- Newcastle’s chief executive has given his analysis of the club’s previous recruitment
- Paul Mitchell admitted he played a ‘supporting’ role in transfers this summer
- LISTEN NOW: It’s all about to begin!available wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Monday and Thursday
Former Newcastle technical director Dan Ashworth and other members of his old recruitment team are reportedly angry over comments from his replacement Paul Mitchell, who said the club’s transfer structure was “not fit for purpose”.
Mitchell said last week that the transfer strategy he pursued at Newcastle was all wrong, vowing to exert his influence at the club after playing only a ‘supporting’ role this summer.
The new sporting director has been criticised by fans and club legend Alan Shearer after failing to sign Eddie Howe’s main target Marc Guehi last month.
The Magpies walked away from a £70m deal for the Crystal Palace defender and ended the transfer window with just two new signings, costing just £10m, leaving Howe frustrated.
“I think it’s hard to have a predefined strategy,” he had said. “Shouldn’t we be more expansive in our scouting and recruiting with a wider scope of net?
Dan Ashworth is reportedly angry over recent comments made by Paul Mitchell
Paul Mitchell said the transfer strategy he followed at Newcastle was not fit for purpose
‘It certainly should, because this is now becoming a very nuanced sector, where you can’t just finance everything every year and buy masses of players at their best age and at the best price.
‘Of course it has to be done, and that’s the responsibility of me, the scouting team and Eddie.
‘Is it fit for purpose? Not last winter, but the winter before that. Is it fit for purpose in the modern game? Because other clubs who have taken a different approach over time, with more intelligence, more data-informed than us, have thrived in this window. That’s where we need to grow now.
‘Look at the money we’ve invested so far: £250 million net over the last two and a half years.
‘Was our model set up in such a way that we could spend more at the levels that we would have liked to have to strengthen the team? I don’t think so, because we didn’t sell a single player during that time, except what we were forced to do through PSR.
‘We didn’t have the sales window that we thought we had – and we have to look at that strategy as well, is that right? It was all geared towards the head coach.
“There absolutely needs to be a more strategic approach that we haven’t had in the last two and a half years. I’ll know in five years whether we’ve done it right.”
Eddie Howe failed to strengthen his squad during what was a difficult summer for Newcastle
And The Telegraph claim that multiple sources have told him that ‘Mitchell’s criticism has not gone down well with those involved in the player signing process before he took over.’
The same goes for Ashworth, who is now sporting director of Manchester United.
Some are said to have privately expressed their frustration at Mitchell’s comments on recruitment, saying they are proud of their work at St. James.
It is alleged that one of them even claimed that he wanted to blame others for his own failure in signing a star player.