PIF will already be looking for Eddie Howe replacement, Jack Grealish isn’t needed back at Aston Villa and Erik Ten Hag’s January sales will decide his Man United future

In his exclusive column for CaughtOffside, former Liverpool attacker Stan Collymore discusses some of football’s biggest talking points, including Eddie Howe’s time at Newcastle, Jack Grealish’s possible Aston Villa return and Erik Ten Hag’s risky January decision, plus much more.

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Football is fickle and Newcastle will prove it… 

I know I upset a lot of Newcastle United fans last year when I said that Eddie Howe could be sacked and replaced with a genuinely world-class manager. I may have got the timing wrong having predicted he’d be gone by now, but I stand by my original point. I do believe PIF will already be looking at candidates to come in and take over from Howe.

Don’t get me wrong. He has done a remarkable job since he took charge. He’s taken the Geordies to Wembley and got them back into the Champions League. But there is a huge gap between being a club that qualifies for Europe and reaches a Carabao Cup final and being a club that is virtually nailed on to win the Carabao Cup, such as Manchester City, and a team that routinely competes for the Champions League trophy, again, such as Manchester City — and Newcastle’s owners will know this.

Let’s not forget either – Manchester City, post-takeover, started with Mark Hughes and they’ve ended up with Pep Guardiola. The former has just been sacked from his role at Bradford City and the other has just lifted the treble.

PIF will show the same level of ruthlessness with Newcastle and Howe. They’re here to win and to win it all. Howe will not be able to do that. He’s a good manager but it’ll be one of football’s elite few that ends up in the St. James’ Park hot seat in the near future.

Everton to start their relegation-revival on Sunday against Man United…

I am fully expecting Sean Dyche to go into Sunday’s game against Manchester United promoting a ‘the world is against us’ mentality to his squad.

They’ve been deducted 10 Premier League points, and despite being unbeaten in their last four games, now find themselves back in the relegation zone. Dyche absolutely must do all he can to use this week’s events as a form of motivation for his players.

Everton don’t have the best record against United but I can see them pinching something from this weekend’s game at Goodison Park. Manchester United will not want to go there that is for sure — especially knowing the Toffees are a…