‘Integral’ former Liverpool man breaks silence on Newcastle United summer exit

Mark Leyland has opened up on his decision to leave his position as Newcastle United analyst.

Leyland left St James’ Park at the end of last season to become Head of Coaching Methodology at City Football Group.

He first joined the Magpies from Liverpool in December 2021 and his 18-month coincided with the club’s rise from relegation candidates to Champions League qualifiers.

Magpies’ head coach Eddie Howe described Leyland as an “integral” part of his backroom team.

Addressing his exit for the first time, Leyland told the Training Ground Gur Podcast: “It sounds really ridiculous, but leaving Newcastle was probably more difficult than leaving Liverpool, because I felt we’d just started the process.

“My relationship with the coaching staff (at Newcastle) was improving daily, I was understanding more and more what the manager wanted from me, so I was getting to a process where I think we were starting to work more efficiently, more effectively.

“It was a really difficult one. I’ve got three young children now, and had two young children at the time, and decided to leave because it was a strain. The job was all-consuming, it was seven days a week. Despite being at home some days, the workload was still 10, 12 hours a day.

“It was probably more challenging than I imagined it to be, as someone who has been local in the North West my whole life. Newcastle was an unbelievable city, but it was just something I found incredibly difficult and it probably affected my ability to perform my job to the level I would have liked it to.

“I know for a fact if I said to the manager at Newcastle ‘I need a day’, he would have been more than willing to do it, but you almost feel like you can’t, you’re so driven, you’re so focused on your process that you can’t do that.

“I felt as though the opportunity to come to City Group, with the job role I was given, was something I would have been silly to have turned down. It’s a football decision and a family decision and if you pair them together you’ve got a life decision you have to make.”

Newcastle poached Jordan Tribe from Brighton and Hove Albion as Leyland’s replacement.

Tribe spent five years as Brighton’s senior first-team performance analyst having previously worked in various other analyst roles after initially joining on a work placement in 2012.