Newcastle United sporting director Ross Wilson revealed the club prepared for Eddie Howe's exit for up to nine months before it happened.

After almost five years as Newcastle head coach, Howe resigned from his role in July to "recharge and take a break".

Howe took charge of 231 matches across all competitions for Newcastle, winning 116 games (D43 L72) and helping end a 70-year wait for a major trophy.

The Magpies won the EFL Cup in 2024-25, defeating Liverpool 2-1 in the final at Wembley Stadium.

However, Newcastle have lost key players over the past two summer transfer windows, with Alexander Isak joining Liverpool in 2025 before Anthony Gordon, Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes all left this summer.

Newcastle lost 17 top-flight games in 2025-26, last losing more matches across a single Premier League campaign in 2017-18, when Rafael Benitez was at the helm. 

Although many saw Howe's departure as a surprise, Wilson was prepared for the decision.

"We always knew where we were going to go," Wilson said. "That doesn't mean we were always going to Matthias [Jaissle], 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.

"[We had] been planning for a managerial change for eight or nine of those months."

Newcastle are unbeaten in their three Premier League games so far under Jaissle, drawing 2-2 with Liverpool and Bournemouth either side of a 2-0 win over Tottenham.

The Magpies also defeated West Brom 3-2 in the EFL Cup second round last month.