Newcastle United’s newest addition has already explained how he will work with Eddie Howe

Bunce will follow Paul Mitchell from AS Monaco to Newcastle United as the club continue a reshuffle of their backroom operations. The pair worked together for three years at the Ligue 1 club with Bunce departing Monaco around the same time as Mitchell. They also spent time at Southampton together before Bunce would move on to a similar role with the Premier League.

Previously, Bunce had worked as US Soccer’s Director of High Performance in a role that had brought success with the USA men’s team winning the 2017 Concacaf Gold Cup as well as the women’s team winning the 2019 World Cup - their fourth triumph. A move to Newcastle United will see Bunce take up another familiar role - one that may be alien to supporters of the club, however.

During almost a decade and a half under Mike Ashley, the club failed to move with the times in their coaching and backroom staff and are now having to rapidly change that with Bunce’s appointment as performance director.

Speaking on the HIIT Science podcast, Bunce spoke about his responsibilities and how he needs to ‘protect’ a head coach: “My responsibility is to build an unbelievable relationship with the head coach.” Bunce said. 

“I think it was best described by a previous coach, and I took this as a massive compliment, it’s me and you cannot be best friends but we can be like a married couple. I have to sometimes say the bad news. I can’t just be a best mate that’s ‘yeah we’re doing great, everything’s great you’re doing perfect!’

“My job is to sometimes sit down, like a married couple, and have a very difficult conversation but we’re having that conversation because we love each other and we want to make this work.

“That for me was a big compliment because my job is to protect the coach. I totally, totally get it and I say this to their face, is they are the one that will be sacked if results are bad, not me, so I totally take full responsibility for that huge, huge thing that could happen to them. I want to protect them in anyway I can.”