What is going on at Newcastle United? - Sporting Director claim disputed minutes after report goes live

There's something about Newcastle United in the summertime that really brings out the crazy at the club.

Last year, Newcastle brought in Paul Mitchell as sporting director, a couple of days after Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi were pushed out of the club.

Mitchell's arrival caused chaos behind the scenes, arriving in the middle of a transfer window that was always destined to be underwhelming thanks to PSR.

Now, 11 months on and Mitchell is all set to leave Newcastle with a report coming out this evening that the former Monaco man has already left the club.

Newcastle United are dealing with Schroedinger's Sporting Director

However, not even an hour after the Daily Mail's report went live, The Chronicle reported that the Mail's claims were false and that Paul Mitchell will see out the rest of his notice and work until the end of June.

That forced Craig Hope to climb down from his original claims on X and argue that it's more a case of semantics.

Paul Mitchell will continue to work at the club for the duration of his notice period, but his responsibilities are being divided up amongst the staff with immediate effect, essentially leaving Mitchell floating the halls like the Ghost of Bad Decisions Past.

Behind the scenes at Newcastle United is utter chaos

While there's been clear progress on the pitch, which has been down to the fantastic coaching from Eddie Howe and his team, the boardroom has always felt chaotic.

We understand that inheriting the mess that Mike Ashley left and ironing out the kinks was always going to take time, and obviously the fact that Darren Eales is stepping down due to ill health can't be avoided, but the amount of changes in the boardroom in such a short space of time is pretty worrying.

It wouldn't be so bad, but it always seems to happen when the board needs to be focused and pulling together to get some quality players through the door. Eddie Howe must be banging his head off the wall right now.