Fog on the Tyne Mitchell's Newcastle departure leaves Howe in position of maximum strength

The table was all wrong. In retrospect it offered the first clue that lack of emotional intelligence would prove central to Paul Mitchell's undoing at Newcastle.

- Louise Taylor

The table was all wrong. In retrospect it offered the first clue that lack of emotional intelligence would prove central to Paul Mitchell's undoing at Newcastle. It was early last September when reporters were invited to St James' Park to meet the club's then newish sporting director. As Mitchell strode in and took his seat at the head of a long rectangular table he neglected to notice journalists at the opposite end were isolated from the conversation. Sure enough, he was questioned so intensely by those clustered around him that others struggled to get a word in edgeways. While it took me more than an hour of a 90-minute briefing to seize a fleeting opportunity to ask a question, an adjacently seated colleague never managed to say a single word to Dan Ashworth's successor. Mitchell appeared oblivious.

It appeared indicative of a wider carelessness that helps to explain why the sporting director will be leaving Newcastle by "mutual consent" this month. The previous year Ashworth had conducted a similar exercise at the training ground. On walking into the media room the then soon-to-be Manchester United-bound sporting director surveyed rows of formal seating, and began dragging chairs into a more inclusive circle. That way everyone felt equal. It was a common-sense move that won hearts and minds.