At Wednesday night’s ‘We are United’ fan event held at STACK, Sporting Director Paul Mitchell shut down any rumours of fragmentation between himself and Eddie Howe, instead expressing his thanks for being able to work alongside such a “very talented head coach and manager.”
Upon Mitchell’s arrival earlier this summer, and with the club going on to navigate poorly in the transfer window, there was much speculation that the pair were butting heads over the club’s transfer policy and Mitchell’s plans to instil his vision and key personnel in the club at the expense of Howe’s.
Likening their ‘feud’ to something out of Big Brother, Mitchell said “I was enjoying Eddie and Paul watch in September. Day one: Have Eddie and Paul spoken to each other!”
“I thought it was quite good commentary. I am not a big social media fan or a media fan in general. But we work closely. It is a natural collaboration; he is the head coach and manager of the club, and I am the sporting director.“
Mitchell would later add that he admires the work Howe has done on Tyneside, and that he wants to help the manager and club in any way he can. “My job is to support him. To collaborate, support, challenge, debate all for the benefit for the football club,” he added.
“But we have a very talented head coach/manager and our collaboration is as frequent or infrequent as it needs to be. I am fortunate to have been doing this a long time with some really good intelligent coaches as well and Eddie definitely falls into that bracket but I have other responsibilities as well.”
“Unfortunately, not as the myth of the media would like, I can’t hold hands with Eddie as much I’d like to! We had the luxury of being at the boxing together which was nice and we had a great time. But I have other responsibilities which are equally as important.”
Mitchell then reflected on a chaotic summer for the club, discussing what a great job Darren Eales, Eddie Howe and others did to help us avoid a PSR-related points deduction in June; even if it meant we had to sell Yankuba Minteh and Elliot Anderson.
“A lot of people won’t believe I’m 21! I looked a lot better pre-July than I did post-September. But no, I think it is a complex landscape in the world of football. Definitely for myself I probably underestimated that coming in.
“I would like to say Darren, Eddie and the team in June, in what was a very difficult situation for the club, allowed us to have a platform where we don’t have a points deduction.
“They made brave and tough decisions for the benefit of the club. That is one of our responsibilities as custodians of this club. They did a tremendous job. Unfortunately, we lost two very talented young men, but it has put us in a position where we can continue growing and continue getting success on the pitch.
“I can’t echo enough what a great job was done in June to make sure we were as financially sound and performance sound as well.”
Addressing the other key members of the Newcastle hierarchy, including CEO Darren Eales and Women’s Manager Becky Langley, Mitchell outlined his plans to help boost the club’s revenue streams and and collaborate with his peers in revolutionising the club for the better.
“Long, mid and short-term. I have to support Steve (Harper) at the Academy to grow our next wave of talent to help the first-team and as Darren Eales says also looking at growing and developing players to enhance our revenue streams as well.”
“The trading model is an important element of the modern game. And support Becky in the women’s game to help the growth of the upward trajectory.”
A big part of my role is making these guys’ (Eales, financial chief Simon Capper and commercial director Peter Silverstone) lives on stage a living nightmare to ascertain as much cash as we can in very strategic ways to invest in the first-team and the women’s and the Academy moving forward.”
