Paul Mitchell to leave club by mutual consent at end of June (Official)

[The College Dropout]

15 minutes ago, KaKa said:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6390257/2025/05/29/eddie-howe-paul-mitchell-uncertainty/

Bit of a rehash that one. We knew most of this.  

[r0cafella]

3 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Bit of a rehash that one. We knew most of this.  

It's also extremely difficult to take journalists who didn't have a clue before hand seriously after the fact. 

[ToonAbroad]

20 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

It's also extremely difficult to take journalists who didn't have a clue before hand seriously after the fact. 

I've been thinking about this. Suppose the journos did know how bad Mitchell was in terms of internal reputation and his approach to the role - how would we have reacted if they pummelled him and these stories came out while the season was ongoing or whilst he was still in the role? We'd probably all be fuming at the disruption it would have caused, so I can see some argument for keeping certain things out of the public domain until his notice had been handed in.

[SUPERTOON]

1 minute ago, ToonAbroad said:

I've been thinking about this. Suppose the journos did know how bad Mitchell was in terms of internal reputation and his approach to the role - how would we have reacted if they pummelled him and these stories came out while the season was ongoing or whilst he was still in the role? We'd probably all be fuming at the disruption it would have caused, so I can see some argument for keeping certain things out of the public domain until his notice had been handed in.

Absolutely no chance any journalist, particularly the likes of Hope and Edward’s would sit on any information. The more disruptive the better for them.

[The College Dropout]

The Geordie Journos said they had heard things about Mitchell

[r0cafella]

Just now, The College Dropout said:

The Geordie Journos said they had heard things about Mitchell

Yup heard things but didn't utter a word until after the fact

 

 

[JT24]

4 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

Yup heard things but didn't utter a word until after the fact

 

 

The common playbook. 
 

Liam Kennedy calling himself a journalist is the bigger shock here. 

[The College Dropout]

I do think journalists do hear things they can't share - frequently. I've not paid close attention but oftentimes they do share small tidbits that turn out to have a lot of truth behind them.

 

Football clubs are fairly large businesses. Newcastle isn't that big of a city.

[ToonAbroad]

3 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

I do think journalists do hear things they can't share - frequently. I've not paid close attention but oftentimes they do share small tidbits that turn out to have a lot of truth behind them.

 

Football clubs are fairly large businesses. Newcastle isn't that big of a city.

Oh without a shadow of a doubt and for a variety of reasons - to protect relationships, to avoid potential libel or where they won't have 100% proof or evidence. I've heard so many stories over the years on people within football that I would never dare put onto a public forum, let alone in the press.

[TRon]

I don't really care about the clash of egos to be honest, but it is getting tiresome that we keep having to appoint new DOFs every season, and then when it comes to rebuilding the squad, every summer we seem to be back to square one. It's not helpful. 

[The College Dropout]

12 minutes ago, TRon said:

I don't really care about the clash of egos to be honest, but it is getting tiresome that we keep having to appoint new DOFs every season, and then when it comes to rebuilding the squad, every summer we seem to be back to square one. It's not helpful. 

This is not true. The biggest issue is our FFP position. 
 

We did plenty of work with no DOF. We did plenty of work with Ashworth.   We had little money to spend with Mitchell. 
 

Next season we’ve got some funds from sales, additional sponsor revenue and additional revenues from CL. We’ll get work done. From the recruitment side all we’ve lost is a negotiator. Nickson, Howe nephew, Howe, the data and scouts all still there 

[The College Dropout]

Constantly changing DOFs now doesn’t have a massive impact. None of them have stayed long enough to have made a meaningful long term impact that we’ll have to adjust. 

[TRon]

7 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

This is not true. The biggest issue is our FFP position. 
 

We did plenty of work with no DOF. We did plenty of work with Ashworth.   We had little money to spend with Mitchell. 
 

