Newcastle close to announcing TWO major appointments - Report

A common praise that both Liverpool and Manchester City receive is that they are perhaps the two best run football clubs in the world.

From a bureaucratic and organisational perspective, no one in the Premier League comes close to matching them, and it allow both clubs to focus their energy and resources into developing Arne Slot and Pep Guardiola’s sides.

If we want to truly become an elite football club, that’s something we need to address as a matter of urgency, particularly after the 18 month crisis that has been our Sporting Director position.

Thankfully, it looks a pair of top-class appointments are on the way to help sort things out…

Toon close to double appointment

According to The Times’ Martin Hardy, Newcastle look set to appoint David Hopkinson as our new chief executive, and Ross Wilson as our new sporting director.

Hopkinson was previously the CEO of Real Madrid, whilst Wilson is set to depart his post as the sporting director of league rivals Nottingham Forest.

Wilson is particular has a strong relationship with Eddie Howe, who has worked alongside PIF representatives and Jamie Reuben in finding the right man for the job.

The two new hires come shortly after we announced the official appointment of Atalanta’s former director of football intelligence Sudarshan Gopaladesikan as our new technical director.

Stability needed at the top

A complete revamp of the club’s hierarchy, despite our recent success and re-qualification for the Champions League, has been needed for some time.

The sporting director role has been dragged through the mud by Dan Ashworth and successor Paul Mitchell, and now Howe has hopefully got someone he knows he can definitely work alongside and get some positive work done for the sake of the club.

Hopkinson stepping in to alleviate some of Darren Eales’ duties and perhaps push forward his departure following on from his blood cancer diagnosis earlier last season.

It will be interesting to see if either Hopkinson or Wilson take on a de-facto ambassadorial role like Eales and Mitchell have, conducting interviews and delivering both good and bad news to the fans.

Many fans would take the pairing of Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi back in a heartbeat for this, as even though there were issues with the pair regarding overspending and their day to day involvement, few can deny their passion for the club and efficiency when it came to delivering results and actually helping sign players.