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Manchester United finally saw on Tuesday (13 February 2024), Jim Ratcliffe getting Premier League approval to take up his minority shareholding at Old Trafford.
Not sure how long this saga had been ongoing but Manchester United finally getting the official confirmation.
The ongoing reports have claimed that part of his involvement will see Ratcliffe having a major impact / control of the ‘football’ side of the Old Trafford money making machine.
For what feels like to have been almost as long ongoing as his waiting to get a deal done with the Glazers, it has been claimed that one of Ratcliffe’s first moves would be to try and get Dan Ashworth from Newcastle United, to become Manchester United Sporting Director, Director of Football, or some similar title.
Now with Ratcliffe finally getting the official Premier League stamp of approval on Tuesday, by last night we had claims across the media that now Manchester United would quickly make an official approach for Dan Ashworth.
The Telegraph with the ‘exclusive’ and many others quickly following.
The Telegraph report – 13 February 2024:
‘Newcastle United are braced for the departure of director of football Dan Ashworth with Manchester United ready to offer him a similar role as part of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Old Trafford revolution.
Telegraph Sport understands that senior figures at St James’ Park have been preparing themselves for the 52-year-old’s possible exit for several days, which would come as a huge blow to their ambitions to break up the so-called ‘Big Six’.
They will now seek urgent clarification from Ashworth regarding his intentions as Manchester United are thought to have made him their first-choice candidate.
Should Manchester United make an official approach to Newcastle it is understood they would have to pay a multi-million pound compensation settlement to extract Ashworth from his current contract.
Newcastle braced for Dan Ashworth to join Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Man Utd revolution
Exclusive: Senior figures at St James’ Park will seek urgent clarification from the 52-year-old despite no official approach yet
He would also have to sit out a lengthy period of gardening leave, which is likely to prevent him starting work at Old Trafford until 2025.’
I suppose you can see it (at least!) two ways with the timing of these reports…
As in, Ratcliffe and Manchester United had to wait for official approval, before the Old Trafford club could start and try and make these changes, hence, information of substance has come out of Manchester United / Jim Ratcliffe’s camp, that journalists have became aware of.
On the other hand, you could see it as potentially just opportunistic to write this story now. As in, now that Ratcliffe has taken over, then an easy story to write, claiming that now Manchester United are (potentially) actually going to do this, after all the previous media reports just basically speculating this as a possibility over and over again.
As Newcastle United fans, we only care about this from an NUFC perspective.
Is there truth in the reports? Will Manchester United actually now do this? Will Dan Ashworth want to move to Old Trafford? How will Newcastle United respond if Ashworth does want to join them? Then a case of, once Manchester United discover what Newcastle United’s terms (length of gardening leave in Ashworth’s NUFC contract if he puts in his notice, how much compensation Newcastle United would be due / want, especially to get any gardening leave cut short?
I think worthwhile looking back at Dan Ashworth’s arrival at Newcastle United and how that all worked out, the timings and so on.
More detail below but in brief…
December 2021 – Media reports claim Brighton have given Newcastle United permission to speak to Dan Ashworth.
February 2022 – Brighton confirm Dan Ashworth is leaving for another Premier League club and will now be on gardening leave for an unspecified period (widely reported to be the best part of a year, unless suitable compensation agreed to cut it short), before able to take up his new job.
June 2022 – For some while media reports had said Newcastle were trying to negotiate compensation with Brighton for Ashworth to cut short his gardening leave, then that compensation reported as agreed, with NUFC then officially announcing that the Sporting Director had now started work.
The big link made by the media between Dan Ashworth and a potential move to Manchester United, has always been based around the fact that Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s sidekick is Sir Dave Brailsford, who is a long-term ‘friend and associate’ of Dan Ashworth.
This relationship between the pair (Ashworth and Brailsford), was rubber stamped for Newcastle United fans, when on a pre-season trip to Portugal in July 2022, Director of Sport at INEOS, Sir Dave Brailsford was invited (see below) by Dan Ashworth to give a talk to the Newcastle United squad.
To sum up, a lot of pieces of the jigsaw are obviously there in terms of how all these main characters are connected.
Now we just wait to see what the main players all do, in terms of the two football clubs and Dan Ashworth, if indeed there is to be an attempt to lure Ashworth away from NUFC.
If he did leave, what impact it would have on Newcastle United is an unknown.
I think a massive impact that somebody such as Dan Ashworth can have on such a badly run club, whether it is Newcastle United or Manchester United, is obvious. Both clubs ran so poorly for so long, it must be a dream for somebody like Ashworth to come / go in and take over something where there is such low expectations and performance.
