Latest news with #SportingDirector


Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Thelwell says recruitment at Rangers will be a collaborative effort... with new boss Martin given final say on transfers
Rangers sporting director Kevin Thelwell insists the club would never sign any player without the approval of new head coach Russell Martin. Martin was formally unveiled yesterday after agreeing a three-year deal to take charge. It's the start of a bold new era under American ownership, with investment of around £20million set to be made on and off the pitch over the summer. Fans are keen to see how the dynamic between sporting director and head coach plays out with regards to recruitment. With such a massive rebuild on the cards, Thelwell insisted, though, that any new signings will be made as part of a collaborative process. And he claimed it will be very much a team effort where both he and the scouting department will help identify possible targets, before Martin gives the final seal of approval. 'Put very simply, the way in which we will be organised is we've got a head coach and a sporting director,' said Thelwell, who will also be assisted by new technical director Dan Purdy in recruitment. 'The head coach is responsible for the most important bit; the preparation of the team, performance of the team, results. 'My role is to try and make sure all the support services that sit around Russell are as strong as they possibly can be to give us the best chance of winning. When we talk about recruitment, clearly, it is going to be a collaborative approach. 'I've never been in this role ever where I have signed a player for the first-team that hasn't been supported by the head coach or manager. We'll talk a lot about how we want to play, a lot about profiles we need and what positions we need. 'Between Russell, myself and the recruitment team, we will sit down and identify players that we think could make us better very quickly. Between us, we will decide about what we do next.' Having left his role at Everton at the end of last season, Thelwell started his duties at Rangers earlier this week as the club ramped up their search for a head coach. During his time in England with Wolves and at Goodison Park, he watched from afar as Martin carved out a reputation as a bright young coach whose teams played modern and possession-based football. Describing the 39-year-old as the outstanding candidate, Thelwell said: 'We've got exactly the right candidate that's a perfect fit for Rangers FC. From my perspective, I've seen Russell's team play for many years. Particularly, if I look back at his Championship season — and also the Premier League season with Southampton — there was a lot to be proud of. 'There's a lot that fits Rangers going forward. Russell's explained quite clearly about what he thinks Rangers need in games. 'We need to be dominating in all moments of the game. I'm delighted that we were able to have those conversations and pleased that he's now sat next to me getting ready to work. 'We wanted to make sure we made as strong a decision as we possibly could. But we also appreciate there's now a pre- season on the horizon and European games coming thick and fast. 'It was clear to all of us from the start that Russell was the outstanding candidate, so we're delighted he's joined us. He's had a strong career, over 250 games both as a manager or head coach. Over the course of that journey, he has sharpened his approach, from a technical and tactical perspective — but also from a personal perspective. 'I'm very excited to see what he's going to bring to Rangers and the team is very much looking forward to working with him.' Rangers chief executive Patrick Stewart added: 'Our criteria for our next coach were clear: we wanted a coach who will excel in terms of how we want to play, improve our culture, develop our squad, and ultimately win matches. Russell was the standout candidate. 'This appointment is about building a winning team and a strong culture. He is no stranger to our club. We expect success and Russell knows that. We are excited for his leadership.' Club chairman Andrew Cavenagh added: 'I am delighted to welcome Russell to Rangers. This was a thorough, rigorous process and Russell impressed throughout. 'His appointment embodies the club's goal of attracting top talent, empowering them, and supporting them. 'We believe that Russell can improve on-pitch performance while also helping build the culture and infrastructure necessary for consistent and long-term success.'


