Newcastle United's sporting director Ross Wilson has revealed the club spent the better part of a year preparing for Eddie Howe's eventual departure, insisting the transition to new manager Matthias Jaissle was far smoother behind the scenes than it appeared from the outside.
Howe left his position at St James' Park in July following a underwhelming campaign that saw Newcastle finish 12th in the Premier League table. The Englishman, who had spent five years in charge on Tyneside, opted to step away from the role feeling he needed a period of rest. He was subsequently succeeded by Jaissle, who arrives at the club having previously managed Red Bull Salzburg and Al-Ahli.
Wilson, who took up his role at Newcastle in October after arriving from Nottingham Forest, explained that although the exact timing of Howe's exit could not be predicted, the club had contingency plans in place well before the announcement was made public.
"Clearly the timing wasn't planned. But the reason we could move so quickly was because we'd been preparing for a number of months," Wilson said. He added that Howe's undeniable coaching quality made his eventual move elsewhere something the club always had to anticipate. "Eddie's an exceptionally talented coach and that meant he was probably going to do something else at some point. We had to be prepared for that."
The sporting director was keen to stress that the process of replacing Howe did not descend into disorder, describing the changeover as calm rather than fraught. "Eddie leaving didn't feel chaotic and it didn't feel painful. Eddie would be the first to tell you that," Wilson said. He explained that his own arrival at the club roughly ten or eleven months prior had coincided with the beginning of long-term succession planning. "I came here 10 or 11 months ago and I've been planning in the background for a managerial change over eight or nine of those months. That doesn't mean we were always going to go to Matthias, but he was always part of our planning."
The managerial change arrived amid a broader period of upheaval at St James' Park. Alongside Howe's exit, Newcastle lost several prominent figures from their squad over the summer, including Anthony Gordon, Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes. The departure of Guimaraes, who moved to Arsenal in a deal reported at £75million, appeared to sting the most for those working behind the scenes at the club.
"There's no point pretending otherwise: we did not want to lose Bruno Guimaraes," Wilson admitted. "That was really disappointing. But everything else that happened during the window was planned."
Despite the disappointment of losing Guimaraes, Wilson maintained that the rest of Newcastle's summer business had gone broadly as anticipated, even if not every individual transfer target materialised. "That doesn't mean every single player [who the club signed] was the number one name on our list. Clearly we were disappointed a couple of times but that's normal. No club reaches the end of a window getting every target they wanted," he said.
With Jaissle now installed as head coach and the summer's major departures now finalised, attention at Newcastle turns to how quickly the new management setup can help the club recover from last season's disappointing league finish and rebuild momentum after a summer of significant change.
Based on reporting from The Independent.