'No secret': Newcastle United sporting director Ross Wilson confirms that talks are underway for two major contracts
Ross Wilson now has his feet firmly under the desk as Newcastle United's sporting director after taking over for the monumental waste of space, Paul Mitchell.
Wilson has been given the task of sifting through the club's contracts and seeing which players need new deals and which are safe for now, or maybe aren't worthy of a renewal.
When Wilson arrived, there was a lot of talk about securing the futures of Sven Botman and Tino Livramento.
Botman's contract is expiring in 2027, and the club would rather not run the risk of losing the Dutchman on the cheap, while Livramento is being eyed by Manchester City and other big clubs, so issuing a stern 'hands off' warning via a hefty contract would certainly be helpful.
Ross Wilson says talks are underway with Sven Botman and Tino Livramento
Despite Botman's injury problems, there's no doubting his ability and is definitely worth trying to keep at the club, and that's a view that it seems Wilson shares as he told around 1000 fans on Monday night at St James' Stack.
My first three or four days in the job was when I found that Sandro’s contract situation was significantly better than the one I was expecting. My first days were about analysing contracts – where are we, where are we strong, where are we weak, where have we got issues?
“It’s no secret at all that we would want to extend Tino’s contract and we would want to extend Sven Botman’s contract too. Those discussions are ongoing.
“Some discussions are more difficult than others, but the desire would be to keep those players. Will they agree those contracts? At the moment, I think it’s too early to say.”
Sandro Tonali signed a secret contract extension shortly after being hit with a 10-month ban
Wilson mentioned Sandro Tonali has he was another player fans were expecting to be handed a new deal, but it was discovered that the Italian had actually signed a one-year extension to his initial deal during his 10-month ban.
For whatever reason, that extension flew under the radar until just recently, but given how the new signing was set to miss an entire season's worth of football, it was only right that he committed another year to the club.
It's great to see that talks are underway with Botman and Livramento. Hopefully they'll be conducted quickly and efficiently and before all the speculation starts about Tino moving to Manchester City.
