Former Liverpool man admits leaving Newcastle United was ‘more difficult’ after ‘integral’ contribution

Leyland joined Eddie Howe’s coaching staff at Newcastle in December 2021 from Liverpool. Leyland had previously worked under Howe at Burnley.

But after a season and a half on Tyneside, he left to become head of coaching methodology at the City Football Group in June 2023.

Howe described Leyland as an ‘integral’ part of his staff who helped turn Newcastle’s fortunes around from relegation candidates to Champions League competitors. Jurgen Klopp also paid tribute to Leyland’s role in Liverpool’s success during his time at the club.

And Leyland admitted the decision to leave Newcastle over the summer, while tough, was one he had to make for his family.

“It sounds really ridiculous, but leaving Newcastle was probably more difficult than leaving Liverpool, because I felt we’d just started the process,” Leyland said at Hudl’s UK Football Conference.

“My relationship with the coaching staff was improving daily, I was understanding more and more what the manager wanted from me, so I was getting to a process where I think we were starting to work more efficiently, more effectively.

“It was a really difficult one. My family, I’ve got three young children now and had two young children at the time, and decided to leave because it was a strain.

“The job was all-consuming, it was seven days a week. Despite being at home some days, the workload was still 10, 12 hours a day.

“I know that most analysts in this room, and most people who are recruitment in this room, will understand that is the case [but] it was probably more challenging than I imagined it to be, as someone who has been local in the North West my whole life.

“Newcastle was an unbelievable city, but it was just something I found incredibly difficult and it probably affected my ability to perform my job to the level I would have liked to.

“I felt as though the opportunity to come to City Group, with the job role I was given, was something I would have been silly to have turned down.

“It’s a football decision and a family decision and if you pair them together you’ve got a life decision you have to make.”