Man Utd: Newcastle ‘look to raid rivals’ as Jim Ratcliffe project at risk of painful blow | Football | Sport

Manchester United chief operating officer Collette Roche features on Newcastle United’s shortlist as the Carabao Cup winners hunt for a new chief executive, according to reports. Newcastle are attempting to replace Darren Eales, who announced he would be stepping down last September after being diagnosed with blood cancer.

Eales has insisted he doesn’t want to leave the Magpies “in the lurch” and is serving a long notice period until the club identifies a successor. The thorough process to replace the former Atalanta United and Tottenham Hotspur chief is underway, and Roche is reportedly among the options under consideration. According to the Telegraph, Newcastle are considering replicating United’s heist of a member of the football hierarchy with an audacious swoop.

Roche has risen in prominence since arriving at Old Trafford from her role as managing director at Manchester Airport in 2018 and is now a crucial cog in Sir Jim Ratcliffe‘s football leadership team.

Her role became more hands-on when Sir Jim decided to axe sporting director Dan Ashworth in December, just five months after luring the executive from Newcastle.

Ashworth served five months’ gardening leave at St. James’ Park, the same period of time he was in the job at United before leaving.

As a result, Roche has played a huge part in the £50million redevelopment of the club’s Carrington training ground.

She is also involved on the Manchester United Foundation board and has been a leading figure in the plans for a new, state-of-the-art stadium, the £2bn project announced earlier in March.

Roche had previously been linked with the same role at Everton before the Toffees appointed Angus Kinnear, ending his eight-year stay at Leeds United.

Roche’s status as the sole survivor from Sir Jim’s ruthless executive shake-up at Old Trafford says it all about how highly regarded she is.

Sir Jim has publicly expressed his delight with how United’s hierarchy is looking after revealing it had only been completed in February.

He told BBC Sport: “We put a new management team in place. We didn’t get that all right at the beginning, obviously. But today, I think we have a really good management team in place.

“We are dealing with the financial issues in the club because the club has got financial issues, and we need to address those.

“Then we need to move on to the squad, recruitment, data analysis and those types of things. So we are on the path we anticipated we would be on.”