Newcastle United’s search for a new sporting director is back underway after Dougie Freedman turned down the job.
The Crystal Palace chief looked certain to arrive at St James’ Park as Dan Ashworth’s replacement, only for him to have a change of heart.
Dougie Freedman has decided to turn down Newcastle United’s offer, and has instead signed a new deal with the Eagles. It is great news for Crystal Palace, but a blow for the Magpies and their hopes of swiftly appointing a new sporting director.
The search is now back on, and there has been an update on the situation from Sky Sports reporter Dharmesh Sheth.
The latest on Newcastle United’s sporting director search
When Freedman emerged as the frontrunner for the Newcastle United sporting director job, he was one of two candidates that were still in contention.
The other was Johannes Spors, and it appears that the Magpies are now speaking to him again after missing out on Freedman.
That is according to Sky Sports journalist Dharmesh Sheth, who has taken to X (formerly known as Twitter) to provide details on the latest round of Newcastle talks.
He wrote: “Talks ongoing between Newcastle United and Johannes Spors over the vacant Sporting Director role. One source has described the talks as positive.”
Dougie Freedman setback means Newcastle are now behind schedule
Everything seemed to be going to plan for Newcastle. While the Ashworth situation has been massively frustrating and continues to prove to be a real mess, it looked like the Magpies were on course to find his successor.
It was reported that Newcastle wanted a replacement ready shortly after the end of the season, and it seemed for all the world that the job was going to Freedman. He impressed during the interview process, while Crystal Palace looked at possible replacements.
But they will not need a replacement. Instead, it is Newcastle who have gone back to the drawing board.
With the month of June looming, Toon officials are now behind schedule. They want someone in place in advance of the June 30th accounts deadline, which is an important date for PSR.
Whether or not Newcastle have someone in place before that date remains to be seen, with Steve Nickson in charge of recruitment in the meantime.
It would not be the first time the Toon owners had to appoint option number two
The search is back on, and it appears that Newcastle have circled back to Johannes Spors.
The 41-year-old German is the sporting director for the 777 Group and has a lot of experience in Europe, which could help Newcastle as they look to recruit from further afield. However, Spors does not have the one thing that the club were looking for during the recruitment process – Premier League experience.
But if Spors is back on the table, perhaps that is not as pivotal as first expected.
And if the Newcastle hierarchy does decide to appoint him, it will not be the first time they have had to opt for their second favourite candidate. It happened when they brought in a manager too, with Eddie Howe getting the job after Unai Emery said no.
That situation has worked out in our favour, so there should be no qualms about the Magpies turning to Spors after Freedman’s rejection.
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