THIS LATEST INITIATIVE - I'M VERY IMPRESSED WITH NEWCASTLE UNITED SPORTING DIRECTOR

The Newcastle United Sporting Director has done a group interview with a number of NUFC journalists.

Paul Mitchell speaking to them in the aftermath of the Premier League transfer window which closed last Friday.

I have to say that I am very impressed with how honest and open Paul has been.

The Newcastle United Sporting Director really tells the fans how it is.

It is up to us as fans to take it into account.

I have been disappointed with how some fans have laid the blame for our last transfer window totally at the feet of Paul Mitchell and Darren Eales, while totally ignoring any role in that transfer window by Eddie Howe and Amanda Staveley.

He has also touched on the refusal by Howe to distance himself from the England job with his “You never know” statement. To me, this is clearly a power play by Eddie Howe, pushing back on the new direction the club will take in regards to transfers. However, even if I would hate to lose Howe, my support is for Newcastle United first and foremost, and I would very much have preferred Howe to say that he was going nowhere and that he is 100% committed to Newcastle United.

I think these below are the most important parts of the interview and I have picked out what the Newcastle United Sporting Director said, via an excellent two-part piece in The Mail:

*The club is NOT afraid to lose Eddie Howe to England (Reading between the lines, our ambitions won’t fall with Howe and we will have a plan in place).

*The club had a very backwards transfer strategy, of basically only looking for players in our own backyard.

*This strategy means that we have probably overspent on players with a level of quality we could have gotten cheaper with smart buys from around the world.

*Howe wanted ONE player for the first eleven or nothing at all, that player’s name was handed over to Mitchell who then tried to get him, but at some point refused to pay what Palace wanted.

*Eddie Howe will have to trust that Mitchell can find players of the quality needed from around the world, rather than just locally.

*Saudi Arabia PIF are as ambitious as ever and want to become number 1 in every field within the sport.

I realise that this can seem a bit like Eddie Howe against Paul Mitchell.

Newcastle United Head Coach v Newcastle United Sporting Director.

I know Eddie Howe will/would have a lot of fans with him in that fight.

However, in my opinion, this was a power play started by Howe and then the media ran with it.

This interview actually gives us a huge insight into matters at the club and it is exactly the open communication from the top that fans have been asking for lately.

I am a big fan of Eddie Howe and I hope he falls into place and the parts can unite and build a stronger Newcastle United for the future.

I am very impressed about our transfer strategy getting more global and last but not least, the one thing that has made it even possible to dream about a future where NUFC can actually win trophies, is our owners.

They will stay with us long after Eddie Howe or any player.

They Newcastle United owners shown that they are very clever so far in their running of the club. So if they think this is the way to go and as Newcastle United Sporting Director, Paul Mitchell is the one to lead our transfer strategy, then who are we to disagree?

2024-09-05T06:30:53Z dg43tfdfdgfd