Newcastle news: Eddie Howe exit ‘prepared for months’ as chief reveals clear Matthias Jaissle decision

Newcastle United sporting director Ross Wilson has revealed that he began planning for Eddie Howe’s departure from the club at the start of this year.

Howe had initially intended to continue as Magpies boss for the 2026-27 season, but he decided to step down in July as he felt that is was in the “best interests” of all parties to go their separate ways following “a period of personal reflection”.

The 48-year-old’s exit came after the high-profile sales of key duo Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali, while Bruno Guimaraes was in advanced talks with Arsenal before his £75m transfer was finalised in early August.

Earlier this year, it seemed more likely that Howe would be poached by another club than to resign or be sacked by Newcastle, but the club’s 12th-placed Premier League finish and failure to qualify for Europe last season raised questions about his future.

Wilson - who arrived at Newcastle from Nottingham Forest in October 2025 - has admitted that the timing of Howe’s departure “wasn’t planned”, but his exit did not feel “chaotic” or “painful” because the club's contingency plan to swiftly appoint new boss Matthias Jaissle was in place.

“Eddie leaving didn’t feel chaotic and it didn’t feel painful,” said Wilson. “Eddie would be the first to tell you that.

“I came here 10 or 11 months ago and I’ve been planning in the background for a managerial change over eight or nine of those months.

“Clearly the timing (of Howe’s exit) wasn’t planned, but the reason we could move so quickly was because we’d been preparing for a number of months.

“We always knew where we were going to go. That doesn’t mean we were always going to go to Matthias, but he was always part of our planning.

"Part of our responsibility as leaders of the club is to be prepared and Eddie is an exceptionally talented coach. That means he was probably going to do something else at some point so we had to be prepared for that."

Wilson added: “Big respect to Eddie for the job he did for us over a long period of time,” Wilson said. “He did a wonderful job bringing that trophy [the 2025 EFL Cup]. He’s a club legend, for sure.”

Wilson has also shared information on the process to appoint 38-year-old Jaissle, who arrived from Saudi Pro League side Al-Ahli for a reported £10m after being identified as the club’s No.1 managerial target to succeed Howe.

“We used our [data] models to identify those coaches who played the type of football we wanted,” said Wilson. “Matthias was the number one choice. It was really, really clear.”

“We had a clear profile of what we wanted, so when you see Matthias working with us now you can probably articulate that profile yourself.

"He meets that word 'brave'; he's bought into everything that this club's all about in a big way already; I think the fans have really taken to him with the way he is as a person.

"We wanted to work with a really good person, but I've mentioned the word 'identity' and 'plan' a lot and we also wanted someone with a clear identity and plan and hopefully he brings that to us moving forward. His first weeks here have certainly been impressive."

He added: “We had the situation with the manager which we dealt with in complete secrecy for two weeks as well as trying to run a transfer window, so it was really, really busy, but good fun as well.”

Jaissle has since made an unbeaten start to his Newcastle tenure, collecting five points from his opening three Premier League games, including a 2-0 win at Tottenham Hotspur just over a week ago.

The Magpies also edged past West Bromwich Albion in the EFL Cup second round, winning 3-2, and they are now preparing to face another Championship outfit, Millwall, in the third round on Tuesday night.

Get FREE daily news and in-depth previews for games from the biggest leagues and competitions in world football — straight to your inbox.