While Newcastle United are having a lot of joy when it comes to new signings, they are finding it much tougher to land a new sporting director.
It has been an interesting week off the pitch for Newcastle United. A deal to sign Lloyd Kelly from Bournemouth is close, while the same goes for Tosin Adarabioyo.
The Magpies are on course to land two Premier League calibre centre-backs on free transfers, which would represent a great start to the summer.
But the pursuit of a new sporting director is proving to be less seamless, while the noise surrounding Dan Ashworth continues to make a racket in the background.
Newcastle United were hoping to appoint Dougie Freedman
Newcastle United have been hoping to appoint a new sporting director very soon, with Dougie Freedman the frontrunner for the role.
The Crystal Palace chief, who has been described as as ‘absolute master‘ at signing players from the Football League, impressed Toon officials during his interview, and it looked like he was on course to replace Dan Ashworth at St James’ Park.
However, there appears to have been a change of plan.
Dougie Freedman to Newcastle United update
According to the Guardian, Freedman has now had second thoughts about leaving Crystal Palace for Newcastle United.
They report that the 49-year-old has now agreed to sign a new contract at Selhurst Park, with Freedman on course to receive a nice pay rise to go with his new deal.
That is great news for Freedman’s bank balance, but bad news for Newcastle’s sporting director aspirations. The Guardian state that the Magpies had been asked to pay around £2million for Freedman in compensation, but it now looks like that money will go elsewhere.
Newcastle’s sporting director search goes on
With Freedman turning down Newcastle’s approach and deciding to stay with Palace, Toon officials will have to take their search elsewhere.
That could lead them to Johannes Spors, who was the other candidate in the race. While Freedman was the favourite, it was always stated that the search was down to two people.
Spors was the other, so you have to imagine Newcastle will now make a move for the 777 Group sporting director. His wealth of European experience will be beneficial, and Newcastle will hope that he can be convinced to make the move to St James’ Park.
This is not the first time that the Toon owners have missed out on their first target. Before they got Eddie Howe to become manager, they wanted Unai Emery. He turned the Magpies down, meaning they had to go for their second choice.
That decision worked out alright, so hopefully it is the same story in this instance.
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