Newcastle United chiefs have already made Matthias Jaissle stance clear despite Leeds United defeat
Newcastle United head coach Matthias Jaissle suffered his first defeat in charge of the club at Leeds United on Monday night.
Newcastle United will be hoping to bounce back from their first defeat of the season when they host Hull City at St James’ Park this Saturday (3pm kick-off).
The 4-1 loss at Leeds United on Monday night was Matthias Jaissle’s first in a competitive game since being appointed as Newcastle’s new head coach last month.
Despite losing key players over the summer and having limited time to prepare for the new season, Newcastle went unbeaten in their opening five matches in all competitions. But the convincing nature of the defeat at Elland Road has raised a few questions about the manager and his squad.
It is hoped some of those questions will be answered somewhat against a newly-promoted but unbeaten Hull side on Saturday.
But on the back of a 12th place finish in the Premier League and losing players such as Anthony Gordon, Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes, patience will be required for Jaissle and his young Newcastle side.
The Magpies’ sporting director Ross Wilson played a key role in hiring Jaissle after identifying the German as his top target to succeed Eddie Howe as head coach, a process that started shortly after his appointment last year.
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NUFC hierarchy’s stance on ‘top target’ Matthias Jaissle
While Wilson claims there are no specific targets for Jaissle in his first season in charge, the demand for high standards remains.
"It is not about cutting slack,” Wilson said. “It is about us all working together to achieve the best we possibly can and supporting Matthias in that. Supporting the players in that too, no more than that."
When asked if Jaissle could serve the four years of his contract at Newcastle, Wilson added: "I hope so. If he is, that's us all doing well.
“He was the number one choice [as head coach]. We started this planning work a long time ago and we knew the type of coach, the type of football we wanted to play therefore we had use our models to identify who those coaches might be.
“So it was really, really clear that Matthias – if he was transactable – was someone who would be really interesting to us.
“I spoke to him on the phone and it was a really good conversation. Then I met him and – I didn’t do this deliberately – but when I was on the phone [David Hopkinson, CEO] said: ‘You sound really excited about this one’. I said ‘You’re probably right’.”
Newcastle United’s long-term ambition
Despite no specific targets in the short term, the club’s long-term ambition remains clear - outlined by chief executive officer, David Hopkinson.
“We’ve been consistent the whole way through,” Hopkinson said. “We are going to be consistently and credibly competing for those top prizes.
“We’ve got a regime [UEFA’s financial settlement], we’ve got to be compliant with. We know what our revenues are going to be projected, we can figure that part out.
“We’ve got to make sure we’ve got a squad bill, a wage bill that is compliant. We did not have a strong finish at the end of last season, we ended up 12th.
“When we started our pre-planning for the window, with each match we lost it got worse because it meant our ultimate envelope [transfer budget] would be smaller so we came into this window knowing about how much we would have to work with and a strong recognition that we have to be compliant because that is about how we consistently compete.”