.png)
2 months ago
20 ARTICLE AD
I look at what is happening at the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United and Newcastle United.
Then I look at what is reported…
I find it totally bizarre.
It almost feels like different rules apply to different clubs.
Surely not???
The negativity from the media when it comes to Newcastle United, feels on a whole other level.
Whilst at Manchester United and Chelsea it feels like so much happens, that if it was going on at St James’ Park, would be covered very differently.
The desperation to make out that there is a ‘civil war’ at Newcastle United, is beyond belief.
The media absolutely hell bent on turning this into a one of them must go.
Will it be Newcastle United Sporting Director Paul Mitchell, or Newcastle United Head Coach Eddie Howe?
It is relentless.
As seen at Eddie Howe’s press conference on Friday for Wolves.
Many of the media only interested in challenging Eddie Howe on what Paul Mitchell is saying and doing.
During the transfer window, at every press conference Eddie Howe asked if close to signing anybody, what is happening with transfers etc etc.
Every press conference Eddie Howe replying that nobody close to signing so far as he knows, that he isn’t involved day to day in what is happening with transfers, that he isn’t constantly updated.
Then in his informal interview with the journalists, Newcastle United Sporting Director Paul Mitchell says that he was often in regular/daily contact with Eddie Howe during the transfer window.
The journalists trying to make this into a big story. When of course the transparent reality is that Eddie Howe just uses that as an obvious and easy tactic to answer their ridiculous questions during a transfer window. If Eddie Howe replies that yes he is in constant contact with the Sporting Director about potential transfers, then we all know that then just leads to more and more questions about who they have been discussing, what stage these talked about signings are at and so on. Yet again, as fans we can see quite clearly that Eddie Howe has ZERO to gain from discussing likely transfers with journalists, it can only possibly hinder any hoped for signings, giving information out before anything is sorted. As we all know as well, the journalists are absolutely clueless on pretty much every signing until they find out the same time as the fans, look at that classic Harvey Barnes one, Eddie Howe at a press conference in America telling all the journalists that no new signings imminent, when Barnes had already signed and at that minute was actually flying to join the squad on their American tour!
The journalists on Friday trying to make a big deal of it when asking Eddie Howe whether he has spoken to Paul Mitchell since the NUFC Sporting Director gave that interview to the same journalists, then Howe saying no they hadn’t spoken. Big deal! Even if they have spoken to each other, what has Eddie Howe got to gain by telling the journos??? They will then just go on and on asking what was said. If they haven’t spoken, again, so what? Eddie Howe has his job to get on with and Paul Mitchell his, the next transfer window four months away and not like anything urgent to be sorted.
I think the truth is far more boring than any of this nonsense is trying to suggest.
Paul Mitchell only in the job a couple of months and a question of time to build the best possible working relationships. As most of us can appreciate in our own working lives.
If the big proof of failure this summer is that Newcastle United didn’t then go up to £75m for Marc Guehi, well, I don’t see that as any kind of failure at all.
We all of course know the constraints Newcastle United face when it comes to freedom (or not!) to spend money, with PSR and so on. So all parties at Newcastle United getting pressurised into such a massive outlay on a defender who hasn’t in reality achieved that much so far in his career, a signing that would have been a new club record signing AND the biggest purchase by any PL club this summer, just so they could PROVE that the Newcastle United Head Coach and Sporting Director could be seen to be working hand in hand, would have been quite ridiculous.
So long as Eddie Howe has the final say on making any major first team signing then it is all fine by me.
If Paul Mitchell wants to do things his own way, in terms of identifying the players he thinks would make the best signings, then Eddie Howe has the final say on yes or no.
Then that is a compromise that I am sure they both will be able to live with, give and take, just like most workplace relationships.
The media wanting to make it a case of winners and losers is just feeble.
Also interesting that the one signing of substance that was made after Paul Mitchell arrived, is clearly an Eddie Howe choice.
The £15m deal for Will Osula saw Eddie Howe confirm afterwards that he is a young player who has been tracked, that the new 21 year old was first spotted by Jason Tindall when he was working as a coach at Sheffield United years ago, when the now raw young striker was a very young raw striker back then.
Which then brings me to Chelsea…
The recruitment process at Chelsea is a total joke.
Not just the fact that over £1.5billion has been spent in just over two years since these owners took over.
It is the fact that none of their managers have had any say on the signings.
Champions League winning Thomas Tuchel was totally sidelined in this respect after the Chelsea owners took over ahead of the summer 2022 window.
Then the same with Graham Potter despite them spending a fortune to take him and his staff from Brighton, only to then sack him within months.
