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6 months ago
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On Monday, it will be ten weeks since Newcastle United officially announced that Dan Ashworth was on gardening leave.
The NUFC Sporting Director deciding he wanted to move to Old Trafford.
Since then, the media coverage and reaction from neutrals has been pretty much overwhelmingly that Newcastle United are somehow the bad guys in all this.
Quite remarkable really.
When you consider that as per the universal reporting at the time, Manchester United approached Dan Ashworth directly via Ratcliffe’s sidekick Brailsford, rather than asking permission to do so first from Newcastle United.
Then as for Dan Ashworth himself, obviously like anybody else he can choose to move elsewhere to work. However, nobody forced him to sign his Newcastle United contract AND he had only been at St James’ Park a year and a half after doing the same at Brighton as he is doing now.
If Dan Ashworth thought the terms of his Newcastle United contract were unfair and unreasonable, he should never have accepted them.
So for him now to be crying on because Newcastle United aren’t letting him (Ashworth) and Man U walk all over them, takes some brass neck.
Earlier this week it was revealed (see below) by the very reliable David Ornstein that Dan Ashworth was now looking to take the matter to arbitration, to speed up when he can start work at Old Trafford.
However, now another media update, this time from the also usually very reliable Craig Hope at The Mail, has reported that just maybe Newcastle United are NOT the unreasonable ones in all of this, quite the opposite.
The man from The Mail saying his information is that the Newcastle United owners have never insisted on a figure of £15m-£20m to cut short Ashworth’s gardening leave.
Instead, it is Manchester United who have so far refused to go anywhere above £2m.
For Newcastle United to go to all the hassle they went through to get Dan Ashworth to start work in June 2022 AND pay compensation to Brighton to allow that to happen. To put their trust in Ashworth as a key figure in the club’s revival and on a much enhanced salary, trust him with a lot of sensitive insider information including on key transfer targets, only for him to then bail out just a year and a half later and want to instantly start work at one of NUFC’s big rivals….
Hmmm, I don’t think £2m quite comes close to covering all of this, as adequate compensation.
If I was a betting man, I think we will eventually, via one route or another, an outcome in place, whereby Dan Ashworth will start work at Man U after this summer’s transfer window and Newcastle United ending up with £5m+ compensation.
The Mail report – 26 April 2024:
‘Dan Ashworth is set to take Newcastle to arbitration as he attempts to force through his proposed move to Manchester United.
However, we understand the Magpies have not demanded some of the figures being quoted – ranging from £15m to £20m – to release the sporting director from a period of gardening leave that runs until the end of 2025. Rather, they are waiting for Man United to make a reasonable offer, which so far has not gone far beyond £2m.
Newcastle’s search for Ashworth’s replacement, meanwhile, is gathering pace. As reported by Mail Sport on Thursday, Crystal Palace chief Dougie Freedman is one of those in the frame. It is thought he has the support of some key figures inside St James’ Park.’
The Mag report – 25 April 2024:
An interesting new development now reported in the Dan Ashworth ongoing saga.
The Newcastle United Sporting Director who is now coming up to ten weeks on gardening leave and counting.
On Thursday night, the usually very reliable David Ornstein reporting (see below) that Dan Ashworth is taking Newcastle United to arbitration to speed up his move to Manchester United.
As things currently stand, the terms of Ashworth’s contract say that he can’t start a new job with a rival, not whilst Newcastle continue to pay his wages anyway, until January 2026.
That is unless Manchester United pay the amount of compensation Newcastle United want, in return for cutting the gardening leave short. Newcastle United having faced exactly the same situation in 2022. Compensation agreed with Brighton to allow Dan Ashworth to start work at St James’ Park in June 2022, rather than the far longer period of gardening leave his contract detailed.
This week though, the latest media reports had claimed that the two clubs were miles apart on compensation, with Newcastle United claimed to be still holding out for £20m, whilst Man U only willing to pay £2m.
Obviously arbitration is a very specialised field and David Ornstein not giving great detail on what kind of outcome can be expected, what Dan Ashworth is expecting / hoping will come of it.
You would assume that if indeed arbitration is used to settle this stand-off, we would see an outcome of compensation to be paid somewhere in between £2m and £20m, as well as the gardening leave shortened to a period less than the current 20 months it still has scheduled to run.
However, whatever happens, I would be amazed if any arbitration outcome, any compromise or whatever, would see Dan Ashworth able to start at Man U any time until at least after this summer 2024 transfer window has closed, as a bare minimum.
David Ornstein reporting for The Athletic – 25 April 2024:
‘Dan Ashworth is set to take Newcastle United to arbitration to help facilitate his move to Manchester United.
Ashworth, 53, was placed on gardening leave by Newcastle in February after informing the north east club he wished to explore the opportunity.
The Athletic reported before Newcastle’s decision that Ashworth had notified them of Manchester United’s approach to become sporting director at Old Trafford.
Newcastle were seeking as much as £20million in compensation but with [Man] United unwilling to meet that figure the matter is now on course to be decided by a third party. It is anticipated the case will start in May and take a number of weeks.’

 
