Newcastle chief Paul Mitchell hits out at key Magpies department over summer transfer failings

Newcastle sporting director Paul Mitchell has hit out a key club department over the club’s summer transfer failings.

The Magpies signed Odysseas Vlachodimos from Nottingham Forest and William Oscula from Sheffield United while Lewis Hall’s loan move from Chelsea became permanent and Lloyd Kelly joined on a free from Bournemouth.

But they failed to get a deal for top centre-back target Marc Guehi over the line despite multiple bids for the England international, which has led to criticism from the fans and the media.

Mitchell, who only arrived at St James’ Park in early July, claims they need to improve their stragey in future, insisting they can’t spend willy nilly and need to improve their scouting to source suitable players.

“There are things we got wrong in our strategy for sure,” Mitchell said. “Me coming in when I did probably wasn’t the best timing for the organisation but what it has done is allow me to witness a process.

“As custodians of this club, we can’t just keep spending, spending, spending because at some point that won’t enable the club to facilitate its goals.

“I don’t think any Newcastle fan wants to see this club in a place where other clubs were last season with docked points (or) financial penalties because that can really affect our growth.

“Should our scouting and recruitment be driven more extensively with a wider reaching net? It definitely should be because this is becoming a really nuanced space now. You can’t just capital fund everything every year and buy loads of players at peak age and peak price.

“Was, let’s say, the scouting network, the lengths and breadths of our process and our strategies, including the influence of Eddie Howe, bigger and broader enough? Probably not. And that’s the bit we analyse to be better. That’s the bit we have to adjust and modernise.”

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Mitchell met Magpies chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan prior to Sunday’s win over Tottenham that sustained their best Premier League start for 13 years, and says the Saudi chief is fully on board with the need to adopt a more patient policy towards achieving their long-term goals.

He (Al-Rumayyan) is as ambitious and enthused as ever,” added Mitchell. “He is super-ambitious and wants us to perform at the number one level – not only through the money we spend – he wants us to be the best in class across everything we do.

“I think he can see that the club is growing, but he’s smart enough to know that it’s moved very quickly over a very short period of time. He knows a higher over-arching framework and strategy is crucial to get where we want to get to. This is a longer term investment than being number one tomorrow.”