With Ashworth’s drawn-out departure having prevented the opportunity for a smooth transition of power, Mitchell was able to wash his hands of what turned out to be a bitterly disappointing summer from a recruitment perspective. Marc Guehi? An ill-fated pursuit that started long before he was installed as Newcastle’s new transfer chief. A failure to move on fringe players who continue to clog up the squad? Not on his watch. A lack of detailed, data-driven analysis on players from all four corners of the world? A problem he hadn’t yet had an opportunity to address.
When Mitchell sat down to talk the press in the immediate aftermath of the summer transfer window, you could sense he expected problems to present themselves down the line. Well, it hasn’t taken long for those problems to emerge. Having lost at Brentford at the weekend thanks to a catalogue of defensive errors, Newcastle find themselves sitting in 12th position in the Premier League table, having won just two of their last 11 league matches. They’re as close to 17th position as they are to fourth. Given that European qualification was cited as a minimum ambition at the start of the season, things are clearly not going to plan.
True, the situation might improve before the end of the year. Next week’s Carabao Cup quarter-final with Brentford is massive, offering an opportunity to claim a place in the last four of a competition that Newcastle can realistically hope to win. Either side of that game, the Magpies will tackle pre-Christmas league matches against Leicester and Ipswich. Win those, and they could head into the festive period on the coattails of the top six.
Even if results and performances were to improve though, the Magpies would still reach the turn of the year in need of major surgery. As Eddie Howe conceded earlier this month, there is a sense that things have begun to turn stale. And as Howe admitted in the press room at Brentford’s Gtech Community Stadium at the weekend, he can no longer be sure what team is going to turn up from one match to the next. Clearly, that is a worrying position to be in.
Mitchell has to take ownership of the situation because, as sporting director, he is the figure responsible for driving positive change. Having been in position for almost half-a-year now, he can no longer hide behind a lack of time in the post as an excuse for a lack of transformative impact. Yes, the players and coaching staff must take their own level of responsibility. But after talking a good game in September, it is time for Mitchell to start delivering.
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What can he do to change things? Well, a change of head coach is one option. Personally, I don’t think it’s a particularly wise one, but if social media is a reliable gauge of supporter sentiment – and often, it isn’t – then there is a growing groundswell of opinion suggesting that Howe’s popularity levels are badly on the wane.
Has the Newcastle boss outlived his usefulness? Are his tactics too predictable? Is he a barrier to the kind of hard-headed transfer decisions that are needed, rather than a facilitator of much-needed improvements? Has he lost the dressing room? I’d answer no to all those points – admittedly, more strongly to some than others – but Mitchell wouldn’t be doing his job if he wasn’t asking himself the same questions and pondering what a change of head coach might look like. If he wanted to lay down a powerful marker emphasising that underachievement will not be tolerated, dismissing Howe would certainly make people sit up and take notice.
It wouldn’t address the weaknesses within the current squad though, and I’d argue that’s a better place for Mitchell to be focusing his attention in January. When was the last time Newcastle had a genuinely transformative transfer window? We all know the financial constraints the Magpies are having to work within, but as the most senior executive at the club, Mitchell needs to start coming up with some solutions.
Selling, maybe. There are plenty of fringe players you could start with – Martin Dubravka, Matt Targett, Lloyd Kelly, Miguel Almiron, Callum Wilson, perhaps even Sean Longstaff, Jacob Murphy or Harvey Barnes – and as I’ve argued in previous columns, there could also be a real opportunity in selling either Bruno Guimaraes or Anthony Gordon in order to fund major investment.
Or how about finding a way to make that investment anyway? Mitchell has a reputation for being a recruitment specialist, so where are the cut-price bargains that the likes of Brighton and Brentford seem able to source at will, but that have proved elusive at Newcastle? Where are the loopholes within the PSR rules that other clubs have been able to exploit, but that Newcastle have stopped short of testing? Where is the willingness to be bold, adventurous and maybe a little risky, rather than meekly bemoaning that the deck is not currently stacked in the Magpies’ favour?
Mitchell is the one figure at Newcastle who could potentially address all of that. Ashworth, for all that he might be culpable for some of the summer’s failings, is yesterday’s man. It is time for Mitchell to start justifying the decision to install him as his successor.