Newcastle strike agreement which could give them advantage over Man Utd after £193.7m defeats
Newcastle have chosen their new sporting director – and it might give them an advantage in their upcoming transfer battle with Manchester United.
It has been widely reported that Nottingham Forest Chief Football Officer Ross Wilson has agreed to become the sporting director at Newcastle after the Magpies endured a chastening summer with a power vacuum of sorts in that area.
Eddie Howe took on a greater responsibility than usual in terms of recruitment over a summer in which Newcastle were rejected by numerous targets.
They lost out remarkably frequently to Manchester United in particular despite winning a trophy and having Champions League football to offer against the worst version of the Red Devils in a couple of generations: Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko were all on the Newcastle radar at one point.
Another player is now wanted by both Manchester United and Newcastle, which might actually have contributed to the decision to appoint Wilson. Here are some of the 41-year-old’s best signings across more than a decade of working in football operations.
Virgil van Dijk
With Toby Alderweireld returning to parent club Atletico Madrid from a fruitful loan on the south coast, a spot in the centre of Southampton’s defence opened up ahead of the 2015/16 season.
Wilson, the newly-appointed Director of Scouting and Recruitment who would soon become Director of Football Operations, was charged with drawing up a shortlist along with scout Bill Green and vice-chairman Les Reed.
Speaking to Sam Wallace of the Daily Telegraph in 2019, Wilson recalled how Van Dijk “fitted like a glove”, “hardly needed any settling-in period” and was in part persuaded to join because “we had some Dutch players already and Ronald [Koeman] was coach”.
In a 2023 talk with 90Min he called the £11.5m signing from Celtic “a genuine no-brainer for us” and explained how he “was probably a bit surprised there wasn’t more interest if anything”.
Wilson was still at Southampton when Liverpool made Van Dijk the most expensive defender in world football at the cost of £75m in January 2018.
Ianis Hagi
In response to one shareholder’s bruising rebuke of Rangers’ recruitment at an AGM in December 2022, former club managing director Stewart Robertson insisted “Ross Wilson doesn’t sign football players here”.
Wilson himself, who served for four years at Ibrox as sporting director, offered a more diplomatic “we definitely feel some of those players have made a fantastic return for us and others haven’t made a strong enough return yet” as pressure rose on his position.
But for many, the nature of his role meant that those shortcomings were laid squarely at his door – and so too the few success stories.
The first incoming under Wilson’s stewardship went well enough at least. “This deal has been structured in such a way that it works for us now and gives us options for the future,” he said when unveiling loanee Ianis Hagi in January 2020.
Perhaps he cannot be blamed for not envisaging those “options for the future” to include a global pandemic which impacted transfer negotiations somewhat, among a handful of other things.
The full and frank details have never been divulged but The Athletic reported that Wilson managed to talk Genk sporting director Dimitri de Conde down from the initial £4.5m buy option to just £3.3m, with £1m up front and a sell-on clause included.
Hagi scored 20 goals and assisted 28 in 130 appearances for Rangers, winning the Scottish Premiership before leaving for nothing.
Calvin Bassey
Eddie Howe is thought to have been incredibly influential in the pursuit of Wilson, with whom he will expect to work far more collaboratively than he did former incumbent Paul Mitchell.
The Newcastle manager might even have dropped a line to Steven Gerrard to discuss how well Wilson operates in such a structure.
In a Q&A session on social media a few years ago, Wilson explained how he and Gerrard “speak every day on all aspects of the football club and players and scouting are clearly one of those aspects”.
He continued, using the signing of Bassey from Leicester for £230,000 as an example, that “once we decide to go for a player like Calvin, Steven is integral to deciding and making it happen”.
When Bassey joined, Wilson credited the scouting staff with bringing the defender to the attention of himself and Gerrard, who had been “tracking his situation extensively since then”.
After winning two trophies in as many seasons, Ajax-bound Bassey became the most expensive sale in Rangers history at around £22m.
Elliot Anderson
Wilson will soon be answering to a problematic dictatorial regime – PIF rather than Jason Tindall – but should at least be well versed in the art of diplomacy after serving for two and a half years as Chief Football Officer under Evangelos Marinakis at Nottingham Forest.
His best signing at the City Ground is down to personal preference. For some it would be the unearthing of Murillo, while others might favour the repurposing of Anthony Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi from the Big Six scrapheap.
But the most pertinent option might be Anderson, whose sale still rankles at St James’ Park.
Howe was “very respectful of the fact he is at another football club” and “would never normally talk about a player in that way, so I won’t change that stance”. But he did also say earlier this month that he would “love” to re-sign the midfielder, whose departure remains “very regretful” and “a real shame”.
Forest exploited Newcastle’s weak negotiation position in the summer of1 2024 and Wilson was at the forefront of that charge. A report by the Daily Mail’s Craig Hope that year said that Forest convinced Anderson to join by ‘using the examples of Morgan Gibbs-White, Murillo, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Anthony Elanga and Danilo…to show Anderson they trust young players and are willing to make them key members of the starting XI’.
It was added that Wilson’s arrival marked a shift as Forest ‘improved their database of all players eligible to represent England at junior levels’, with Anderson flagged as an ideal target as a result.
If bringing Wilson in gives Newcastle the edge over Manchester United in terms of signing Anderson in January, it would be wholly worth it.
