Chris Waugh has dropped an interesting claim on Pod on the Tyne about Newcastle United’s search for a CEO.
Newcastle’s new owners have taken their time on a lot of big decisions such as the appointment of Eddie Howe, securing the services of Dan Ashworth and managing to land top targets such as Sven Botman.
Now, it appears that the next step could be looking to improve the club off the pitch by landing a top CEO to help lead the business side of things – something that new director Majed Al Sorour may also be able to help with.
Waugh believes that the appointment of a CEO may well be imminent at Newcastle.
He said: “My understanding was they got down to a shortlist of three and they even I think were closer, hopefully thinking they were going to appoint someone.
Do Newcastle need a bigger stadium?
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“I’m not exactly sure what’s happened in the meantime, I’ve tried to ask the question to find out specifically what’s going on there, but the fact the club is operating in a decent sort of way, the fact that Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi, the co-owners, have been sort of operating as, I think they describe themselves as interim chief execs – that has been working alright.
“But really, it is a position that Newcastle need to get sorted and need that long-term solution for, so I’m hoping that they are going to make progress in the course of the next few weeks, and that will be announced.
“It’s been a bit of a strange one, because even people in and around the club who thought it was going to be sorted by now – even they’ve sort of expressed a little bit of surprise and are unsure exactly what has gone on there.”
TIF Thoughts on Newcastle’s hierarchy…
As Waugh alluded to, it is very important that Newcastle and PIF get all bases covered and sorted before the season begins in August, as this will surely give them the best chance of success on the pitch.
Being able to have a new director, sporting director and CEO in place before the season kicks off would allow the Magpies to work together behind the scenes to help Eddie Howe achieve the best results possible.