ohhh_yeah

Nick Hammond: “Newcastle came (to me) a couple of weeks before the beginning of December.” “To me, it was a really interesting and quite exciting opportunity to come and work with the new owners, of which there are three groups; with Eddie Howe, who I knew from being in the game for a long time; and Steve Nickson, an extremely good, experienced Head of Recruitment." “This was a second time I’d provided a consultancy service for a team through a window. The first time I did was with Celtic through the summer 2019 window." “Newcastle have a long-term plan, for sure, but they had a short-term problem when we were going into the January window. Quite clearly they wanted to appoint a new CEO, a new Sporting Director and build the club out from there, but in the short term they were approaching the January window and looking for someone who had a degree of experience navigating trough the complexities of any transfer window, let alone a January window." “My job, really, was to advise the owners in relation to the players, the due diligence around the players and the financial aspects of the deals they were trying to complete. “I said to the guys at the start, this will be the hardest transfer window you’ll probably ever have, because you are literally a group of people coming together in a very short space of time and having to hit the ground running." “Fortunately there’s a very experienced Head Coach there, a very clear thinking guy, very precise in terms of what he wants and what he wanted, which is critical for a Head Coach - that clarity that comes from them is massively important. Fortunately Eddie Howe gave that to the people dealing with the transfer window at Newcastle.” Hammond has two decades of experience as a Technical Director, which began at Reading, where he had previously been their Academy Manager. The role at Newcastle was different to the one he would traditionally do." “My role (at Newcastle) was a little bit more in the background than I would be as a normal Sporting Director.” “As a Sporting Director over my career I would lead the discussions, lead the negotiations with potential signings." “This role was sort of a step removed from that, doing the checks and balances in the background, having an opinion on the players who had already been identified by Steve Nickson and his team, having taken a good steer from Eddie Howe, the new Head Coach, who had to make very quick decisions in terms of where he saw his squad.” "It was a fascinating experience, I thoroughly enjoyed it, but very challenging time for them (the owners)." "It was interesting in as much as here you’ve got a group of people who all want to achieve the same thing but they’re new, they’re almost thrown together." "I don’t mean that in a haphazard way, but new group of owners; new Head Coach; Steve, who’s been in the building for a long time, and all of a sudden in a very short space of time you’ve got to come together and make some decisions to try and strengthen the team for what is the short term ambition of staying in the Premier League." https://trainingground.guru/articles/nick-hammond-helping-newcastle-navigate-the-january-transfer-window

Will replace Roger Schmidt and signed a three year contract with PSV. He scored 62 goals in 67 matches with them between 98-01.

Alex Neil: ‘I think it's difficult with somebody like Jermain, with the career he has had and what he has done, you know as a player when you feel that it is time. And unfortunately for Jermain, he got to that point. ‘I'll be honest. It was a bit of a surprise, it was a shock. ‘There weren't a lot of conversations prior to it, he trained that day, he trained well, he was fine, and the next minute we got word that he wanted to call it a day. ‘I have spoken to him since, but at the time I think it was a bit of a shock to everybody. It certainly wasn't something that was being spoken about regularly - maybe behind the scenes, but it wasn't a natural conversation that me and him had had leading up to it. ‘He's made his decision and we have to respect that, and we wish him all the best but we have to move on and try to win these remaining games.’

Scored again. “You’re going off to the Confederations Cup, the World Cup, it seems all happy and easy. “But as the years go on and you fail to qualify for a few, it makes it more special what we did in 2010. “Ultimately, I’ve still got things I’d like to achieve, because I didn’t play as big a role as I would have liked to in the 2010 team.” “That’s why I made the move, because it was something that could pick me up and go again, something that I could build on and hopefully become a better player.” “Not just being a 30-year-old going through the motions, just playing every week and moving on. I have to challenge myself both on and off the pitch.” “It’s not often a team gets blooded so young, with them being able to step up to the level quite quickly and comfortably. “There are only three of us that have been at a World Cup, so a lot of people are desperate to be there and sooner rather than later.” https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/03/29/chris-wood-determined-to-drag-all-whites-to-fifa-world-cup/

He did not even receive an invite to this.

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/incredible-story-newcastle-uniteds-lost-20252419

"they have paid for wvwry life.they have taken"