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Sporting Director / Director of Football


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So, Edwards, Hughes and then maybe ... Howe next?

 

Not too dissimilar stylistically to Klopp and all.

 

Imagine having to watch Howe go over there and excel alongside his 'mates' that weren't good enough for Newcastle.

 

After all the noise this season, I wouldn't be at all surprised if we suffered such a terrible fate.

 

 

 

 

Edited by KaKa

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Newcastle United have identified Benfica’s Rui Pedro Braz as a candidate to replace Dan Ashworth as the Saudi Arabia-owned club’s sporting director. The 45-year-old Portuguese has been placed high on a list of potential successors by the London recruitment company tasked with sourcing an elite replacement for Newcastle.

Braz left the Portuguese television company TVI to become Benfica’s general director in 2021, before being moved to his present role of sports director by Rui Costathe club’s president, the following year. In Braz’s first full season in the job, Benfica regained the Portuguese league title and secured more than £200 million in transfer fees from the sales of Darwin Núñez and Enzo Fernández to Liverpool and Chelsea.

The Sunday Times understands that Braz travelled to London during the international break and was still in the capital on Saturday. He has been identified and interviewed for the Newcastle role by the executive search company Odgers Berndtson.
 

Other candidates for the vacant position at St James’ Park include Paul Mitchell, formerly of Monaco, RB Leipzig, Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton; West Ham United’s technical director Tim Steidten; and Tiago Pinto, who stepped down as Roma general manger last month. A former director of football at Benfica, Pinto was instrumental in Braz’s appointment at the Lisbon club.

Ashworth was heralded as a key hire by Newcastle when he joined them from Brighton & Hove Albion in February 2022. “It’s really important to bring in somebody who is an architect,” the Newcastle co-owner Mehrdad Ghodoussi said at the time. “Somebody who is going to construct and build a foundation which, to be honest, is not there currently.”

Newcastle elected to place Ashworth on gardening leave last month after the 53-year-old informed them of his desire to take up an offer from Manchester United’s new ownership group. Ashworth has a longstanding relationship with the Ineos director of sport, Sir Dave Brailsford, who is leading an aggressive overhaul of United’s football department.

Gareth Southgate, whom Ashworth hired as first the England Under-21 coach and then the senior national team manager when he was the FA’s director of elite development from 2012 until 2018, has been linked with the manager’s job at Old Trafford. Asked about the possibility of leaving England for United, Southgate said last week: “There are two things from my point of view. One is that I’m the England manager. I’ve got one job: to try to deliver a European Championship.

“The second thing is Manchester United have a manager. It’s always completely disrespectful when there’s any speculation about a manager that’s in place. I’m president of the LMA [League Managers Association], so I don’t have any time for that sort of thing really.”

 

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On 21/03/2024 at 16:08, wormy said:

It's sounds practically like what we have in place already, no? Howe gets a say but isn't in full control. Of course you want player recruitment departments to be in sync with the style of football the manager plays. Not every signing is going to be spot on to that as not every transfer works out 100% right but our recruitment could be on course for a pretty good hit rate unless we see significant long term issues with injuries/Tonali. 

 

I just don't get where this idea that Howe has/could get too much power has come from. Honestly waiting for a few years time when it's been decided that TRC's theory of Ashworth being 'forced' out of the club in an attempt from Eddie to consolidate his 'power' is treated as gospel. :lol:

 

 

 

 

If anything, Howe often says at press conferences when quizzed on players or anything to do with the hierarchy,

"unfortunately I'm not involved in those discussions, I focus on preparing the team and football side of things,"

indicating he's not got much power at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by mighty__mag

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17 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

It definitely seems we're going for someone who is more skilled in the transfer market, above anything else.

 

They always seem to be ahead of the game when it comes to South American talent. 

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2 hours ago, vexred said:

 

They always seem to be ahead of the game when it comes to South American talent. 

 

 

I wonder who it was in our hierarchy that decided Paqueta wasn't worth £45m? Or was it either him or Tonali?

 

 

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3 hours ago, The Prophet said:

It definitely seems we're going for someone who is more skilled in the transfer market, above anything else.

Probably the right way to go considering our financial restrictions.

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3 hours ago, The Prophet said:

It definitely seems we're going for someone who is more skilled in the transfer market, above anything else.

Does this really translate well in the the PL when it’s known how much money you have?

 

One thing I’ll always defend MUFC and MCFC etc is if clubs know you’ve the money they’ll usually extract it from you to the maximum hence some inflated fees compared to others.

 

Need someone who can spot and secure talent early. Unless of course that’s what you meant.

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22 minutes ago, LFEE said:

Does this really translate well in the the PL when it’s known how much money you have?

 

One thing I’ll always defend MUFC and MCFC etc is if clubs know you’ve the money they’ll usually extract it from you to the maximum hence some inflated fees compared to others.

 

Need someone who can spot and secure talent early. Unless of course that’s what you meant.

