Ariedo Braida has enjoyed a long and distinguished career advising European football clubs, so is better placed than most to tell Newcastle United the pitfalls they could face, and the way the Magpies need to go to be successful.
Given the recent takeover of Newcastle United, people like Braida are being asked about the Premier League club in routine interviews. He was at AC Milan from 1986 to 2013, before moving to Sampdoria and then Barcelona, first as CEO and then as a director, so oversaw the drama regarding Kaka’s failed move to Manchester City.
Comparing that to what could happen with Newcastle, Tuttosport say Braida ‘warns them, and quote him as saying: “I remember when I was the sporting director of Milan and in 2009 the managers of Manchester City came to Milan offering €105m for Kaka, but Ricky said no: with respect, he did not consider the English club adequate to his value.
“He told me that if he had to go, he’d go to Madrid and not City. And he went to Real. Today the new Saudi Newcastle promises to go along those lines. Today it is a mid-calibre Premier League team that is fighting for survival. Thanks to the new resources, competent people will arrive in Newcastle and surely the club will be able to follow in the footsteps of City, even if it will take some time.”
That said, he won’t hide away from how important the financial strength will be, and added: “Money is not everything, but in football at the time of the pandemic it is indispensable. The English league is richer than Serie A, it has three times the resources: if the Arab money is spent to attract the champions with an important technical project, then the champions will arrive. And Newcastle would not be wrong if they took someone of the calibre of Antonio Conte.”
There’s disagreement in Italy over how attracted Conte would be by the Newcastle United project, yet there’s surely no harm in the Magpies giving it a try.
Going for the modern day equivalent of Kaka is almost certainly not something the Premier League club will be trying in January, with the priority on making sure they avoid the drop to the Championship.
