High-profile exit expected at St James' Park amid Paul Mitchell and Eddie Howe rift

Newcastle United is currently home to fractured relationships at the senior level with Eddie Howe and Paul Mitchell seemingly getting off on the wrong foot.

At least that's how people are reading into things based on a couple of interviews from each side, however, there does seem to be a genuine effort to get the working relationship right and move on as one team.

Paul Mitchell was recently very critical of the transfer strategy that was employed by the club when he arrived, however, while it sounded like he was pointing the finger and saying that those in place before he arrived had done a poor job, what he was really saying was that after heavy spending and then being hit with having to panic-sell to comply with PSR, a change is needed.

Nobody can argue that the current strategy wasn't working. If it was we'd still have Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh and would probably have the squad depth we need.

Getty Images

Steve Nickson has had a rough couple of months

Regardless of his intentions, Mitchell's comments apparently rubbed some people the wrong way, especially head of recruitment Steve Nickson who has also been told that his duties will be reduced under the new system.

Between being essentially handed a demotion and being told that his recruitment policy was garbage, HITC now believes that Nickson could take it as a cue to leave the club.

Should it come to that, Nickson apparently will not be short of offers with Premier League and European clubs monitoring the situation.

We hope Nickson and Mitchell can find a way to work together

Nickson has been tremendous for Newcastle and was massively involved in bringing the likes of Bruno Guimaraes and Alexander Isak to the club.

We hope that things can be worked out and that we don't have to lose someone who has been so integral to the rebuild of Newcastle United since the takeover.

Things are clearly still not right behind the scenes, but it was never going to be an overnight fix. Hopefully, Mitchell can get his troops in line and carve out a path forward with everyone fully aware of their role and happy with it.