Report: Newcastle eyeing another appointment to go alongside new sporting director

When Dan Ashworth was brought into Newcastle United he was practically given the keys to the kingdom and told to rebuild the club in his image.

It obviously seemed like a good idea at the time given Ashworth's experience with the FA, transforming the ethos around the England set up which created a much better atmosphere in the international camp.

However, since Ashworth has now turned his back on the project in favour of going to Manchester United - should they ever work out the compensation issue with Newcastle - it seems the board have learned not to put all their eggs in one basket.

Newcastle are close to appointing a new sporting director, but they will not have the same level of control as Ashworth was given.

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Newcastle are adding more positions to the backroom staff

The Daily Mail are now saying that as well as the sporting director, which is still tipped to be Dougie Freedman, they will be looking to bring in a performance director.

A performance director will oversee the data analysis side of the game as well as science, medicine and psychology. It's a model that is now being widely used around the Premier League.

Sports science and performance analysis have become huge in the game in recent years with every little thing a player does in a game being analysed in microscopic detail.

The injury situation at Newcastle needs to be heavily scrutinised

Hopefully whoever it is who comes in for this role has a major shakeup of the medical team after such a horrific year when it comes to injuries. A deep dive must be done into the root cause of so many of our struggles with keeping players fit.

It hasn't just been at Newcastle that injuries have taken their toll more than usual this season, so there is something overarching that needs to be addressed, but that must start at club level.

Hopefully, the new sporting director, at least, will be in place in time for the summer pre-season training and the start of the transfer window with a performance director to follow soon after.