Newcastle United feel confident they can keep hold of performance director despite Paul Mitchell's imminent departure

Newcastle United will once again be without a sporting director heading into the summer transfer window, with Paul Mitchell set to leave at the end of June.

Last year, Mitchell arrived at Newcastle in the middle of a transfer window and, as such, didn't really stamp his authority on what was a very quiet window for the Magpies.

Now, less than a year later, Mitchell will leave Newcastle just as the transfer window starts to heat up. However, the Magpies are confident that all the hard work has been done in terms of identifying targets; it's now a case of making the offers and getting the deals over the line.

Given that a big part of Mitchell's role at Newcastle was recruitment-based, the fact that he could leave having only brought in Will Osula and made a good deal to get shot of Lloyd Kelly doesn't really leave the former Monaco man in a good light.

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Newcastle are confident James Bunce will stay when Paul Mitchell leaves

As we said this morning, we do have to thank him for bringing James Bunce to the club. Mitchell brought in Bunce as performance director to sort out Newcastle's injury issues, similar to what he did for Mitchell at Monaco, and to give credit where it's due, it was a great move.

James Bunce has been fantastic for Newcastle as the number of lost days through injury fell dramatically this season. And with another Champions League campaign to come, we'll have everything crossed that we can keep our players fit, unlike the last time we were in the competition.

Thankfully, Newcastle World are reporting that the club is confident that James Bunce will remain at Newcastle after Mitchell has gone.

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We had reservations about James Bunce initially

Should Mitchell take up a role elsewhere, we could see him try and poach Bunce again like he did when he joined Newcastle, but hopefully, Bunce will be settled enough on Tyneside that he'd be happy to stay.

We had our doubts about Bunce at first. When Newcastle were struggling at the start of the season, the key thing that was missing was that famous Eddie Howe intensity, and we put that down to Bunce telling him to back off a bit to give the players a better chance of staying fit.

Thankfully, as the season went on, the lads got that intensity back, so it clearly wasn't a mandate from Bunce.