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

Take a step back and, whether we like it or not, we can all see what is happening with all the ins and outs at Newcastle. Whatever statements come out of the club, it is clear the landscape has changed.

It is a changing football club – in terms of its owners’ aims and ambitions and their transfer strategy, which all seem massively different to the way they were even three years ago.

Back then the sky seemed to be the limit, and the talk was about competing with the very best.

Now, the approach seems to be to sell their best players and replace them with younger, hungry and up-and-coming prospects. If it was that easy to do it successfully and still compete at the top of the table, then everyone would do it – but it isn’t.

The club’s spending always had to comply with the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules but it still felt like the plan was to battle it out for silverware every season.

Go back to the summer of 2023, when Newcastle had just finished fourth and added Tonali, Harvey Barnes and Tino Livramento to a squad already containing Isak, Gordon and Bruno.

It felt like they were ready to challenge for everything, and capable of beating everyone. Howe had made them a horrible team to play against, in the nicest possible way.

Three years on, much of that team has gone and now the manager has too, but it is the whole model which feels the most different.

The goalposts have moved massively from where the club said they wanted to get to, compared to where they are now.

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

Alan Shearer was speaking to BBC Sport’s Chris Bevan.