During his 15 months out of the game, Eddie Howe spent time in Madrid. He did not return enthused by the artwork of Picasso, Dali and Goya. It was the dark arts of Diego Simeone he had noted.
For a nice guy who could not organise a backline — as was often levelled at him at Bournemouth — the Newcastle boss has built a pugnacious band of brothers whose defence is seldom breached. Nick Pope has kept 10 straight clean sheets.
There is, however, far more to that resistance than ‘the world’s best goalkeeper’, as team-mate Bruno Guimaraes labelled Pope this week.