Eddie Howe has been praised for his work on scouting.Eddie Howe has been praised for his work on scouting.
Eddie Howe has been praised for his work on scouting. | Getty Images
Paul Mitchell’s departure from St James’ Park will reshape how the club completes transfer business - but they are in good hands according to someone who worked very closely with Eddie Howe.
Newcastle United will head into the summer window with hope that they can transform Howe’s squad and get it to a level that can compete simultaneously in the Champions League and Premier League. A very quiet 18 months, brought on by the constraints of the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules, mean that Howe’s squad has barely had a refresh in two seasons.
That could all change this summer - although Mitchell’s departure as sporting director has just added a slight hurdle that needs to be jumped before they can crack on with their transfer dealings. When Mitchell leaves at the end of June, it is likely that Howe will be given more influence on transfers.
Whilst this goes against the approach of many football clubs who prefer to operate with a sporting director or director of football above a head coach or manager, it is something that has brought great success to Newcastle United in recent seasons. Particularly the club’s first two transfer windows after the takeover where they bought Kieran Trippier, Chris Wood, Dan Burn, Bruno Guimaraes and Matt Targett in to steer clear of relegation danger before adding Alexander Isak, Sven Botman and Nick Pope to their ranks in the summer as they secured Champions League qualification.
Those windows were orchestrated by a group involving Howe, Steve Nickson, Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi and were among some of the very best transfer windows this club has ever produced. They will hope for very similar success this summer and, according to Thomas Spring who worked alongside Howe whilst at Bournemouth, Newcastle should have no fear about his approach to transfers, describing the preparation Howe does on every player as ‘truly remarkable’.
Bournemouth man blown away by Eddie Howe
Speaking on the Overlap Breakdown, Spring, who currently works as Head of Scouting at Saudi Pro League side Al-Ettifaq, spoke about his time at the Vitality Stadium and what impressed him about Howe’s hugely detailed approach to player recruitment: “I would say the process that we had was extremely detailed and a lot of skilled people were involved in the player decision process.
“From Richard Hughes, to Des Taylor, Andy Howe, Eddie Howe. He [Eddie Howe] probably did more work than a scout on a player. He was truly remarkable in the work he did on players.
He continued: “He would go to games live to scout a player. I think most managers are like that because they are the ones investing time into that player.
“They’re going to be with them on the training pitch everyday, they’re the ones that are going to be investing their time, effort and skillset into that player so they go to these games, watch these players and assess them thoroughly to ensure that they can work with them and they can be a success.”
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