Newcastle United held unsuccessful bid to hijack deal

It has been reported that Newcastle United held unsuccessful talks with Tiago Pinto to replace Dan Ashworth as their sporting director after he departed for Manchester United.

This move reportedly came after Newcastle’s attempts to lure Dougie Freedman away from Crystal Palace had failed according to reports by FootballInsider.

AFC Bournemouth have been undergoing a new backroom restructure, this summer, Tim Bezbatchenko has been announced as President of Black Knight Football Club, leading American businessman Bill Foley’s multi-club model which currently includes, AFC Bournemouth, Auckland in New Zealand, Lorient in France and Hibernian in Scotland.

Tiago Pinto has been named as AFC Bournemouth’s new president of football operations and Simon Francis as AFC Bournemouth’s technical director.

39-year-old Pinto, who for the past three years has been general manager of AS Roma, began work on the south coast at the end of last month, but apparently just days before he was also in talks with Newcastle United.

The report goes on to suggest that Newcastle United “couldn’t reach an agreement” with Pinto, with the Portuguese holding “concerns over the role on offer at St James’ Park and the extent of his powers.”

If true, the timeline of events appears to suggest that talks with AFC Bournemouth would have been quite advanced at this stage.

It will be interesting to see how this all pans out. At the moment we can but guess, who is going to be responsible for what.

The article on COWS states that we have had dealings with Pinto in some of our more recent signings. Presumably, the club has been impressed by him and his network of contacts and decided to find a role for him here.