Newcastle United’s new sporting director Paul Mitchell has a wide-ranging brief in his exciting new role at St James’ Park – and the boardroom chief now needs to make two big appointments behind the scenes.
Earlier this summer, before Mitchell’s arrival, under-18s boss Graeme Carrick left Newcastle to reunite with his brother, Michael, at Middlesbrough. Earlier this week, under-21 boss Ben Dawson followed him out the door to take up a first-team coaching position at Leicester City.
Dawson’s exit is a crucial blow given his experience at Newcastle. The coach joined the Magpies over a decade ago, initially as a professional development coach and has since held positions such under-21s lead coach and academy head of coaching.
Newcastle, who are also in a hurry to get senior transfer business done as soon as possible, must now focus serious attention on hiring two key coaches for academy and reserve roles.
The Daily Mail report Magpies hero Lee Clark, who last managed Al-Merrikh in Sudan, is keen on the job. Former Sunderland boss Jack Ross currently holds the role of head of coach development at Newcastle and could be a contender for the vacant under-21 role.
An outside hire or two is also likely given Newcastle’s desire to be ‘best in class’. Significant resources have been pumped into the club’s youth setup in recent years and that remains the plan after Mitchell’s arrival.
The sporting director has already been given a glimpse of the club’s academy talent after joining the recent trip to Adidas’ HQ in Germany. The likes of Leo Shahar, Johnny Emmerson, Jay Turner-Cooke, Jamie Miley, Cathal Heffernan, Garang Kuol, Ben Parkinson, Ellis Stanton, Alfie Harrison and Trevan Sanusi were all given a run out in a behind closed doors friendly win over SPVgg Unterhaching last weekend.
