Paul Mitchell's first major move announced as Newcastle appoint new director

Newcastle United have announce that James Bunce has been appointed the club's new performance director.

Bunce arrives with 17 years of experience across organisations in England, the US and Europe and will report to sporting director Paul Mitchell; a man he knows extremely well after working with the 42-year-old at Southampton and Monaco.

As he explains in his first interview below, his role will be to 'push in every area of performance and medicine' at the club, ensuring we 'optimise the health, fitness and wellbeing of players' every week. With last season's injury crisis in mind, this feels like a timely move and one Mitchell has pushed for following his appointment.

James Bunce: "I am proud and excited to join such an historic and ambitious club as its new performance director. Newcastle United and the city are going through an exciting time of growth and development and I cannot wait to start contributing to the club's future successes."

"My role will be to ensure that we push in every area of performance and medicine to optimise the health, fitness and wellbeing of players, ultimately ensuring they are available to perform at the highest level, week in week out."

Darren Eales: "James is an accomplished and innovative performance director and we are delighted he has chosen to join us. He has dedicated his career to helping players to be at their optimum levels, bringing a range of departments and services together to provide the best possible foundations for elite performance.

"James will be of great support to the talented players and staff we already have in place, and his strong working relationship with Paul Mitchell will be an asset to us as we continue to strive to be best in class."

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