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1 minute ago, reefatoon said:

Can someone post that times story please. I can’t get the old trick to be able to read it to work.

Newcastle United’s new owners have been forced to start a fresh search for a successor to Steve Bruce after they were left dumbfounded by Unai Emery’s dramatic decision to walk away from a deal the club thought had been agreed.

 

Emery, the former Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal manager, issued a statement declaring that he would stay with Villarreal. This decision came after weeks of negotiations involving the Newcastle director Amanda Staveley and her husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi, whose Saudi-backed consortium took control of the club almost a month ago.

 

The Times has learnt that all of Emery’s wage demands — led by his advisers, which included his brother, Igor — had been met and that a backroom staff had been put together to assist him at Newcastle, who are 19th in the table and six points adrift of safety in the Premier League.

 

In his final interview on Sunday, via Zoom, with Staveley, Ghodoussi, the club chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan, a representative of Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund (PIF) that owns 80 per cent of the club, and the co-owner Jamie Reuben, the 50-year-old Spaniard spoke of his passion for the job and how he would reorganise the team’s defence, and indicated his willingness to leave Villarreal. “He said all the right things on Sunday,” revealed a source.

 

Indeed the Newcastle board members were so confident that they had landed the replacement for Bruce, who was sacked on October 17, that they were prepared to fly Emery to the North East and push back first team training to accommodate his arrival. They were also committed to paying the €6 million (about £5.08 million) buyout clause in his Villarreal contract. However, there was a dramatic change of mood on Tuesday night after Emery’s Villarreal side had beaten Young Boys in the Champions League. Emery was made aware of how much speculation there had been about his impending return to England and the win helped to calm the mood of the club’s fans. He met Fernando Roig, the Villarreal president, to discuss his future and the club’s new project that has led to the signings of Arnaut Danjuma and Serge Aurier.

 

In what has been described as a long night, Emery talked about all of his options before spending time with family — he was worried about the impact on them — and friends to further assess his next move, having left England scarred by his treatment at Arsenal.

 

There was a significant push for him to stay and to avoid taking on the Newcastle project at its very start, when there is no footballing management structure inside the club, as of yet. That was a problem he blamed for his failure and sacking at Arsenal, although it is believed the issue was addressed during his interview process.

 

One Spanish source said: “Because of all the noise and the insecurity he felt on the Newcastle project, he went with what he thinks is a common sense decision.”

 

The appointment of Newcastle’s new manager is the responsibility of Staveley, her husband and a board that includes Al-Rumayyan. The surprise at such a late change of heart from Emery was such that they were still trying to salvage the deal late on Wednesday morning.

 

Emery, who has won 11 major trophies in his managerial career, admitted he had already held talks with Newcastle on Tuesday night. On Wednesday afternoon he released a statement.

 

“Honestly, I am grateful for the interest of a great club, but even more grateful to be here,” he said. “That is why I communicated to Fernando Roig my decision to continue being part of this project, thanks to the commitment and respect that I feel from the club and my players, which is mutual and reciprocal. For all the noise there was in another country, inside the club there was transparency and loyalty which for me is the most important thing. Villarreal is my home and I am 100 per cent committed.”

 

That decision means Newcastle must begin their managerial search again. The former Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe was also interviewed at the weekend, and was said to have impressed, highlighting areas of recruitment that the club needed to change.

 

Roberto Martínez, the Belgium manager, retains support and is believed to be interested in returning to club football.

 

It is thought that the interim Newcastle manager, Graeme Jones, who has worked with Martínez at Wigan and Everton and with Belgium, will remain in charge to take on Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday. Newcastle have taken only one point from the three games since the £305 million takeover on October 7, when Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund (PIF) took an 80 per cent holding.

 

Newcastle have still to put in place a management structure, although The Times understands that Brian Marwood, the managing director of global football at Manchester City, has been sounded out about a possible sports director role. He is thought to want any moves to go through the correct channels between the clubs.

 

Newcastle have still to win a game this season — the joint second-worst start to a top-flight season in the club’s history.

 

 

Edited by nbthree3

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I doubt it had anything to do with the leak.

 

Villareal is family run and I suspect that they pulled at his heartstrings. 

 

Of course he needs to give some bullshit reasons for why he didn't come, some of which have already been debunked.

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Some lines from BBC article earlier today about Emery, he was by no means a guaranteed success in my opinion -

 

Some of the criticisms of his time in north London were a difficultly in communicating his message to his players and supporters and an inability to fix the club's defensive and mentality issues.


Emery has enjoyed a significant amount of success in his career - winning promotion or a major trophy with five of his nine clubs (including a record four Europa Leagues). 

 

He has never finished in the bottom half of a table and has been out of work for less than a year in total since 2004.

 

However, both his two sackings (Spartak Moscow and Arsenal) have come in two of his three jobs outside Spain.

 

Villarreal have been one of the biggest spenders in La Liga since Emery arrived last season - and broke the club record with the £21m signing of Bournemouth's Arnaut Danjuma this summer.