 

Aye, so most of the candidates mentioned have a record of picking up players on the cheap and shifting them for good money.

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If we can get a really top class young talent procurer in then Ashworth leaving does have the potential to be a blessing in disguise, you'd think. Obviously a glass half full POV.

 

Seems like much of what Ashworth does best he should have at least got the ball rolling on by now.

 

Must say, when he came in one thing I was very excited about was the idea of doing what Brighton have done for years and finding players like MacAllister and Caicedo and bringing them in at affordable prices. Not necessarily unearthing gems for nowt, but getting them before they're going for superstar prices.

 

Have we signed anyone other than Minteh that potentially fits that profile? Maybe Kuol?

 

Not been for lack of trying, I suppose. The likes of Maximo Perrone and Andrey Santos we had longstanding interest in, a few others too. Feel like maybe we misjudged the market there, either in terms of how much they'd cost or whether those players would have more attractive options.

 

Hopefully there'll be changes to FFP which will allow us to flex our financial might a bit more, otherwise getting a director who is going to find value for money in our transfer dealings is going to be the only way we can bridge the gap.

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23 minutes ago, lovejoy said:

Interesting read on Edwards and Hughes and their respective approaches.

 

Also interesting to read why Hughes was brought in to Bournemouth and how that affected Howe.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68654523

 

 

 

Looks like he has some serious contacts and connections in the game. Even close with Alonso's agent.

 

Liverpool look like they may have struck gold with both Edwards and Hughes joining them. Damn.

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44 minutes ago, KaKa said:

 

Looks like he has some serious contacts and connections in the game. Even close with Alonso's agent.

 

Liverpool look like they may have struck gold with both Edwards and Hughes joining them. Damn.

 

Absolutely.

 

They don't get much wrong to be fair to them.

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On 25/03/2024 at 17:38, KaKa said:

 

Looks like he has some serious contacts and connections in the game. Even close with Alonso's agent.

 

Liverpool look like they may have struck gold with both Edwards and Hughes joining them. Damn.

 

The clubs who are already at the top of the tree are always going to have the pick of staff, whether playing or management. We did well to get Ashworth in hindsight, he's obviously highly rated if Man U have poached him. We just need to do the same again, obviously it's a lot harder now that the PL have pulled up the drawbridge on spending money to protect the cartel clubs. It will take some ingenuity and long term vision.

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58 minutes ago, Geordie Ahmed said:

You want Jack Ross to be given the role of Sporting Director?

 

Based off the article posted earlier I'd be happy enough with it. He's worked under Ashworth and somewhat understands the role, having spent time at the club he knows our pros and cons. It's a safe appointment that we know would be up and running on day 1. It's not a super critical role imo, it's importance has been inflated by sky sports news' reporting of the ashworth situation because they had no actual player transfers to discuss. If you've already got a great manager, great academy head, great general coaching & scouting setup I'm not sure how much an established, reputable sporting director can actually add over someone like Jack Ross. Jimmy Foreigner isn't coming in and suddenly telling Nickson how to scout or Harper how to run our academy. Yes we need one, I'm just not sure we need someone unfamiliar to the club, league & country in general right now.

 

Unless I'm completely missing something.

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3 hours ago, Dr.Spaceman said:

 

Based off the article posted earlier I'd be happy enough with it. He's worked under Ashworth and somewhat understands the role, having spent time at the club he knows our pros and cons. It's a safe appointment that we know would be up and running on day 1. It's not a super critical role imo, it's importance has been inflated by sky sports news' reporting of the ashworth situation because they had no actual player transfers to discuss. If you've already got a great manager, great academy head, great general coaching & scouting setup I'm not sure how much an established, reputable sporting director can actually add over someone like Jack Ross. Jimmy Foreigner isn't coming in and suddenly telling Nickson how to scout or Harper how to run our academy. Yes we need one, I'm just not sure we need someone unfamiliar to the club, league & country in general right now.

 

Unless I'm completely missing something.

Maybe you are right but it clearly appears to be a specialist role and Ross hasn't shown he can operate at that level yet

 

Granted he's had some mentoring from Ashworth but that isn't the same as doing the job and having to deal with the various departments 

 

I know Brighton did something similar to what you're suggesting by appointing David Weir but they were seemingly much further along in their journey when Ashworth left in comparison to Ashworth leaving us 

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3 minutes ago, Geordie Ahmed said:

Maybe you are right but it clearly appears to be a specialist role and Ross hasn't shown he can operate at that level yet

 

Granted he's had some mentoring from Ashworth but that isn't the same as doing the job and having to deal with the various departments 

 

I know Brighton did something similar to what you're suggesting by appointing David Weir but they were seemingly much further along in their journey when Ashworth left in comparison to Ashworth leaving us 

I thought @Dr.Spaceman Was doing a tbg with that post so ignored. 
 

If it’s serious opinion then :anguish:

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All over Maldini like. He’d be a game changer in terms of bringing in a massive name to the club which has significant pull in the world of football.

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