According to The Guardian Football, Newcastle's sporting director, Ross Wilson, has revealed he started planning for Eddie Howe's exit at the start of this year. Wilson arrived at the club 10 or 11 months ago and had been planning in the background for a managerial change over eight or nine of those months. The club turned to Matthias Jaissle, who had been identified as the preferred successor, after Howe stepped down as manager in late July. Wilson described the timing of Howe's departure as "clearly not planned", but said the reason they could move so quickly was because they had been preparing for a number of months.