There is a trope about Eddie Howe and transfers that has proved persistent.
The perception some harbour is that the Newcastle United head coach prefers Premier League-based players over overseas options and that he signs athletes over technicians. Those close to Howe dispute these as unfair misconceptions, even as those narratives endure.
For the first few months of his Newcastle career, Jacob Ramsey was swiftly judged through such a prism.
Seemingly, in the eyes of some fans, Ramsey’s £39million ($53.2m) arrival from Aston Villa in August conformed to those apparent Howe transfer truisms. The midfielder’s underwhelming start to life on Tyneside, exacerbated by an ankle injury suffered on his first start at Leeds in August, compounded that portrayal, particularly given Ramsey was supposed to be Premier League-proven and have an immediate impact.
Yet Howe, his coaches and recruitment staff were baffled by such early criticism. For them, Ramsey had been identified as a player still developing towards his full potential.
His strong ball-carrying and indefatigable out-of-possession work may be impressive, but the 24-year-old was not merely acquired as another physical midfield runner or a ‘bits-and-pieces’ player. Howe had long admired Ramsey’s use of the ball. He was not signed just because he is an athlete, but because he is an athlete and a technician.
His adaptation to life at St James’ Park has been slow, yet Ramsey is belatedly showing signs of what he can really bring to Newcastle as he prepares to return to his boyhood club for the first time, with Newcastle travelling to Villa Park in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Saturday.
Ramsey’s encouraging upturn in form can be traced back to Boxing Day. Handed three successive starts for the first time, on the third of those, at Old Trafford, the midfielder advanced into the box and, with the goal in sight, tripped before he could shoot.
That embarrassing moment encapsulated his performances for Newcastle to that point: plenty of industry, but no end product. Questions arose as to how a club constrained by PSR (the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules) could spend £39m on a midfielder who did not score or assist.
Ramsey recognised he needed to show greater conviction and offer more in the final third. Howe and his coaches have repeatedly reminded him of that, too, showing him video clips during intense analysis sessions, given the lack of training time due to the hectic fixture schedule.
Six weeks later, in his 27th Newcastle appearance, but only his 13th start, Ramsey finally provided a goal contribution as part of his man-of-the-match display during the 2-1 victory over Tottenham on Tuesday. Denied an earlier assist when Joe Willock was marginally ruled offside, Ramsey swept home a precious winner.
The relief and jubilation were evident in his celebration, with Ramsey roaring in delight in front of the travelling fans.
That marked Ramsey’s first goal in 37 appearances for Villa and Newcastle, stretching back to March 30, and his first goal involvement in 30 games. His most-recent Premier League goal had been for Villa on January 26, 2025, while his last top-flight assist came on April 22.
A solitary strike does not radically alter Ramsey’s lower-than-expected returns, but what it must do, as head coach and player are convinced it will, is represent the start of what is to come.
Ramsey is a quiet and unassuming character, who is well-liked by his Newcastle team-mates, many of whom he already knew through the England youth setup. But the midfielder is also brutally honest in appraising himself.
“When you look at my last 12 months, I’ve probably gone downhill,” Ramsey said during a Villa press conference in January 2025, when praising Morgan Rogers’ development.
Even so, top-level managers have recognised Ramsey’s quality and potential. Thomas Tuchel, the England manager, namechecked Ramsey as being close to a call-up last year, while Unai Emery valued him at Villa, and both Eddie Howe and Andy Howe, Newcastle’s assistant head of recruitment, had long tracked the midfielder, first enquiring about him in January 2024.
But 270 days lost to injury across 2023 and 2024 stunted Ramsey’s progress, and he has yet to consistently rediscover his top form.
At Newcastle, that nasty ankle knock in August affected his early integration and, once fit, Ramsey struggled to dislodge any of Bruno Guimaraes, Sandro Tonali, or Joelinton. Ramsey’s next league start did not come until December 6.
Injuries to other Newcastle midfielders handed Jacob Ramsey an opportunity to impress (Kate McShane/Getty Images)
Injuries to Joelinton, Guimaraes and Lewis Miley have offered Ramsey greater opportunities, with the midfielder starting four of the last five games, away against Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool, Manchester City, and Tottenham. There was actually disappointment among supporters when he was rotated out for the 3-2 Brentford defeat last weekend, while he warranted selection ahead of an out-of-sorts Tonali at Spurs.
A long-term successor to Joe Willock, and potentially even Joelinton, Ramsey was attracted to Newcastle because Howe envisioned him returning to the left-sided No 8 role he feels most comfortable in. But relearning the intricacies of that position has taken time.
“The manager wants different things from me and it was always going to take time,” Ramsey told the club’s matchday programme last month. “It’s been difficult, playing different positions and learning different roles. At Villa, most recently I played on the wing. Here, I’m playing more centrally, which I feel is more natural to me. It’s getting back to those old basics and little reminders.”
In Howe’s preferred 4-3-3, Ramsey has primarily been used as a left-sided or right-sided No 8. Ramsey has occasionally shifted wide onto the left during games, but 96 per cent of his 716 Premier League minutes — not a huge sample size, it must be noted — have come in midfield.
Across the last four seasons at Villa, Ramsey’s primary position was as a left attacking midfielder (36 per cent of his 7,597 top-flight minutes came there). In reality, that meant he was a left-sided No 10 in Emery’s setup.
Ramsey did play almost a third of his minutes (32 per cent) as a central midfielder, but the demands placed upon him were very different at Villa than what Howe is asking of him now.
Not only has Ramsey’s position changed, but so has his role.
Emery coaches his players to know exactly where they should be, with and without the ball. Howe is also exacting in his demands, but when his team has the ball, attackers also have ‘freedom within a structure’ — as the players themselves describe it — and that (slightly) increased liberty is something Ramsey has had to get used to.
As the graphic below shows, Ramsey is taking significantly more open-play touches within his own half at Newcastle than he did at Villa last season. He has also received the ball on the right more, given he has sometimes been deployed as the right-sided No 8, but also because he has greater licence to roam inside.
The next graphic further emphasises this, outlining the difference in touches per 90 in each zone of the pitch.
At Newcastle, Ramsey is touching the ball an average of 7.3 times more per 90 inside his own half than he was at Villa. His touches in the most advanced left-side zones have dropped, however, given that he is playing deeper and is drifting infield when required.
Ramsey is also playing more passes in his own half (16.1 per 90, up from 9.3), and his passing accuracy has increased from 87 per cent to 91 per cent. Meanwhile, his passes into the attacking third have risen from 2.3 per 90 to 4.0, indicating he is more of the initiator from deep for Newcastle, rather than the player relied upon to create around the box.
Yet Howe does want greater goal contributions from Ramsey, and the hope is that the strike at Spurs will result in a burst of goals and assists.
After a hasty exit from his boyhood club in August, Ramsey has taken a long time to introduce himself in any meaningful way at Newcastle. As he returns to Villa Park as a visiting player for the first time, Ramsey is finally beginning to show he can be the athlete and technician Newcastle require.
Additional reporting by Jacob Tanswell
