It was not so much sliding doors. For Eddie Howe, it was more like the one that had been slammed in his face had now fallen off the hinges, and he was more than happy to walk on through.
Howe will never forget the morning of Wednesday November 3, 2021. He had gone to bed having been told he had missed out on the Newcastle job. Unai Emery, of Villarreal, was about to be installed as the first manager of the club’s Saudi-backed ownership.
Except, Emery had changed his mind. On the Spanish coastline of the Balearic Sea and in the hours after Villarreal’s Champions League victory over Young Boys, Emery had stunned Newcastle by hinting to the press that he could stay.