Alan Shearer: Challenging times ahead for Newcastle after Eddie Howe exit

Go back and like it or not, we can all see what’s going on with the entrances and exits Newcastle. Regardless of the statements coming out of the club, it is clear that the landscape has changed.

It’s a changing football club – in terms of the owners’ ambitions and ambitions and their transfer strategy, it all looks very different to what it was three years ago.

Back then it seemed like the sky was the limit, and the talk was about competing with the best.

Now, the approach seems to be to sell their best players and replace them with younger, hungrier, up-and-coming prospects. If it was so easy to succeed and still compete at the top of the table, everyone would do it – but it’s not.

The club’s spending has always had to adhere to the Premier League’s rules of profitability and sustainability, but it is still felt that the plan is to fight for silverware every season.

Back to the summer of 2023, when Newcastle He finished fourth and added Tonali, Harvey Barnes and Tino Livramento to a team that included Isaac, Gordon and Bruno.

He felt as if they were ready to challenge everything and beat everyone. Howe made them a formidable team to play in the best possible way.

Three years on, most of the team is gone and so is the manager, but it’s the whole model that feels so different.

Compared to where they are now, the goalposts of where the club wants to reach have moved significantly.

When we won the Carabao Cup I hoped it was the start of something special, but it seems a lot has changed since then.

Alan Shearer talks to BBC Sports journalist Chris Bevan.