After the short-term farce of replacing him with the hopeless Frank Lampard, you then had another high profile appointment in Mauricio Pochettino, only to totally ignore and sideline him when it came to who to sign, as the owners continue this clueless madcap plan, where they think they are so clever they can reinvent the wheel.
So in two brief years, these Chelsea owners have gone through quality managers Tuchel, Potter and Pochettino (and the not so quality Lampard), before then only able to attract a new head coach in Maresca who had never even managed any top flight club. Very obviously a puppet who will have zero say on who is signed and sold.
Yet it is Newcastle United who are a joke when it comes to the running of the club and the recruitment???
Which also brings me to Manchester United…
I have seen plenty of comments, including from Newcastle United fans, saying this summer has ‘proved’ that at least Dan Ashworth has shown what it takes to get signings over the line.
Well, I don’t think it took a brilliant negotiator to convince Lille to take £60m for an 18 year old defender (Leny Yoro) who has played a relative handful of games.
The same when (pre-Ashworth) Man U gave Atalanta over £70m for a 20 year old striker in Hojlund, who had scored the grand total of nine goals in 32 Serie A appearances for them.
As for the £86m Erik ten Hag got Man U to pay his old club (Ajax) for a 22 year old Antony, a player who he knew so well having trained and managed him, well, that was just on a whole other level in terms of absolute fortunes wasted.
To try and portray Manchester United as now a club suddenly transformed for the better is quite some leap.
They have recruited numerous new executive staff including Dan Ashworth, however, it still looks very much business as usual. Especially when it comes to signings.
Man U have become such a mess that when they very publicly went to find a new manager this summer, they were knocked back by Thomas Tuchel and any other credible target.
They then had the humiliation of having to go back and beg Erik ten Hag to sign a new extended and enhanced contract AND quite clearly hand him even more control of who the club would sign.
This summer saw massive money spent on Noussair Mazraoui and Matthijs de Ligt, yet more players that Erik ten Hag managed at Ajax.
They join other Ajax players that Erik ten Hag pushed Man U into signing, yes, the superb £86m Antony, along with Lisandro Martinez and Andre Onana.
Yet we are supposed to think this is an all new Manchester United, with Dan Ashworth and other new executives making all the big decisions on transfers, not the manager who led Man U to their lowest ever Premier League position last season.
Sofyan Amrabat was another former Erik ten Hag player, he came on loan to Man U previously and Erik Ten Hag managed him at Utrecht back in the day.
Eddie Howe using his past influence and relationship to persuade Kieran Trippier (who he’d signed for and managed at Burnley) to join Newcastle back in January 2022 was a massive positive. The same when able to sign £30m+ rated Lloyd Kelly for nothing this summer, having bought him as a raw promising 20 year old Championship defender five years ago for Bournemouth in a £13m deal.
The truth is that Manchester United are under massive pressure to try and bounce back, having to desperately spend fortunes this summer in a desperate attempt to stop their share price collapsing further and try to show this unholy alliance of the Glazers and the tax avoider can be a success.
Manchester United with a huge pre tax loss of over £130m in the 2023/24 accounts released this past week, making it total pre-tax losses of over £312m these past three seasons. As previously reported, Man U have only stayed within PSR three year loss limits of £105m due to a couple of very open to question ‘special allowances’…
Whilst Newcastle United are getting so much ridiculous over the top criticism for not spending £75m on Marc Guehi, instead waiting for the right player(s) at the right price, which may indeed still include Guehi…. we are seeing both Chelsea and Manchester United getting quite bizarre soft treatment from so much of the media, when it should be quite the opposite.
Manchester United have given Erik ten Hag the company gold card and let him spend further fortunes on for me, very dubious deals, whilst Chelsea are beyond belief.
Man U are storing more and more problems up, I read this past week when their accounts went public, that they now owe well over £300m still on players they have signed, with I’m sure it said £156m of that £300m+ is due to be paid in a single season, can’t remember if that is this financial year/season or next.
Either way, Manchester United are now really up against it financially, especially with so many poor expensive signings, as well as so many very expensive short-term gambles such as Casemiro. Whilst how long are those who own Chelsea going to throw good money after bad? They will never recoup all that they have spent so far and whilst they are another that have been allowed to dance around PSR so far with accountancy moves, the fact remains that it is a club burning through money.
As I say, beyond belief that of the three clubs, it is Newcastle United that the media are going after as having supposedly huge issues in the running of the club these days, rather than the huge mess you find at both Chelsea and Manchester United.

 
