He never stood for any nonsense as a player, and latterly Jose Enrique doesn’t pull any punches as a pundit either.
The former Newcastle star, who played for the club between 2007-2011, is particularly effervescent when it comes to speaking about the clubs he’s played for, with the Magpies being an obviously interesting topic of conversation of late.
Though things continue to go in the right direction for Eddie Howe and his side, Jose Enrique can see problems ahead in one area in particular.
“We have seen that Alexander Isak and Callum Wilson can play together before when Isak played on the left a few times last season,” he told Grosvenor Sport (h/t FourFourTwo).
“If we talk about them playing together as strikers and changing the system, it could happen and it depends on the game. If they need a goal they could maybe play with both of them up front at the same time, but I don’t think Eddie Howe is the kind of manager that changes the system too much.
“You look at how he played at Bournemouth and how he plays at Newcastle now and he likes to play 4-3-3 and that’s how he sets up his teams. What a problem to have, though. To have two strikers that are scoring goals, I don’t think he will be too worried about that problem.
“I love Isak and if he is at his peak then I think he is the starting striker. But Callum Wilson can score goals as well, he’s a very good striker and he’s very underrated. The only problem with both of them is that they are not fit enough sometimes and they are injury prone.
“If they are both fit and both in their prime, for me Isak has to start.”
Whether Howe is thinking along the same lines as Jose Enrique will probably become clear after the first few games of the 2023/24 Premier League season.
If both Isak and Wilson remain injury free and are scoring goals, then Howe will likely have a decision to make, but perhaps by the same token, he’ll be just as happy to play the pair together.
However he goes about things in the opening half dozen games of the new campaign, he has earned (and deserves) the respect of the board and the players, not to mention pundits such as Jose Enrique.
Should things start to not work out as the Champions League beckons, then Howe has the nous to know what to change and when and, importantly, be brave enough to try new things in order to see what works and what doesn’t.
I’m not too sure Eddie will be taking any notice of what this clown says.