Newcastle United are apparently looking for a new sporting director after the £300 million Saudi takeover last week and they have identified Ralf Rangnick as a candidate.
According to the Telegraph, the Lokomotiv Moscow manager was a target for Chelsea earlier this year as well. However, the Blues wanted to bring him in as their manager.
The German has had successful spells at clubs like RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg in the past and he could prove to be an outstanding appointment for the Magpies.
Newcastle are in need of a massive rebuild and they will need an experienced director of football running the operations.
Rangnick is widely regarded as one of the best in the business and it remains to be seen whether the Premier League side can lure him to Tyneside.
Some of Ralf Rangnick’s signings as Leipzig sporting director:
-Kimmisch (€500k)
-Werner (€14m)
-Upamecano (€10m)
-Forsberg (€3.7m)
-Keita (€1.5m)
-Sabizter (€2m)
-Poulsen (€1.55m)
-Konaté (free)
-Klostermann (€1m)
-Laimer (€7m)
-Tyler Adams (€2.6m)Very impressive.
— Maxi (@MaaxiAngelo) March 3, 2020
Meanwhile, Steve Bruce is likely to be sacked before the weekend clash against Tottenham Hotspur.
Apparently, the Newcastle manager will receive a payoff of around £8 million and assistant manager Graeme Jones is likely to be in charge of the Premier League home match against Spurs on Sunday.
The likes of Antonio Conte and Graham Porter have been linked as potential replacements for Bruce and it will be interesting to see who they end up appointing as their new manager.
The new owners are extremely ambitious and they are planning to guide Newcastle back to the top of English football. They will need to make the right appointments and bring in quality players in order to do so.
Someone like Rangnick could make a huge difference at the top with his expertise and experience. He could help identify top talents and guide the club hierarchy in their search for a new manager once Bruce is relieved of his duties.
Rangnick could be brought on by Newcastle to help with recruitment – he now has his own agency and can work for a number of clubs – but any prospect of him joining Newcastle as their next full-time sporting director or DoF seems a bit unrealistic to me.
— Stefan Bienkowski (@SBienkowski) October 11, 2021
