STEVE’S STILL ON BRINK AS OWNERS VISIT
STEVE BRUCE survived his first training session under Saudi-ownership – after Amanda Staveley visited the playing squad.
The veteran boss led his players in an afternoon training session after a chat with Staveley whose PCP Capital Partners firm have taken charge of the day-to-day operations at St James’ Park.
Newcastle’s players all met the new stakeholders.
It remains unclear whether Bruce will boss his 1000th game as a manager against Spurs on Sunday. That will see a sell-out stadium for the unveiling of the new ownership and there will be a senior Saudi Arabian presence for the first time since the deal was done.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan is hoping to attend the game. He is governor of the state funded Public Investment Fund which bought an 80 per cent stake in the £305million deal and is now non-executive chairman.
The speed of the takeover has taken the club’s football operations by surprise. They had a firm plan on who would take over as boss 18 months ago but candidates Rafa Benitez and Mauricio Pochetino are now in jobs.
Bruce will not be in charge for long and some fans were left asking why he wasn’t immediately cleared out on Monday.
Frank McParland, formerly of Rangers, Burnley and Brentford, is the PCP’s football adviser, and helping with the managerial search.
Ex-Dortmund boss Lucien Favre, Brendan Rodgers, Frank Lampard and Rangers manager Steven Gerrard are under consideration.
Ideally the new regime would appoint a proven boss with the nous to build a club up from top to bottom from the off. But they also need a powerful well-connected sporting director with ex-PSG chief Antero Henrique and former Shalke and Leipzig boss Ralf Rangnick being interviewed.
Early transfer targets include James Tarkowski and Juve bench-warmer Aaron Ramsey.