Newcastle United are in a state of flux.
In the future it will be interesting to look back and judge the events of summer 2026.
A summer where Newcastle United successfully transformed…
…or a few months in time that caused serious damage?
It has been a rollercoaster ride for Newcastle United fans since the October 2021 takeover, maybe we had better strap ourselves in even more securely for what lies ahead.
Is this significant power shift a positive for Newcastle United moving forward?
More than £150m has been committed on new signings and still four weeks to go in this summer 2026 transfer window:
£24m Ewen Jaouen signed 10 June 2026
£43m Bazoumana Toure signed 5 July 2026
£23m Sean Steur signed 9 July 2026
£35m Aladji Bamba signed 24 July 2026
£26m Lukas Hornicek signed 3 August 2026
On Friday 31 July we saw Eddie Howe officially resign.
However, it quickly became clear that Eddie Howe had informed the club he was going to leave some weeks earlier, but then willing to hold the fort for some weeks whilst a replacement was sorted.
The players returned on Monday 13 July 2026 for pre-season training and it is reported that around that point, if not earlier, Howe informed the club he was going to leave.
It is widely reported that once Eddie Howe made that decision and couldn’t be persuaded to change his mind, the likes of Kieran McKenna and Antonio Conte were considered, as well as Matthias Jaissle.
Jaissle the one selected and he is with the Newcastle United squad now in La Manga.
So who is it?
Who has been the key figure in making the decisions on £150m+ of Newcastle United signings this summer, so far?
Safe to say that this person hasn’t been Matthias Jaissle.
Sometime in the middle of these five signings coming in, Eddie Howe told the club he was leaving.
So who has been the key figure when it comes to the NUFC summer recruitment?
On 11 October 2025 we found out that Ross Wilson had been appointed as the new Sporting Director at Newcastle United, less than ten months on and he is arguably the key and most powerful member of staff when it comes to recruitment. Maybe even an argument that he is now even more important than CEO David Hopkinson.
It isn’t a case of me believing that any signings have been imposed on Eddie Howe against his wishes, even the ones brought in this summer before he decided to resign. I think more a case of a seismic shift to becoming a club that has the Sporting Director as the major seat of power.
Many other clubs have a Sporting Director, or a slightly different title, who is the ongoing presence. No matter which players or managers come and go, the Sporting Director remains to oversee changes AND hopefully progress.
Back in October/November 2021 it wasn’t clear who made the final decision on appointing Eddie Howe. The Newcastle United owners using outside recruitment experts to help identify candidates but then who had the final say is an unknown.
This time with Matthias Jaissle, my belief is that has been the decision of Ross Wilson for sure. There are a lot of grey areas when it comes to exactly how much authority the Newcastle United owners give their senior staff, but in this case of identifying Eddie Howe’s replacement, I think clearly Ross Wilson making the decision.
After all, the NUFC owners have already granted the Sporting Director their backing to oversee a huge overhaul when it comes to player recruitment.
Summer 2025 was a huge mess, the Newcastle United owners carrying most blame, as they left the club without any Sporting Director or CEO working across what was arguably the most important period of time since they arrived.
Eddie Howe left alone to deal with the Alexander Isak situation, whilst with no Sporting Director (or CEO) working at the club, very unclear who exactly was supposed to get Eddie Howe’s key transfer targets successfully signed. The fact that minority owner Jamie Reuben became personally involved in trying to get deals concluded simply points to the ongoing chaos that engulfed Newcastle United last summer.
With say Ross Wilson already in position last summer, how would things have turned out? With Ross Wilson and Eddie Howe working together in a kind of 50/50 partnership, I think summer 2025 would have turned out very different. There is no way that the Isak mess would have been allowed to carry on right to the end of the window, I think Wilson would have helped ensure more (but not all) of Eddie Howe’s key targets were successfully brought in, an earlier sale of Isak helping that process.
Now that Eddie Howe has gone and we have a brave new era, I think the power shift sees the Newcastle United Sporting Director in more of a 75/25 partnership with Matthias Jaissle. I still don’t think new signings will be imposed on the manager (head coach) and he will be consulted and be part of the process. However, I do think that for the foreseeable it will be the NUFC Sporting Director laying down the overall recruitment policy/plan.
Credit: Newcastle United FC
Ross Wilson (Pictured above with latest signing Lukas Hornicek) was appointed as the Nottingham Forest Sporting Director on 12 April 2023 and during his time working at the club, Forest appointed only one new manager. Nuno Espirito Santo appointed on 20 December 2023 after Steve Cooper was replaced. A few transfer windows later and Nottingham Forest under Nuno (and Ross Wilson…) just missed out on Champions League qualification on the final day of the 2024/25 season, 25 May 2025.
On 10 June 2025 a media exclusive revealed that Ross Wilson had approached the recruitment consultants the Newcastle United owners had engaged to help find the new Sporting Director to replace the outgoing Paul Mitchell.
By the time the 2025/26 Premier League season kicked off in August 2025, Ross Wilson was clearly set to become Sporting Director at Newcastle United and a case of getting the summer 2025 transfer window ended and compensation agreed.
So when Nuno was sacked on 9 September 2025 and Ange Postecoglou announced the same day, safe to say this wasn’t the work of the outgoing Ross Wilson.
With Ross Wilson no longer in charge, Ange Postecoglou proved to be the first of four new managers at Nottingham Forest in the space of less than a year. A season of turmoil, chaos and near disaster at the City Ground.
When it comes to the football side of the Newcastle United business, Eddie Howe has undoubtedly been the key figure these past five season.
Now I think that key power has transferred to Sporting Director Ross Wilson and not new Manager Matthias Jaissle.
The Newcastle United owners going with a new model that will look to give continuity regardless of any changes in manager. Unless of course it ever gets to the point where it is the Sporting Director who is seen as the problem and needs to go…
With what I have laid out above, it then maybe makes it even more understandable why Matthias Jaissle has been the choice as new manager, new head coach. The clubs that Red Bull control, such as Salzburg, quite clearly operate with this kind of model, where the manager/head coach has a more narrowly defined range of power and the Sporting Director and/or other senior staff set the main agenda. I imagine the likes of Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia operate along very similar lines as well.
A new era at St James’ Park, a major power shift, here’s hoping foundations now in place for a successful Newcastle United of the future.