Newcastle United have started their search for a new coach analyst to replace the departing Mark Leyland.
Leyland is leaving the club for the City Football Group to manage the methodology across Man City's global conglomerate. Leyland only joined Newcastle from Liverpool 16 months ago, but ChronicleLive previously revealed that family reasons have played their part in his decision to return to the North West.
It is a blow for Eddie Howe, who has a longstanding working relationship with Leyland, going back to their time at Burnley. It said it all about that previous that Leyland was even prepared to leave Liverpool, his boyhood club, to link up with Howe once again following eight-and-a-half years at Anfield.
READ MORE: Newcastle set to bank even more than £126m in TV money after Amanda Staveley's Sky revelation
As well as being on the grass, and helping with the implementation of training and coaching, Leyland has brought his analytical expertise to Newcastle following his spell as head of post-match and elite player development analysis at Liverpool. Leyland, for example, has led analysis sessions with the squad and broken down information for Howe on the opposition's strengths and weaknesses.
Howe previously admitted that losing key members of staff like Leyland was 'never ideal' but the Newcastle head coach stressed he had 'been here many times before when that's happened'. Leyland remains 'fully committed' to the club in the interim, as Newcastle bid to finish in the top four, but work has now started on finding his successor and the Magpies have even enlisted the help of their recruitment partners, the Executives in Sports Group.
According to the job advert, Newcastle are looking for an 'experienced and innovative' coach analyst to 'drive and deliver best in class on pitch performance'. The new recruit will work closely with Howe and sporting director Dan Ashworth to produce and present 'inspirational coaching analysis' to the first-team squad.
The phrase that keeps coming up in the job description is 'best in class'. Newcastle want a coach analyst who will use the 'most effective suite of technologies to enable the delivery of best in class analysis' to the coaching staff, multi-disciplinary team and players. The club are looking for someone who can work collaboratively to ensure that 'best in class and compelling' pre-match, opposition, live match, post-match, set-play, training and player development video, data and other analysis is given to the first team.
With that in mind, then, it is not a surprise that Newcastle are searching for an individual with extensive coaching experience who has live match experience in an 'elite football environment' at first-team level as well as 'excellent technical and tactical knowledge'.
READ NEXT
Some Newcastle players' futures are at stake and big summer transfer budget could be unlocked
Newcastle find unlikely Aston Villa ally who knows stadium secret Spurs are about to discover
Eddie Howe sends 'fragile' message that should worry Spurs as Newcastle have 'the ingredients'
Newcastle moment away from TV cameras at full-time puts Spurs to shame and should give hope
Unai Emery's subtle nod to Newcastle owners before Aston Villa game that went under the radar
