Newcastle United are close to appointing Ross Wilson as their new sporting director in a significant capture for manager Eddie Howe.
Wilson is in advanced talks to leave Nottingham Forest, where he is the club’s chief football officer, to take a similar position at Newcastle. He is set to officially start work at Newcastle next week if talks continue to progress.
The Scot’s exit from Forest, after a spell of more than 2½ years, represents an untimely blow to the club and owner Evangelos Marinakis.
Since his arrival at Forest in April 2023, Wilson, 41, has played a key role in their recruitment and football operations, while overseeing a revamp of the academy, facilities and modernisation of the women’s team.
Working closely with sporting director George Syrianos and head of recruitment Pedro Ferreira, Wilson has been involved in a number of the club’s shrewd signings including Elliot Anderson, Nikola Milenkovic, Anthony Elanga, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Dilane Bakwa.
Over the summer, Forest completed a club-record £55m sale of Elanga to Newcastle, generating a profit of more than £40m after initially signing the winger from Manchester United for £13.5m.
Newcastle’s approach has been expected for weeks, since the departure of sporting director Paul Mitchell in June this year, and has accelerated in the last few days.
Wilson quickly emerged as Newcastle’s No 1 choice, ahead of former Arsenal assistant sporting director Jason Ayto, who has since joined Brighton.
Mitchell and Howe are understood to have had a fractious relationship at times, but the appointment of Wilson has been pushed by Newcastle’s manager and owners PIF, who have tracked him since he worked at Rangers.
Wilson instilled calm at Forest, his departure is huge setback for Marinakis
Ross Wilson’s departure from Nottingham Forest is a setback for owner Evangelos Marinakis and new head coach Ange Postecoglou.
His work behind the scenes since arriving from Rangers cannot be overestimated, and he has played a huge role in developing Forest as a Premier League side.
Put simply, Wilson has helped to instil a sense of calm and structure at a club many neutrals consider to be noisy.
He has made a number of key appointments, from first-team medical department to sports science to the academy. Wilson is more of a builder of structures than a recruitment guru.
He enjoyed a close relationship with former head coach Nuno Espírito Santo and Marinakis, providing a conduit between the two.
Wilson’s vast experience with other clubs such as Rangers, Southampton and Watford has enabled him to create strong relationships with agents and sporting directors – a crucial asset in the often chaotic world of recruitment.
Indeed, one leading agent even branded him “Kofi Annan”, after the former UN Secretary-General, last summer over his ability to mediate and take the heat out of tense negotiations.
The move to Newcastle represents an exciting opportunity in another role which will have a broad remit. Howe has pushed for the appointment, after first establishing a relationship with Wilson when he was in charge at Bournemouth.
Newcastle can offer Champions League football and are clearly an ambitious club on the up, despite their much-publicised issues with profitability and sustainability rules.
Forest must now look to replace Wilson, and his departure will be a disappointment.
Howe is the most powerful and influential individual at Newcastle
The arrival of Ross Wilson as Newcastle United’s sporting director highlights a basic fact: Eddie Howe is the most influential and powerful individual at the club.
It is also further proof of Newcasle’s intention to keep Howe for the long term, with the 47-year-old finally getting the support he needs in terms of a new chief executive, David Hopkinson, and a new sporting director in Wilson.
Howe, who operated last summer without either senior position filled at St James’ Park, has already established a positive relationship with the impressive Hopkinson, who has arrived to turbo-charge the club’s commercial income.
But in Wilson he has also been given an ally in recruitment, with Nottingham Forest’s chief football officer intending to work collaboratively with Newcastle’s manager, who will retain the final say on incoming and outgoing transfers.
It is the sort of control few modern managers are afforded and underlines how integral Newcastle believe Howe is in terms of achieving their goals under their Saudi Arabian owners.
Newcastle’s hierarchy are well aware of the fact the England job could once again become vacant in the summer if Thomas Tuchel leaves after the World Cup in the United States, and Howe is likely to be at the top of the Football Association’s wanted list.
Howe, who would be the outstanding domestic candidate given his achievements with Bournemouth and Newcastle, informed the FA he had no interest in the position when Sir Gareth Soughtate left last year, and was not even interviewed as a result. But the FA, led by Dan Ashworth, will at least ask if that stance has changed if Tuchel departs.
Manager convinced team can regularly compete for silverware
Newcastle, who are protected from unwanted approaches by a multi-million pound release clause in Howe’s contract, have also heard the first murmurs that Manchester United could, potentially, have an interest in Howe should Ruben Amorim lose his job this season.
That has made Newcastle’s owners all the more determined to give Howe what he wants in order to prove to him that his long-term future remains at St James’ Park.
Telegraph Sport understands that Howe is extremely happy on Tyneside, where his family are settled, and believes the club are transitioning into one who can regularly compete for silverware and in the Champions League.
As things stand, he does not have any interest in leaving for a new challenge, either in club or international football.
That is partly due to the fact he feels he has been listened to by the board and will have a strong voice in shaping the club over the next few years.
Wilson is thought to have been Howe’s recommendation to replace Paul Mitchell, who stood down in June, partly because he was not going to have the all encompassing oversight he wanted because the manager insisted he remained the most important voice in recruitment.
It is normally a sporting director who chooses a manager, but in this case it has been more like a manager choosing the sporting director. That is how important Newcastle feel Howe is and indicates how long they believe he will remain at the club.