 

The feeling in Spain is that he should have been doing better with his squad - he has only won 17 of his 49 league games in charge and they are currently 13th, three points above the relegation zone.

 

 

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1 hour ago, HTT II said:

They haven’t done a whole lot wrong for me, they’ve bought the club, got rid of Bruce, connected with fans, targeted Emery and seem to have a professional process and I wouldn’t read too much into leaks and journo shit either because they know nowt. All this on the back of the almost daily constant spotlight and outrage by other clubs, fans and talking heads. Let’s not get hysterical, they’ve been here less than a month and are not football people, they want the best football people in they can get, that’s going to be hard when we are as shit as we are. They are not beyond criticism, but some of the shit on here lately is embarrassing. I’m relaxed and calm right now about things, we need to think about the bigger picture and try and look at what things will look like in 3 years not one fucking month.

 

Sorry Brucey, I mean boss.

 

Nah, I agree with everything you have said to be fair, I'm just frustrated and concerned about relegation. 

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Feeling much better about Howe now. Was gutted this morning but fuck it, let’s get behind Eddie.

 

Just be good to have someone external come in and try and do something different with the players. 

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Just now, Danh1 said:

Feeling much better about Howe now. Was gutted this morning but fuck it, let’s get behind Eddie.

 

Just be good to have someone external come in and try and do something different with the players. 

same.

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If they were impressed by Howe and had narrowed it down to those 2, then don't open it back up. There's no need to go and do more interviews. And just be honest with him. "Yes we originally went with someone else but then it fell through - that happens in life. That doesn't mean we didn't like you."

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Just now, SUPERTOON said:

Be easier to get behind him if he’s bringing in coaches with him and the Steve’s get binned we need a complete we set of voices.

 

Unfortunately Jones is already staying. 

Next mistake lined up.  Jones and Steve's need binning.

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8 minutes ago, STM said:

I doubt it had anything to do with the leak.

 

Villareal is family run and I suspect that they pulled at his heartstrings. 

 

Of course he needs to give some bullshit reasons for why he didn't come, some of which have already been debunked.

 

100% man. Think he's still scarred by what happened at Arsenal as mentioned in that article.

 

Think he genuinely panicked and bottled it. Cost himself a really great opportunity. It's unbelievable.

 

The new owners would have backed him to the hilt and it would have been nothing like the situation at Arsenal. Crazy over reaction from him having agreed everything in principle.

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1 minute ago, xLiaaamx said:

If they were impressed by Howe and had narrowed it down to those 2, then don't open it back up. There's no need to go and do more interviews. And just be honest with him. "Yes we originally went with someone else but then it fell through - that happens in life. That doesn't mean we didn't like you."

If Howe is coming you'd have thought there would be movement tomorrow.

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1 hour ago, HTT II said:

They haven’t done a whole lot wrong for me, they’ve bought the club, got rid of Bruce, connected with fans, targeted Emery and seem to have a professional process and I wouldn’t read too much into leaks and journo shit either because they know nowt. All this on the back of the almost daily constant spotlight and outrage by other clubs, fans and talking heads. Let’s not get hysterical, they’ve been here less than a month and are not football people, they want the best football people in they can get, that’s going to be hard when we are as shit as we are. They are not beyond criticism, but some of the shit on here lately is embarrassing. I’m relaxed and calm right now about things, we need to think about the bigger picture and try and look at what things will look like in 3 years not one fucking month.

 

Trying to keep off here for this exact reason, jumped on and seen this.  Very well put.  People blaming them for leaking everything (despited not knowing) and accusing them of getting everything wrong is, as you say, embarrassing.

 

Cheers for putting it in better words than I could have.

 

 

Edited by Wilson

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The issue with Howe for me, and apologies if it has been said by someone before, is two fold.

 

1. I feel he would have just about been attainable under Ashley.  So to end up with him after we've made something of a Fautian pack with this takeover is disappointing.  Robert Johnson didn't sell his soul to be really good at the recorder did he.

 

2. We could easily end up with a Nuno at Spurs situation, with it being pretty clear he was quite far down the list and his authority and therefore ability to change things severely diminished as a result.

 

 

Edited by Geordie_once_removed

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15 minutes ago, nbthree3 said:

"That decision means Newcastle must begin their managerial search again."

 

That's got to be an overstatement--I hope.  They'd have to know nothing is ever done until it's done and would be similarly far down the road on a deal with Howe or whomever else--I hope.

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9 minutes ago, Danh1 said:

Feeling much better about Howe now. Was gutted this morning but fuck it, let’s get behind Eddie.

 

Just be good to have someone external come in and try and do something different with the players. 

 

I'm the same.

 

I've watched some videos of him and he seems really methodical.

 

Saw one interview with him and Lineker and Howe said he gets to the training ground at 6am and will be there until 7pm. 

 

Polar opposite to Bruce and could be an exciting appointment. Would be good to have him in the stand at the weekend if we can't get it done in time to have him in the dugout.

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