Next season we’ve got some funds from sales, additional sponsor revenue and additional revenues from CL. We’ll get work done. From the recruitment side all we’ve lost is a negotiator. Nickson, Howe nephew, Howe, the data and scouts all still there 

 

I didn't say we can't get work done, I just said it's not helpful that we can't seem to get a DOF established long term since the takeover. How can changing personnel in such an important area be unimportant? Otherwise why even appoint one?

 

Mitchell was brought in specifically to identify good value transfer targets as far as I'm aware. If we don't need that then was that not a required appointment?

 

 

[PauloGeordio]

1 minute ago, TRon said:

 

I didn't say we can't get work done, I just said it's not helpful that we can't seem to get a DOF established long term since the takeover. How can changing personnel in such an important area be unimportant? Otherwise why even appoint one?

 

Mitchell was brought in specifically to identify good value transfer targets as far as I'm aware. If we don't need that then was that not a required appointment?

 

 

The best thing we got with Mitchell was Bunce. I’m pleased to see he’s staying! 

[SUPERTOON]

14 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Constantly changing DOFs now doesn’t have a massive impact. None of them have stayed long enough to have made a meaningful long term impact that we’ll have to adjust. 

Main thing I think it will affect this window is outgoing deals. That’s where they become important imo.

[The College Dropout]

1 minute ago, TRon said:

 

I didn't say we can't get work done, I just said it's not helpful that we can't seem to get a DOF established long term since the takeover. How can changing personnel in such an important area be unimportant? Otherwise why even appoint one?

 

Mitchell was brought in specifically to identify good value transfer targets as far as I'm aware. If we don't need that then was that not a required appointment?

 

 

Is he the only person at the club that does this?

 

Mitchell's job was to sign players, negotiate contracts and negotiate sales.

 

The identification of players will involve numerous people/scouts, manager. No way does Mitchell lead the scouting, that's not his job. His job was to set direction on what the scouts should look for and decide who we should decide and work with CEO on budgeting and strategy.

 

Mitchell might have an in with certain agents though.

[TRon]

2 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

No way does Mitchell lead the scouting, that's not his job. His job was to set direction on what the scouts should look for and decide who we should decide and work with CEO on budgeting and strategy.

 

Mitchell might have an in with certain agents though.

 

I think those are all important inputs, especially when it comes to looking abroad. Howe generally wants proven PL quality which means buying Mbuemo at say £40m instead of £15m a year earlier when he's not proven he can adapt. 

 

That's just an example to make a point, it's not a legally binding statement with exact prices and quotes to back it up.

[The College Dropout]

1 minute ago, TRon said:

 

I think those are all important inputs, especially when it comes to looking abroad. Howe generally wants proven PL quality which means buying Mbuemo at say £40m instead of £15m a year earlier when he's not proven he can adapt. 

 

That's just an example to make a point, it's not a legally binding statement with exact prices and quotes to back it up.

Our best players were signed from abroad. I'm happy to continue with that. Howe was happy to go for Etikite and JP previously. 

[TRon]

5 hours ago, The College Dropout said:

Our best players were signed from abroad. I'm happy to continue with that. Howe was happy to go for Etikite and JP previously. 

 

Maybe there's some transfer targets going under the radar then, all we've heard about so far are the likes of Guehi, Trafford, Delap and Mbuemo. 

[Nucasol]

7 hours ago, JT24 said:

The common playbook. 
 

Liam Kennedy calling himself a journalist is the bigger shock here. 

Associated with Wraith. Instantly dismissed.

[Holloway]

Have the Geordie journo's got much clout, like? Can't stick the main geezer, smug little wanker.

 

 

Edited 20 hours ago by Holloway

[The College Dropout]

1 hour ago, TRon said:

 

Maybe there's some transfer targets going under the radar then, all we've heard about so far are the likes of Guehi, Trafford, Delap and Mbuemo. 

I’m with you here. But nothing concrete has landed. Tonali came out of left field though rather than months of rumour. I’m