A new man such as Dan Ashworth then getting things done properly, the right systems in place, the right team of staff in and around him.
Bottom line I think, is that whilst I don’t believe it would be a positive thing if Ashworth ended up going. I don’t see it as a disaster, because now things are getting properly done in so many ways now at St James’ Park in line with an ambitious Premier League club, then a Sporting Direct0r leaving wouldn’t be such a massive blow. As his team and all the systems are now in place and for sure the Newcastle United owners would make it their business to get the best possible replacement.
The obvious example of this would be Brighton, where since Dan Ashworth left, there has been no noticeable drop off in how their club operates on and off the pitch.
IMAGO/Sportimage
The Mag report – 20 December 2021:
Newcastle United given permission to speak to Dan Ashworth – Report
Searching for the right man for a key long-term role at St James Park, Newcastle United have now been given permission to speak to Dan Ashworth.
The position he is under consideration for is as Director of Football under the new ownership at NUFC.
This Monday morning exclusive is from The Athletic, who say that contact was made earlier this month and that Brighton have a club policy of not standing in the way of top employees, if approaches are made. They very much want to keep Dan Ashworth but have given him the necessary permission to talk to the Newcastle United owners.
Brighton though do insist on other clubs doing things the right way in these situations and The Athletic say that ‘the conduct of both Newcastle and Nolan Partners (who NUFC are using to help identify the ideal Director of Football), a firm that handled Ashworth’s last two moves and Brighton know well, is thought to have been faultless.’
Brighton Official Announcement – 7 February 2022:
‘Dan Ashworth has resigned from his position as technical director to take a similar role at another Premier League club.
In line with his contractual terms, Ashworth will now begin an extended period of gardening leave, after which he will be able to take up a new position elsewhere.
Deputy chairman and chief executive Paul Barber commented, “We are sorry to learn of Dan’s decision. He’s been an important part of the club’s senior management team since joining us from The FA, and has made a significant contribution to our club’s progress in the Premier League and Women’s Super League.
“However, as is the case with all top-quality people in any industry, we are always conscious of the risk of losing key staff to a rival. With that in mind, we always put in place contingencies and succession plans that are designed to minimise the impact on our club.
Chairman Tony Bloom added, “We are extremely disappointed that Dan will no longer be our technical director. He leaves a significant legacy in place and for that we are greatly appreciative.
“Dan’s done an outstanding job and helped build on the progress the club had already made across all of our technical areas. I wish Dan and his family well for the future.”
Newcastle United official announcement – 6 June 2022:
Dan Ashworth has commenced his role as Newcastle United’s sporting director after the club received formal Premier League approval for his move from Brighton & Hove Albion.
The club announced on Monday 30 May that an agreement had been reached to formally release Ashworth from his contractual duties as Brighton & Hove Albion’s technical director and complete a move to the Magpies.
He has now cleared the relevant Premier League approval process.
Ashworth will begin his role immediately, prior to the opening of the summer transfer window and the players returning for pre-season training.
Ashworth will be responsible for the club’s overarching sporting strategy, football development and recruitment at all age levels, and will work closely with head coach Eddie Howe, academy manager Steve Harper and head of recruitment Steve Nickson.
The Mag report – 25 July 2022:
Sir Dave Brailsford has been talking to the Newcastle United first team squad out in Portugal. The sports performance expert visiting the players and staff on Sunday, out in Lisbon.
Sir Dave Brailsford is a long-term friend of Dan Ashworth, the recently installed Newcastle United Sporting Director.
Newcastle United official announcement – 25 July 2022:
Newcastle United’s players and staff have been visited by sporting performance expert Sir Dave Brailsford during their pre-season training camp in Lisbon.
Sir Dave, who masterminded British cycling’s huge success across the Olympics and Tour de France in recent years, is regarded as one of the sports industry’s most innovative thinkers and has worked with some of the world’s greatest athletes and teams.
Currently Director of Sport at INEOS, he contributes to elite performance across six sports, working with the New Zealand All Blacks, OGC Nice, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team, the INEOS Grenadiers cycling team, the INEOS Britannia sailing team and elite runner Eliud Kipchoge during his successful sub-two hour marathon challenge.
A long-time friend and associate of the Magpies’ sporting director, Dan Ashworth, Sir Dave was invited to address the group at the team hotel on Sunday evening, and he took the opportunity to share his renowned approach to sporting culture, mindset and performance as well as taking questions from several members of the squad and backroom team.
Dan Ashworth said: “I’ve known Sir Dave for a number of years, working across various different sports and he is without doubt the best in world sport at creating high-performance culture and turning that into winning.
“There were some brilliant messages for us all and it was great to get him in at this point of pre-season.”

 
