Newcastle fans have taken to Twitter to react after The Athletic revealed that Nick Hammond has been hired as a temporary consultant.
What’s the story?
Well, after struggling to hire a Director of Football (DOF), Newcastle have turned to the 54-year-old to help them with their January recruitment.
Hammond arrives at St James’ Park on a short-term deal, to help give Newcastle the best chance of bolstering Eddie Howe’s squad.
The Athletic understand the ex-Celtic man has been tasked with finding a new centre-back, full-back and central midfielder for the Magpies.
That is described as the minimum, so if those three positions are reinforced early, expect the Magpies to explore a few more moves.
The Athletic believe the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) remain committed to hiring a DOF, and hope to implement a more sustainable setup in the near future.
Hammond’s arrival comes after he quit Celtic in March to pursue new opportunities.
Judging by the reaction, the Toon Army are not happy with this news.
Newcastle taking a risk with Nick Hammond
We understand the logic behind a short-term option to help with recruitment, but Hammond has an uninspiring track record.
He was responsible for the £15m signing of Oliver Burke at West Brom, who went on to score zero goals in 15 Premier League games in 2017/18.
Hammond also hired Alan Pardew that season, which led to the Baggies suffering relegation to the Championship.
At Celtic, he then signed Burke again, along with other transfer blunders such as Albian Ajeti and Vasilis Barkas.
There were more failures than successes in the market.
In our view, Newcastle are in danger of not getting what they need in January, unless Hammond has learned from his mistakes, of course.
Reaction
For now, let’s see what the Newcastle fans on Twitter have been saying about Hammond’s arrival…
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