Newcastle admit they were ‘preparing for months’ for Eddie Howe’s exit

Newcastle’s sporting director Ross Wilson has said the club was preparing for Eddie Howe’s departure as manager for up to nine months.Wilson, who joined Newcastle in October from Nottingham Forest, said Howe’s exit this July wasn’t “chaotic” or “painful” as the club had been laying plans for his successor for some time.He said: “Clearly the timing wasn’t planned. But the reason we could move so quickly was because we’d been prepar