Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe has been offered an apology on talkSPORT from Simon Jordan who had previously doubted the 45-year-old.
Are Newcastle shocking the league?
The arrival of new owners on Tyneside promised a new dawn for the Toon Army, however, the speed in which Newcastle have been able to close the gap on the 'big six' has been staggering.
Granted, they have been helped in some sense by the hugely underwhelming campaigns for Chelsea and Liverpool which has them both well below their expected levels.
But Newcastle have been there to capitalise on the errors of others and that can be seen in recent weeks having leapfrogged the likes of Tottenham Hotspur who are enduring their own issues.
There can be no doubting the levels of the three sides aforementioned have been below par over the course of the 2022/23 campaign, but that is not Newcastle's issue.
Howe has his Newcastle side well-drilled and has been able to extract the best out of the players he has got as well as recruiting players who are proving to be instant hits on Tyneside.
As Newcastle sit in third and open a gap on fifth-spot, Jordan has issued the 45-year-old an apology on Thursday's talkSPORT show for previously doubting him:
"With all due respect to him, I was wrong about his appointment. Because he's gone in there, he's caught this wave, and he's ridden it. And more than ridden it. He's directed it.
"And he's now coming out as a far better manager than I envisaged he was. Now that's great when you're in ascendancy, and we haven't yet seen any kinks or any bumps in the road, but there's nothing to indicate that we're going to right now.
"It's been a direction of travel that's been upward since he's walked through the door. But he's been responsible for that."
How good has the appointment of Howe been?
The Newcastle boss was selected by PIF having previously left his role at Bournemouth after he was unable to keep them afloat in the Premier League.
So it would only be natural to think the 45-year-old's appointment could have been viewed as a short-term option to steady the ship from Steve Bruce's reign.
However, there was an almost instant improvement on Tyneside after Howe's appointment after he took Newcastle from 19th in the table – without a league win – and see them finish in 11th spot last season.
And this season has seen the Magpies continue from where they left off last season and go on to hold the league's best defensive record.
The Toon conceded 62 goals last season, however, this season – with 10 games left – they have allowed in fewer than a third of that total with just 20 goals conceded.
There have been a number of additions to Newcastle's side under PIF's reign, but there has to be a lot of credit given to Howe for the development of some of the players he inherited.
The likes of Miguel Almiron and Joelinton have both been transformed under Howe to become regular starters who have had a huge impact on Howe's Newcastle side.
Newcastle have by no means secured their spot in the top four just yet, but they are certainly heading in that direction and Howe is rightfully getting a lot of the credit for their impressive campaign.
