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Newcastle United Director of Football – Michael Emenalo meets new owners to discuss role

2 years ago
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A very interesting new media ‘exclusive’ concerning Newcastle United and Michael Emenalo.

The very successful and highly regarded former Chelsea Director of Football, now reported to be the favourite for a similar role at St James Park.

It is The Telegraph who have carried the exclusive, with Matt Law revealing that Michael Emenalo is who Newcastle United want to appoint to follow up the imminent announcement of Eddie Howe as manager at St James Park.

Michael Emenalo first joined the coaching staff at Chelsea under manager Avram Grant in 2007. Then after the departure of Ray Wilkins, he was promoted from his position as chief scout to assistant first team coach in November 2010.

Then in 2011, Michael Emenalo began what was to prove an exceptionally successful six years as Director of Football at Stamford Bridge.

Emenalo completely restructured the club’s academy, scouting, loan and women’s team set-ups, plus is credited as a key figure behind the scouting and transfers of players such as Romelu Lukaku, Juan Mata, Thibaut Courtois, Kevin De Bruyne, Mo Salah and Eden Hazard.

The Telegraph say that Newcastle United now hope to shortly be finalising this very ambitious move for Michael Emenalo, with the newspaper’s sources saying that the former Chelsea Director of Football travelled to Saudi Arabia last week to speak to the new NUFC owners.

They report that Newcastle United and Michael Emenalo had hoped to keep the talks secret, only for the news to emerge when he was spotted in Jeddah.

The Telegraph say that their information is that Michael Emenalo is also a big fan of Eddie Howe and spoke well of him during these negotiations last week.

As well as the signing of some future stellar players, Emenalo also was credited with the eventual massive success of the Chelsea Academy, so many players coming through at Stamford Bridge and generating massive profits for the club. As well as more recently, young players getting a proper chance when coming through the Academy, with the likes of Reece James, Mason Mount and Callum Hudson-Odoi becoming key first team players.

The Telegraph also reporting that: ‘Emenalo’s philosophy on loaning players out has also proved to be revolutionary, with Chelsea profiting financially and in a sporting sense from his belief that older academy graduates should play at least 45 games to get them ready for the rigours of first-team football in the Premier League. Chelsea’s so-called ‘loan army’ was initially met with great scepticism and criticism, but it has since been copied by a number of top clubs around the world.’

Since resigning from Chelsea in late 2017, Michael Emenalo then spent just under two years at Monaco, but with the club in chaos and some of the best players sold as well as managerial changes, he attracted little to no criticism for what went on at the Ligue One club.

Needless to say, the post of Director of Football is arguably even more important than that of employing the right manager, considering just how much work needs to be done to rebuild Newcastle United after fifteen seasons of Mike Ashley neglect.

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