After Saturday’s 4-0 defeat to Celtic, Eddie Howe took a number of questions from the media.
The boss was typically asked for an update on transfers, discussed Alexander Isak’s absence and Sean Longstaff’s exit to join newly promoted Leeds.
But another topic that came up was Paul Mitchell’s decision to leave the club less than 12 months into the job as sporting director.
Mitchell announced his plans to leave at the end of May and he officially departed at the end of June, which clearly unsettled Eddie Howe in more ways than one.
Speaking to the media, Howe admitted it was a “big surprise” and “big disappointment” to see Mitchell go, not only creating huge upheaval behind the scenes but seeing us lose that “stability” we’d just found after bouncing back from Dan Ashworth’s departure the year prior.
“My phone exploded!” Howe said. “I was just enjoying my second day of my holiday and that quickly went sour.”
“It was the second day, I didn’t know, it was a complete surprise to me and a big disappointment because we had stability, we were planning (for) the summer ahead and then you know, that’s a big upheaval internally that we’ve been through before with Dan Ashworth leaving.
“So I’ve experienced this before and I know sort of the cost that that departure comes with. So it wasn’t a good first couple of days on holiday for me.”
Clearly, this not only impacted the very start of Howe’s summer break with family, but also added to his workload when he was back on Tyneside.
The current structure, while we wait to appoint a new sporting director, features head of recruitment Steve Nickson along with his assistant Andy Howe; the nephew of Eddie.
We don’t know who is at fault, but we’ve struggled to close deals all summer and head into the final half of the summer window needing a striker, centre-back, goalkeeper and midfielder.
It’s been a mess, which needs sorting in the short term and fixing in the long term to bring some stability back to a club with enormous potential both on and off the pitch.