been unlucky that Wissa’s injury has left him short of attacking options but, regardless of how valid the explanations, the weekend's showing was inexcusable –particularly after scoring first at a stadium primed to criticize its home team.

The Newcastle boss will hope it was merely a temporary setback, one of those days when all players is below par at once, but if the Magpies are to secure the European competition next season, let alone eventually mount an genuine title challenge, they cannot be as inconsistent as they have been.