Paul Mitchell - Leaves Club (Hope); No He Hasn't (Edwards)

[et tu brute]

27 minutes ago, healthyaddiction said:

Looking at the timings, Ross Wilson was the Sporting Director at Rangers when they tried to hire Howe. 

 

Edit: actually is my memory wrong? Was it Celtic that tried to hire Howe?

 

 

 

Aye Celtic 

[Bunk Moreland]

3 hours ago, r0cafella said:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6434418/2025/06/19/newcastle-sporting-director-latest/

 

  Reveal hidden contents

The insistence from the top of Newcastle is that a leading contender has yet to emerge, although other sources have suggested Ross Wilson is regarded as the early front-runner.

 

Wilson, who is Nottingham Forest’s chief football officer, has worked in senior positions at Southampton, Huddersfield Town, Watford, Falkirk and Rangers, who won their first league title for a decade during his tenure, and reached the Europa League final.

 

Wilson is believed to have a positive relationship with Howe and was spoken to during Newcastle’s previous sporting director searches. He fits the general profile they are examining — the club have huge infrastructure projects in the pipeline — rather than being a specialist in recruitment.

 

 

Ross Wilson is a strong contender for the role (Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)

Julian Ward, the technical director for Fenway Sports Group, Liverpool’s owners, is also admired, having overseen the signings of several current players and worked at the highest level on player development. This kind of experienced candidate is supported by some internally.

 

Jason Ayto, former assistant sporting director at Arsenal, and Gavin Fleig, a backroom figure at Manchester City, have also been discussed.

 

Dougie Freedman, now sporting director at Al Diriyah, turned down an approach from Newcastle prior to Mitchell’s appointment while he was at Crystal Palace. Johannes Spors, now at Southampton, also made the final two-man shortlist last time.

 

The strong suggestion is that it will not be an internal promotion because, according to multiple sources, it is “too big a job” for that.

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting that it's Nickson who pushed for Cordero and Salia according to this article. Think most of us had assumed they were Mitchell signings. 

[Nucasol]

3 minutes ago, Bunk Moreland said:

 

Interesting that it's Nickson who pushed for Cordero and Salia according to this article. Think most of us had assumed they were Mitchell signings. 

I don’t think the annals of NUFC history will be good to Mitchell.

[80]

"When he accepted the role, Mitchell was unaware of the extent of Newcastle’s PSR limitations"

 

If true, this would make him a real dummy and Eales a piece of work. Sounds more like an excuse invented after the event, though.

[TRon]

2 hours ago, 80 said:

"When he accepted the role, Mitchell was unaware of the extent of Newcastle’s PSR limitations"

 

If true, this would make him a real dummy and Eales a piece of work. Sounds more like an excuse invented after the event, though.

 

 

I doubt it's true tbh. 

[gbandit]

If Dan was a rat, what is Mitchell? Feel like this has been the sum total of his efforts

 

[The Prophet]

It does just sound like after missing out on Freedman, Eales went to a mate and asked for a favour, without really considering the ramifications.

[SUPERTOON]

2 hours ago, 80 said:

"When he accepted the role, Mitchell was unaware of the extent of Newcastle’s PSR limitations"

 

If true, this would make him a real dummy and Eales a piece of work. Sounds more like an excuse invented after the event, though.

After last summer and what came out afterwards, I can fully believe it tbh.

[KaKa]

3 hours ago, Bunk Moreland said:

 

Interesting that it's Nickson who pushed for Cordero and Salia according to this article. Think most of us had assumed they were Mitchell signings. 

 

This is very good news.

 

We need to continue to aim to bring in promising young players.

 

Good to know they were Nickson moves.

[Bunk Moreland]

1 minute ago, KaKa said:

 

This is very good news.

 

We need to continue to aim to bring in promising young players.

 

Good to know they were Nickson moves.

 

I also have a vague memory of Nickson being responsible for identifying Minteh despite Ashworth getting credit for it too.

[Conjo]

I thought it was widely understood that neither Ashworth or Mitchell do/did the scouting. They make/made recommendations based on player profiles and positions identified by Howe, and input and recommendations from the scouting/analysis-teams.

[Chicken Dancer]

Aye I think it's still almost universally thought that the DOF/Sporting Director is the one who personally finds the specific player and signs.

 

They'll be more likely to be identifying the profile of player, briefing the scouts and then in charge of negotiating the transfer/wages etc.

[mighty__mag]

To lazy to read back through, but whys this topic still relevant 

[Abacus]

4 hours ago, Paully said:

I’m getting good at this 

 

https://archive.ph/S6wfZ

 

Based purely on that article, it sounds like an Ashworth type was what the club were originally after, whereas Mitchell was a change in direction DOF wise, and that they're now looking to go back to the original model.

 

None of that may be the case at all, so I'm only going on that report, but IF it's right you could argue that we've mucked around and made a bit of a mess both with what Mitchell was told and also what he was there to do when he was recruited.

[TBG]

I'm in no way saying we're a sinking ship under them, that's for you to be hyperbolic over, but Mitchell & Eales captain the Titanic.

 

You can only save one. Who you saving?

 

 

Edited 4 hours ago by TBG

[The College Dropout]

37 minutes ago, Bunk Moreland said:

 

I also have a vague memory of Nickson being responsible for identifying Minteh despite Ashworth getting credit for it too.

Ashworth has never been a scout though.  So it’s likely a Nickson recommendation and Ashworth prioritised getting the deal done - it wasn’t pennies either. 

 

30 minutes ago, Conjo said:

I thought it was widely understood that neither Ashworth or Mitchell do/did the scouting. They make/made recommendations based on player profiles and positions identified by Howe, and input and recommendations from the scouting/analysis-teams.

I disagree slightly. Mitchell has been a head of recruitment before iirc several times.  His experience has been much more focussed on recruitment and player identification. Ashworth also does recruitment but his focus prior to Newcastle has been broader. 
 

And from the interviews it sounded like Mitchell was coming into deal woth transfers without much input from Eddie which caused all the issues. A proper head of recruitment. The previous model and the one we are returning too is more collaborative with the manager. Wales or Mitchell even spoke about Howe as the ‘coach’. That has always been his title I think but he was basically the manager previously. 

[Kanj]

Let’s crack on with the old format please. As much as it’s cool for football hipsters to sit on the internet and praise sporting directors, it always ends up being the job of the manager and the player themselves to actually get it right on the pitch and Eddie deserves 100% trust and respect for whatever profile he deems is worth spending the cash on.