The Sunday Sun is reporting this morning that Newcastle United will look for a new football administrator.
Mike Ashley – looking for Senior Administrator at Newcastle
It’s someone with a lot of experience in running a football club, to help more effectively run Newcastle.
Administrator is a strange title, because generally the Chairman is someone who has that experience, but of course currently we have Managing Director Derek Llambias playing that role, and he has no experience at all in how to run a football club.
It seems the new position would be in the day to day running of the club, and would certainly not be a Director of Football type, and the position wouldn’t have any say on the playing side of things, where Mike Ashley seems to be giving Chris Hughton full control.
Having seen Chris handle the players and the team so well in his first season in management, it’s hardly surprising that Ashley has gained some considerable confidence in Chris – certainly that’s true with the fans – who seem to be looking forward to next season with a quiet confidence that we can hold our own with the big boys.
One duty the administrator would have would be to help in the transfer market, and presumably deal with the financial side of the transfer and with the wages of players.
That’s something managers shouldn’t have to deal with and have little experience in, and the administrator seem like a Director level position at the Newcastle Club.
We think this would be a good move, because Ashley has brought in Chris Mort and Derek Llambias to essentially act as Chairman of the Newcastle club, yet neither have had one iota of experience in football.
Apparently David Pleat performed a similar administrator type role at Nottingham Forest when Colin Calderwood was manager there, and it could be this recommendation is coming from Chris and Colin.
But the best thing to do would probably be to look for an experienced Chairman for the Newcastle club, and bring him in to run the club.
Someone with both experience, ability and a good football man is what we need – and then Derek Llambias can depart the club and go into a business he’s more suited for.
What do you think?
Comments welcome.
10 comments so far
hitman
May 9, 2010 at 10:47 AM
Comment #1good move by ashley if true,we need a proper football man running the show,not a casino manager
estechco
May 9, 2010 at 10:47 AM
Comment #2Don’t think the club ever replaced Russell Cushing , so assuming this would be an equivalent role don’t have a problem. Mind you this is Sunday so probably just paper talk
shear-class
May 9, 2010 at 12:17 PM
Comment #3Yes somebody like david dein would be ideal
bojous
May 9, 2010 at 12:45 PM
Comment #4I think it would be a good idea just so long as he doesn’t interfere with the footballing side of things, leave that to the manager.
Geordie_Pants
May 9, 2010 at 12:59 PM
Comment #5A return to Chairmen for Chris Mort would be my ideal scenario. Derek does not seem to have made much of an effort in attempting to connect with the fans. Furthermore under Chris’s tenure, the situation surrounding NUFC seemed a lot more stable.
sirjasontoon
May 9, 2010 at 1:09 PM
Comment #6I though Mort was aloof TBH.
Prefer someone with footballing expertise.
Senior Homes
May 9, 2010 at 1:13 PM
Comment #7Do not ever assume that the club had replaced Russell Cushing. So thinking that we are having a problem here, we’re not. Mind you, probably this can be just a trash talk.
Mags
May 9, 2010 at 1:37 PM
Comment #8Geordie_Pants I think you seem to conveniently overlook he was part of the scenario that lied to the fans re the Keegan affair. We need to move on.
Good point Estecho – we have not replaced Russell Cushing and we all know the failures of Llambias.
I think as long as the roles are clearly defined and the manager / Director of Football are happy to work together, then this is a good idea. We need a footballing man at senior level.
Solaidback
May 9, 2010 at 2:50 PM
Comment #9Are you sure with it being an Administrator that Ashley is looking for, that he hasn’t had enough & has put the club into administration :0 only kidding….. lol
We need someone who know footy but doesn’t want to run a team, someone who’s maybe been at the FA, know anyone???
chuck
May 9, 2010 at 3:54 PM
Comment #10Certainly not before time !