The view from Eddie Howe’s quarantine quarters is as imposing as the size of the task he faces at Newcastle United — for it is the mighty steel structure of the Tyne Bridge that casts a shadow over his riverside hotel.
The water that runs beneath it has long been murky, and the depths to which his new club has sunk at the bottom of the Premier League are just as dark and hazardous. That is not Howe’s doing, of course, but it is his job to steer his winless team back to the surface.
Before he beats an opponent, however, he must first beat Covid-19, the virus that robbed him of a day that would have ranked as one of the best of his career.