Thursday morning saw Newcastle United announce the arrival of Paul Mitchell as sporting director after a lengthy chase and some top quality misdirection.
Mitchell was high on the club's list to replace Dan Ashworth who had put in his notice in a bid to move to Manchester United, but that move was being held up by Man United's refusal to pay the compensation package demanded by Newcastle.
That finally got sorted over the weekend and lo and behold, a few days later a wild Mitchell appears. It was an appointment that came out of nowhere after things went eerily quiet following Dougie Freedman refusing the job and deciding to stay at Crystal Palace.
It now means that Newcastle can get on with their transfer business now that a sporting director is in place, with Mitchell able to work on deals in the background while talks were going on between him and the club as he was free from any other club.
It came out on Friday that Eddie Howe had not been consulted about Mitchell's appointment and the two, who have no prior-existing relationship will have to start from scratch.
We have been told from sources inside the club that Howe is not happy about the club making the appointment without his input.
"He was unhappy about not being consulted and having it foisted upon him. My view is, is that he is an Empire builder who wants his own people / own way. Hence, his relative being employed with no real experience."
It doesn't sound like things are off to the best of starts between Howe and Mitchell then, but what they say about Howe's empire-building totally makes sense, you can see if in how he clings on to players as well, he has a hard time letting go of people he trusts, even if it would be in the club's best interest for him to do so.
Fingers crossed that he and Mitchell can hit it off and get over this speed bump quickly because we believe Mitchell is an outstanding appointment and will do a lot of positive things for the club, but it will all be for nought if Eddie Howe spits his dummy out.
Howe and Ashworth famously didn't see eye-to-eye and it was a problem, we can't have that again.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Liverpool
|
14 | 18 | 35 |
2 |
Chelsea
|
15 | 17 | 31 |
3 |
Arsenal
|
15 | 14 | 29 |
4 |
Manchester City
|
15 | 6 | 27 |
5 |
Nottingham Forest
|
15 | 1 | 25 |
6 |
Aston Villa
|
15 | 0 | 25 |
7 |
Brighton
|
15 | 3 | 24 |
8 |
Bournemouth
|
15 | 3 | 24 |
9 |
Brentford
|
15 | 3 | 23 |
10 |
Fulham
|
15 | 2 | 23 |
11 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
15 | 12 | 20 |
12 |
Newcastle United
|
15 | -2 | 20 |
13 |
Manchester United
|
15 | 1 | 19 |
14 |
West Ham United
|
15 | -8 | 18 |
15 |
Everton
|
14 | -7 | 14 |
16 |
Leicester
|
15 | -9 | 14 |
17 |
Crystal Palace
|
15 | -6 | 13 |
18 |
Ipswich
|
15 | -13 | 9 |
19 |
Wolves
|
15 | -15 | 9 |
20 |
Southampton
|
15 | -20 | 5 |