Last season, Howe took over a relegation-threatened Newcastle from Steve Bruce and led the club to an 11th-place finish, their best since the 2017/18 season.
The Magpies have bolstered their squad over the summer and Howe’s side have lost only one game in the ongoing campaign.
Howe explained his intention to build a culture of winning among the Newcastle ranks and stressed that to be able to do that, the squad needed to toughen up.
The Newcastle boss claimed that there are a lot of people who do not want the Magpies to be a successful side in the future and are constantly trying to knock them down.
Howe insisted that in order to become successful, Newcastle should embrace the idea of everyone being against them.
“I’m not in it to be popular or anyone’s second team”, Howe told The Athletic.
“I’m in it to try to win, to create a culture and environment where we don’t accept anything other than winning.
“To do that, you can’t be labelled nice or soft touches and that means doing everything to get that win.
“At times, that might be unpopular with opposing teams, opposing supporters, referees.
“That feeling of us against everyone else.
“I’m trying to create that internally, but I don’t think we’re having to force it.
“It’s something we can feel in Newcastle.
“There are a lot of people who want to knock us and criticise us and probably don’t want us to be successful. We’ve got to embrace that.”
Newcastle will travel to London to take on David Moyes’ West Ham United on Sunday, a fixture which ended 1-1 last season.
