Restructuring is underway at Newcastle, whose new owners appointed Eddie Howe as the manager on Monday. They will next look to appoint a Director of Football, with former Chelsea man Michael Emenalo the leading candidate.
Newcastle United have turned to former Chelsea man Michael Emenalo in their search for a new Director of Football, reports the Telegraph. The Magpies are undergoing a restructuring under the new ownership, which made its first big move recently in appointing former Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe as the new manager.
The Athletic reports that a new Sporting Director is high on the agenda for the new regime. The club was keen to bring in Ajax’s Marc Overmars, credited with the team’s success both domestically and continentally in recent years, but the Dutchman chose to stay in Amsterdam, rejecting Newcastle.
The Magpies will now look to bring in Emenalo without a club since leaving AS Monaco in 2019. Emenalo was tied to the Blues for a decade, a major part of which he spent in the Technical Director position.
In his ten years at Chelsea, Emenalo played multiple roles. The ex-Nigeria international joined the club in 2007 as part of the backroom staff for Avram Grant, before later being promoted to Chief Scout to the Assistant Coach, and finally in 2011, Technical Director.
Emenalo oversaw the club’s modernization in the early 2010s and is credited with restructuring the club’s scouting, academy, loan, and women’s setups.
He was also crucial to Chelsea during the team’s evolution. As the old guard gave way, the club successfully scouted and brought in a new generation of talented individuals, including the likes of Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne, Thibaut Courtois, and Mohamed Salah, with Emenalo presiding over the process. He left Chelsea in 2017 to take up a similar role at AS Monaco, which he occupied until 2019.
While off-pitch restructuring continues, so do the team’s struggles to get results on it. Newcastle are winless in the league this season and lie 19th after 11 games played. They are level on points with bottom-of-the-table Norwich City, albeit only on goal difference.