The Guardian
02-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Paul Mitchell's Newcastle exit leaves Eddie Howe in position of maximum strength
The table was all wrong. In retrospect it offered the first clue that lack of emotional intelligence would prove central to Paul Mitchell's undoing at Newcastle. It was early last September when reporters were invited to St James' Park to meet the club's then newish sporting director. As Mitchell strode into the windowless Sir Bobby Robson suite and took his seat at the head of a very long rectangular table he neglected to notice that journalists at the opposite end were isolated from the conversation. Sure enough, he was questioned so intensely by those clustered around him that others struggled to get a word in edgeways. While it took me more than an hour of a 90-minute briefing to seize a fleeting opportunity to ask a question, an adjacently seated colleague never managed to say a single word to Dan Ashworth's successor. Mitchell appeared oblivious. Supporters might think: 'So what?' But it appeared indicative of a wider carelessness that helps to explain why the sporting director will be leaving Newcastle by 'mutual consent' this month. The previous year Ashworth had conducted a similar exercise at the training ground. On walking into the media room the then soon-to-be Manchester United‑bound sporting director surveyed rows of formal seating, shook his head and began dragging chairs into a more inclusive circle. That way everyone felt equal and could easily participate. It was a common‑sense move that won hearts and minds. Emotional intelligence is an unquantifiable yet imperative component in football's high-stakes world of fragile egos and, sometimes, almost paranoid insecurity. Mitchell shortage of soft skills provoked a needless civil, and turf, war with Eddie Howe last autumn. If failing to recognise the need for circular seating represented a mistake, his repeated reiteration that Newcastle's ostensibly successful transfer policy was 'not fit for purpose' proved incendiary. Given the manager demands a final say on signings and his nephew, Andy Howe, is a key figure in the recruitment department, it seemed arrogant macho posturing. Sadly this humility bypass would obscure the considerable good Mitchell has done on Tyneside, most notably appointing the injury-prevention specialist James Bunce. It might have been different had Amanda Staveley and her husband, Mehrdad Ghodoussi, still been around as directors and minority owners to smooth the sporting director's rough edges. Staveley is all about deal-making facilitated by emollient human connectivity. During the two and a half years she and Ghodoussi ran Newcastle on behalf of the majority owner, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, a sense of harmony prevailed. Yet since the couple were forced out last summer – apparently for assorted reasons, including a confusing overlap with the role of the chief executive, Darren Eales – the club has seemed colder and more corporate. Stress levels have risen. It did not help that Ashworth – admired by Howe for his humility and 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' approach that, paradoxically, would preface his swift Old Trafford downfall – had been persuaded the Mancunian grass was greener. Or that Eales, who had been diagnosed with blood cancer, announced he would depart once a successor was identified. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion With that moment drawing close, the chief executive and Mitchell, old friends from their Tottenham days, leave at a juncture when Howe operates from a position of maximum strength. After winning the Carabao Cup and securing a second Champions League qualification in three years, his fiercely protected power base looks bombproof. The manager's undeniable, if occasionally high‑maintenance, brilliance camouflages considerable behind‑the‑scenes turmoil at a club where the boardroom churn is hardly conducive to stability. While the available funds of about £100m need to be spent urgently yet intelligently on restocking Howe's slender squad, Newcastle's second‑tier women's team have just released 12 players and confront a complicated crossroads. PIF could do worse than replace Mitchell internally. The former Sunderland and Hibernian manager Jack Ross holds an MA in economics, has written two children's books and is head of Newcastle's strategic technical football partnerships. The former executive with the Scottish players' union and the global FifPro is smart, nuanced and empathetic; he champions women's football and, unlike his bosses, is an excellent communicator. Counterproductively, communication between the media and the Saudis is nonexistent. Yasir al‑Rumayyan, Newcastle's chair, has never spoken to reporters, let alone explained the ownership strategy or why potential moves to a new stadium and/or training ground remain pending. That might seem irrelevant to fans. Yet if, as is widely believed, purchasing the club was really all part of a sportswashing exercise intended to clean up the kingdom's blood-stained image while bolstering its embryonic tourism industry, it is also distinctly odd. Perhaps there is an acceptance that Saudi Arabia's human rights record is so atrocious that awkward questions are best avoided, but maybe it's simply a lack of empathy. Whatever the reason, the disconnect jars. The lack of trust between Mitchell and Howe ultimately spelled divorce. When eventually I asked the former whether the manager's instinctive wariness of outsiders meant winning his confidence was hard work, the reply – 'You sound like you know him better than I do' – sounded only half-joking. After that calamitous briefing the manager blanked the sporting director for a fortnight before Eales negotiated a truce that endured to the point where the announcement last Tuesday of Mitchell's impending exit prompted mild surprise. After all this, maybe the Saudis regret allowing the emotional intelligence embodied by Ashworth, now a senior Football Association executive, and Staveley to slip through their fingers.


Forbes
28-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
FC Barcelona Meets Premier League Star's Agent,
FC Barcelona Sporting Director Deco met with the agent of a Premier League star on Wednesday morning as reported by SPORT, citing anonymous sources. Barca is currently linked to two players from the English top flight, who occupy a similar area of the pitch. Namely they are Liverpool's Luis Diaz and Manchester United's Marcus Rashford, with the latter of the pair costing far less. It is believed that Barca, still recovering from its financial crisis of the early 2020s, would have to part with at least $96 million (€85 million) to land Colombia international Diaz. On the other hand, Rashford could cost less than half that at $45 million (€40 million) with United willing to cash on a player that doesn't feature in head coach Ruben Amorim's primary plans and was sent out to Aston Villa on loan for the second half of the 2024/2025 season. Before that switch to Birmingham, Barca was heavily linked to a loan deal with Rashford itself which didn't come off thanks to Financial Fair Play issues. Fast forward a few months to the conclusion of the campaign, however, and Barca is now pursuing Rashford again as demonstrated by Sporting Director Deco meeting with his agent in a hotel in Barcelona city centre on Wednesday morning to sound out a potential transfer. According to SPORT, the meeting 'served to exchange and confirm the receptive position of both parties'. While Rashford is willing to wait for Barca to get its house in order, the Catalans' interest in him has to be 'solid' so that the England star isn't ditched at the altar should the La Liga champions head down different avenues in the transfer market. As was the case at the turn of the year, FC Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick supports the potential operation, and it now remains to be seen which manoeuvres Deco and President Joan Laporta can pull off to get something over the line.


Daily Mail
27-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Newcastle sporting director leaves the club after just one season as Premier League side release statement on abrupt exit
Newcastle sporting director Paul Mitchell is set to leave the club. The 43-year-old only joined the Magpies last summer and will leave without having made a major first-team signing. The club issued a statement to announce the news, which also confirmed that CEO Darren Eales would be leaving for health reasons. 'Paul Mitchell, Newcastle's sporting director, will leave the club by mutual consent at the end of June 2025,' the statement read. 'Paul joined the club in July 2024, reuniting him with Magpies CEO Darren Eales, who had previously recruited Paul to Tottenham Hotspur in 2014. 'Due to health reasons, Darren will be stepping down as CEO in the near future. 'During Paul's tenure as sporting director, the club won its first major domestic trophy in 70 years, lifting the Carabao Cup in March 2025, and has secured Champions league football for the 2025/26 season.'


BBC News
23-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Arsenal executive Ayto to leave club
Arsenal assistant sporting director Jason Ayto is leaving the club, BBC Sport well-respected executive has decided to exit the Emirates Stadium ahead of the summer worked under former sporting director Edu and was promoted into the position of interim sporting director after Edu left in Ayto will leave the club in due course. Andrea Berta was appointed as Edu's successor in to follow