Jurgen Klopp’s 2024 assessment of the need for big clubs to have sporting directors should serve as a major warning to Newcastle United.
Whether Newcastle United actually have a sporting director right now is surely up for debate.
Indeed, Paul Mitchell is set to leave Newcastle in June but, earlier this week, there were suggestions that Mitchell is handing over responsibilities to Steve Nickson and Andy Howe.
That hardly seems ideal during a transfer window in which Eddie Howe wants Newcastle to sign players quickly.
The Newcastle United manager is without a first-team signing as of yet, as has been the case for two years now. While some of that is down to the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules, the lack of a sporting director being in place can hardly help.
Klopp, who worked with Newcastle target Julian Ward at Liverpool, thinks they’re vitally important.
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What Jurgen Klopp said about sporting directors
Speaking back in 2023, Klopp said every top club around should have a sporting director in place.
In fact, he said he simply didn’t know how clubs operated without one.
“Is there any club without a guy in the role of sporting director? Pretty much everyone has one,” he said in 2023.
“It makes sense. How many clubs have a sporting director these days? I don’t know how they did it in the past without one. You need people for that, there’s no chance. I am happy with the structure.”
That should serve as a warning to PIF. The Newcastle United owners will have seen both Dan Ashworth and Mitchell leave very quickly, which is hardly a ringing endorsement of the sporting director role on Tyneside.
Newcastle United’s sporting director targets
Geordie Boot Boys understands that Brentford’s Director of Football Phil Giles is a Newcastle target.
The aforementioned Ward has also been touted as a target, while The Athletic have claimed that Nottingham Forest’s Ross Wilson is the front-runner for the Newcastle United sporting director role.
According to Craig Hope in The Daily Mail, interviews are supposed to take place next week. That will, at least in theory, be a sign of progress behind the scenes.
Newcastle need one in place. It’s not a coincidence that every other top team around has one.
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