Given they have known each other for 30 years, it is a little odd that Howe does not socialise with Tindall. They don’t even describe each other as friends, but have an unbreakable bond regardless.
Reclusive, obsessed with his job and uninterested in anything that happens outside it, Howe is the “grey man” who has injected colour into Newcastle United style and approach.
The personality people thought would be a weakness has, along with his tactics and coaching acumen, perhaps been his greatest strength.
Indeed, if the argument can be made that no manager has had more of a positive impact on a football club in the space of 10 or 11 games than Ange Postecoglou has at Tottenham this season, then no manager in recent times has done more to transform a team over two years than Howe has at Newcastle.
If you need to be reminded, Howe inherited a side that was second from bottom in the Premier League and winless. Within 18 months he had qualified for the Champions League and guided Newcastle to a first domestic cup final since 1998.
This season, despite a crippling injury list and the 10-month ban imposed on star summer signing Sandro Tonali for breaking betting rules, Newcastle have beaten Paris Saint-Germain 4-1, knocked Manchester City and Manchester United out of the Carabao Cup and are sixth in the table, four points below Arsenal in fourth, having inflicted a first league defeat of the season on Mikel Arteta’s side last weekend.
People wishing to knock down the above assertion will say he has had more money than most to rebuild the side and there is no question the £400 million spent on new players over four transfer windows has helped, but plenty of other managers have had the same if not more in the last 12 months.
It is also worth highlighting once again that five players who started the Champions League defeat by Borussia Dortmund this week were at the club when Howe took over. He has improved them with coaching not money.
Howe will mark his two-year anniversary with a trip to his former club Bournemouth this weekend. A reminder of where he came from and where he made his name, but it is his achievements at Newcastle which have propelled him to be recognized as one of England’s best managers.