It has been a whirlwind first week for Ross Wilson: meetings, introductions and more handshakes than feels humanly possible.
It does not surprise those who have worked alongside him that he’s made a positive first impression. Newcastle United’s new director of football is a natural diplomat and “perfect for that job”, according to one former colleague.
Wilson has managed to tread a careful path at Evangelos Marinakis’ volatile Nottingham Forest and kept his cool amid criticism at Rangers, so is said to be undaunted by the task ahead of him at St James’ Park.
And that sounds about right. For all that Newcastle face some major obstacles to establish themselves as a regular fixture in English football’s elite, Wilson is joining at a very good time in the PIF project.
They have ripped off the plaster of a major first team sale – Alexander Isak’s acrimonious exit was handled without a CEO or director of football – and now have the financial headroom and freedom to establish a proper, sustainable strategy to compete that extends beyond “Trust in Eddie Howe”.
Peering in from the outside, Wilson’s appointment also feels like an acknowledgement from PIF that Newcastle have one of the outstanding managers in English football right now.
In Friday’s press conference, Howe shied away from comparisons with how he was feeling a year ago but reading between the lines he’s a lot happier at the dynamics now, heaping praise on both Wilson and new CEO David Hopkinson.
More focus on data
Howe’s achievements over the last three seasons have earned him a lot more influence and that was evident in the appointment of Wilson. Howe was consulted and in favour of bringing in the Scot, who will have a wide-ranging remit of overseeing the next stage of Newcastle’s development.
So what does that look like? The Magpies know they have to refine their recruitment strategy and draw on lesser known markets. Howe was also interesting when asked about data – an area PIF are apparently “obsessed” with – and how that can be integrated on Wilson’s watch.
“The way we recruit players, it’s only going to go more based towards data. Modern trends are such [that] you’ve got to follow them. You’ve got to be on top of it,” he said.
“But I think the key thing with data, it has to be your data, it has to be bespoke to your team, your club. I don’t think you can copy anybody else. And that’s the challenge for us is to try and create that ourselves. [Technical director] Sudarshan Gopaladesikan and no doubt whoever else is employed to do that will lead that charge under Ross’s leadership.”
New contract talks
They also need to nail the next crop of contract calls. As well as forthcoming short-term deals for Fabian Schar and Kieran Trippier, they must decide how to structure terms for Sandro Tonali, Sven Botman and Tino Livramento – three players who have interest from some of the best clubs in Europe.
You suspect it won’t be long before that serious business starts, but this week has been a soft landing. Wilson’s first few days have seen him spend time with Howe, meet the newly installed director of football for the women’s team Grace Williams, while also breaking bread with academy director Steve Harper and the first team.
“Fact-finding” was how one insider put it and the Newcastle manager said he would “let him [Wilson] get used to his new surroundings” before “bombarding” him with transfer requests. But January looms and Newcastle’s forward-planning has been, to put it bluntly, poor in recent years.
A better strategy
Their scrape with a PSR breach in 2024 was avoidable and cost them Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh, two of the Premier League’s outstanding young players. Last summer they chased the wrong players, initially let Liverpool dictate the pace of the Isak sale and only really recovered it with some smart salvage work in August.
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But there has to be a better mid to long-term strategy and some hard decisions taken on the future of key players now will save them from some of the scrambles they’ve had over recent years.
But it says a lot about the relative health of the club that they’ve crawled through two tough summers to win a major trophy and compete in the Champions League. Wilson has not joined a club in need of a complete overhaul, more he’s in charge of one that needs tweaks and modernisation.
Judging by Howe’s mood on Friday, the manager feels a lot more comfortable about that prospect now. It feels like a club on much firmer ground that at any point in the last 12 months.
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