The end of Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United tenure looked sudden. It was worked on for the best part of a year.

Sporting director Ross Wilson told BBC Sport that Newcastle’s hierarchy had been running a parallel succession plan while Howe was still in charge, and that Matthias Jaissle had been on the shortlist for much of that time.

“We always knew where we were going to go,” Wilson said.

“That doesn’t mean we were always going to Matthias, but he was always part of our planning.”

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Wilson framed the exercise as basic risk management for a coach who had taken Newcastle back into the Champions League and delivered the club’s first major trophy in a generation. He said preparation was part of the leadership’s job precisely because Howe was so highly rated and might one day move on.

Bristol City, then the exit

Howe left with immediate effect on 30 July, less than 24 hours after a 4-1 pre-season defeat to Bristol City.

The exit followed a summer in which Newcastle lost Sandro Tonali to Tottenham, Anthony Gordon to Barcelona and, eventually, captain Bruno Guimarães to Arsenal. Alexander Isak had already gone to Liverpool the previous summer, in a British-record £125m deadline-day deal.

Wilson told BBC Sport the Gordon and Tonali sales had been written into the plan. Guimarães, he indicated, was the one that had not.

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“Everything else that happened during the window was part of the plan,” Wilson said.

Howe himself pointed at the loss of control that had built up during that window.

“Any distraction, if it’s not healthy, is unhealthy. But we’re not in control of that,” he said on the day of his exit.

Jaissle takes over, unbeaten in three

Six days after Howe’s departure, Newcastle confirmed Matthias Jaissle as head coach on a four-year deal. The 38-year-old German arrived from Saudi Pro League side Al-Ahli, where he had won back-to-back AFC Champions League titles, and Newcastle paid the Jeddah club more than £9m in compensation.

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Chief executive David Hopkinson said Jaissle had “emerged as the clear candidate for the role” and possessed “all the qualities we were looking for”.

Wilson said the aggressive, high-pressing style Jaissle brings, and his record with players aged 24 and under, aligned with a recruitment model Newcastle had already committed to around long-term development of younger players.

Three Premier League matches in, Jaissle’s Newcastle are unbeaten: a 2-2 draw at home to Liverpool on the opening weekend, a 2-0 win at Tottenham Hotspur on 29 August and a 2-2 comeback draw at home to Bournemouth on 5 September, after trailing 2-0. Five points, no defeat.

“I am really happy at seeing the reaction after we were 2-0 down. It doesn’t happen very often in the Premier League against such a strong opponent,” Jaissle said after the Bournemouth match.

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