Newcastle United are considering a restructure of their transfer committee and are set to hand their incoming chief executive influence over the identity of Paul Mitchell’s replacement.
Mitchell’s departure after 10 months was announced on Tuesday lunchtime in a shock turn of events at St James’ Park.
The i Paper understands the move had been in the pipeline for a few weeks and is not related to post-season meetings with majority owners the Public Investment Fund (PIF) over the weekend, with Mitchell leaving on good terms.
Newcastle announced his exit as by mutual consent, which was confirmed as “amicable” by insiders.
The view of those close to Mitchell is that it was the right time to depart as a new chief executive – set to be announced over the summer – arrives with potentially fresh ideas and a remit to tweak the way football operations work.
In reality it probably means more power over recruitment deservedly returning to the door of Eddie Howe, who has overseen an impressive season in winning the Carabao Cup and negotiating a return to the Champions League for a squad that had not had a major first-team addition for three transfer windows.
Howe and Mitchell endured a rocky start to their relationship, with the manager setting out his discontent in a memorable interview in July and then admitting in subsequent press conferences that he was now removed from the recruitment process.
Friction then returned in September when Mitchell sat with journalists for a post-window debrief in which he called Newcastle’s recruitment “not fit for purpose”.
An appointment driven by outgoing chief executive Darren Eales – which Howe got only a few hours prior notice of – didn’t look like a particularly good fit from the off, unsettling Howe and ultimately failing to lay the foundations that he talked of in those early weeks of the job.
But despite not securing a single signing – Mitchell led the ultimately futile chase for Marc Guehi last summer despite internal reservations Crystal Palace would sell – he did appoint the impressive James Bunce as performance director and brokered the sale of Lloyd Kelly to Juventus, which has bought Newcastle considerable room to manoeuvre in the transfer market this summer.
Differences had been resolved and “collaboration” had been the buzz word leading into this summer.
The word from inside St James’ Park is that the club’s future direction may now be dictated by the chief executive who replaces Eales.
That process is understood to be close to a conclusion, with several well-known figures in football in the running.
The i Paper has also been told Mitchell’s departure will have no impact on Newcastle’s transfer plans, which have been in the works for several months with clear targets identified before the transfer window opens next month.
Indeed Mitchell, who has primary responsibility for club-to-club negotiations, will remain at the club until the end of June with long-serving head of recruitment Steve Nickson and Howe himself anticipated to pick up some of the slack.
Howe’s nephew Andy, who is assistant head of first-team recruitment, is also very well-thought of at the club.
Newcastle are one of the clubs working on a deal for Ipswich Town striker Liam Delap, who also has offers from Chelsea, Manchester United and Everton.
They also want a centre-back and right-sided forward as a minimum this summer.
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There will be understandable intrigue around the sporting director role, though, with plenty of interest from candidates in the job.
The i Paper understands that former striker Demba Ba, who was close to being appointed as Rennes director of football after overseeing a stunning turnaround at Ligue 2 club Dunkerque, has admirers at the club and is a big fan of Howe’s work.
There will be experienced operators in the running too and it is intriguing that Dougie Freedman, the former Crystal Palace director of football, has recently taken up a role with PIF-owned Al-Diriyah.
Freedman was high on Newcastle’s list last summer, opting instead to stay at Selhurst Park in a blow to the club’s plans.
Whatever comes next, Newcastle need a bit of stability in the boardroom.
This will be the second summer running that there will be an overhaul at executive level and Mitchell’s successor will be their third sporting director in just over three years since the position was created.
In that context the success offered by Howe – viewed as an elite operator internally – is even more important.
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