Stuy_O

Agreed. To say Mitchell is somewhat responsible for this window is mental. He was obviously up his own arse but the questions he raised about our recruitment have been answered clearly this summer. There does seem to be a slight feeling that you can't hold Eddie to account for anything because of the brilliant job he's done. I love him to bits but I get the feeling he's awkward to work with. He got the nod with the approach this summer, these are his target we're going for and failing miserably.

Well he wasn't brought in to scout Cuhna or Mbuemo.

I get the desire to sign established / highly courted, but thats not the only method you can adopt. We are too stubborn and naive in our approach and it's costing us big time. Our squad desperately needed fattening up this summer, given the volume of games and players leaving. We are risking serious burn out for our core players. The 'small group of players' line is wearing a bit thin too, what are our scouts doing? Is the manager flat out rejecting suggested players? You surely sign players for what the season requires. Would Palhinha not have been ideal for a season to help the workload? Douglas Luiz also? I'm amazed we don't look at these sort of deals. Eddie is going to have to take a gamble on a player this summer whether he likes it or not. Every transfer represents a risk to some degree.

It's a blow to miss out on another player but it's more infuriating that we haven't twigged when we're being strung along.... AGAIN. The second Sesko was delaying Newcastle should have moved on. I feel for Eddie but him, his nephew and Nickson simply aren't cut out for this. That is then on PIF who should have forseen this and promptly get the right people in the right position rather than taking an absolute age.

Surely you don’t put a bid in of that magnitude for a player who isn’t sure what he wants to do?

Agreed. A quite ridiculous argument.

You can question the scouting or lack of trust in scouting without having a wide knowledge on European footballers. Same as you could question the finances or any area of the club without being an expert on it. It’s called being a supporter.

If we’re gonna beat a cartel club to one of these players we need someone who is gonna get in the ear of the player to sell the ‘project’. Make it irresistible. Staveley was clearly good at the dialogue stuff but it doesn’t have to be her. Someone with the experience who knows how to pitch the club. I don’t think Howes senior or junior and Nickson have the skill set required, nor should they, but that’s where we find ourselves. The project apparently stalling and the lack of personnel even if it hadn’t won’t be lost on players we’re trying to sign, after the obvious factor of money.

First job for the new DOF is to get Eddie off transfers immediately

Lets hope we get the players in. The club has achieved great things since the takeover but it’s not unfair to point out the shortcomings. Sesko, Wissa and a CB would resurrect the window and the squad would look very good. But I question our approach, scouting (or lack of trust in scouting), and the lack of an alternative voice to the manager.

Hardly encouraging like. 5 weeks to sign 3 minimum when we’ve made 1 in the last two years.

Looks be a load of shite that anyway given we went for two massive whoppers in Cunha and Pedro.

As of now that’s actually a load of shite. We need to bolster the squad size otherwise our big players will be done in by Christmas. Not every player we sign needs to be a Bruno or a Tonali.

You can blame the club for going down the pure Barclays route though, farcical when we know clubs will shithouse us every time we bid for a player. I get the need to remain upbeat and positive but the fact is we are a shambles with recruitment. One 1st team player brought in almost four windows. Thats not all on PSR I’m afraid.

That We have gone for players that seemingly looked unrealistic given the interest from other clubs and the wages they can offer. Nearly all based in the premier league. These are his targets. To me that looks like very little homework or pre planning has gone into it. Not solely on the manager obviously - the lack of a structure is killing Newcastle atm. Again we’ve bleated about PSR for so long but have played right into its hands this summer.

It’s not the quality of the signings or targets that I’m questioning.

The club is obviously a bit of a shambles currently but he isn’t blameless. Never give a manager full control over signings - it’ll be a disaster. Our recruitment has been unbelievably poor this summer and these are his targets - all players attracting interest from cartel clubs - what did he expect? If you go after them you need to be ruthless and present a project worth playing for, but he has his nephew negotiating the deals and he appears to be useless. He’s complained non stop about PSR, with that in mind being creative in this window was a must. I’ve seen people citing he wants established players and I get that, but he himself was quoted not long ago that’s extremely difficult for us to do.

I know it's early but god I hope we know what we are doing. You can't complain about PSR then target overhyped Premier League junk the cartel are circling around. We have no chance of getting any of these players unless we completely break the wage structure. It'll be Guehi next and we'll just look like complete idiots. Our best players were all from foreign leagues, surely we revisit this strategy if Nickson is more involved.

Fulham have threatened to do this to us for a while now at their ground. We've got away with it previously but not today.

None of it sounds particularly great. As much as I rate Eddie I can’t escape the feeling he can’t work within a certain structure. If Mitchell departed that would be two sporting directors he has disposed of in quick succession.

Good post. I don't particularly like the tone of this interview (granted only reading, not hearing), but I actually agree with a lot that's said in it. Newcastle 100% need a framework and structure and Eddie has to work within it. But I think Eales and Mitchell need to be very careful how they go about it. Obviously it's nice to have communication but I'm just not sure on the tone of this.

It brushed his foot as he was walking away, and the ball rolled about 5cm

That’s for kicking the ball away but still looks outrageously harsh. He got booted in the shins haha

I've been thinking similar. We need some good results now to just calm everything down. I can't think of another club where there seems to be an almost constant disconnect between board and management. If it needs explaining, criticising the window and the power struggle isn't comparing it to the Ashley days, at all. Since we were taken over it's been uncharted territory in terms of our operation, and a lot has been amazing to see. This window though has been an ugly reminder that there's always something going on - just when you were beginning to think those days were history.

All 3 are responsible. If Howe wasnt aware of Mitchell coming in, then thats poor. If Eddie has cried on so that he has majority control (imo exactly what's happened), even poorer. I love him to bits but grown up clubs don't go on like this. Not a big club in the land that operates with such a model, and I honestly think Darren Eales has shit himself incase Eddie walked so allowed him authority. In turn, Mitchell has failed to sign anyone meaningful. Total disaster all round.