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2 months ago
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Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been crying on once again because Newcastle United aren’t willing to be a soft touch where Dan Ashworth is concerned.
The NUFC Sporting Director having said he wanted to move to Old Trafford and so put on gardening leave until January 2026, as per his Newcastle United contract, unless Man U pay the required compensation figure that Newcastle United are asking for in order to cut short that period of gardening leave.
It is now exactly nine weeks ago today that Newcastle United officially confirmed that Dan Ashworth had told them he was insisting on leaving for Manchester United, with NUFC announcing his period of gardening leave had been triggered.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe has already embarrassed himself with comments bemoaning Newcastle United not willing to bend to his and Man U’s will.
He was at it again on Sunday, when the BBC’s Newcastle United supporting Gabby Logan asked Sir Jim Ratcliffe how his plans were going with regard to changing things for the better at Manchester United – 21 April 2024:
“It is a long journey really.
“One of the biggest problems is that you get these new guys to come into the [club’s senior management] team, really capable people, but they are all on gardening leave.
“So it takes you six months… a year… or eighteen months.
“It is a real issue in football.
“They can’t work for us [immediately], the fans are impatient and I have some sympathy with that.
“But it is a journey.
“And whether they like it or not, they have to be a bit patient.
“It is not a light switch.
“It takes a bit of time.”
The thing is though, Sir Jim Ratcliffe only tells part of the story.
Newcastle United found themselves in exactly the same position with Dan Ashworth back in 2022.
They paid the compensation that Brighton were asking for and Ashworth started working for NUFC in June 2022, rather than having to wait far longer.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Manchester United simply have to do the same, be professional, do the right thing, pay Newcastle United the necessary compensation and rather than having to wait 20 months, Dan Ashworth would be able to start work at Old Trafford far earlier.
If Ratcliffe thinks Ashworth is ‘really capable’, then stop crying on about how unfair it all is and instead give Newcastle United what they want.
Hilariously, many Manchester United fans have proved to be just as embarrassing as the Glazers and Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
Amongst the many crying on about how unfair it is for their club, there was this particular independent Manchester United website Stretty News – 29 March 2024:
‘Dan Ashworth is the man Ineos want as Manchester United football director, but obstacles are in place to delay his eagerly anticipated switch from Newcastle.
The latest on the matter is [Man] United are ‘refusing to compromise’ with the Magpies over the fee they are demanding for Ashworth’s services, according to the Daily Mail.
Newcastle want £20 million in compensation for losing their highly thought of sporting director. It is an outrageous sum of money to pay. It’s not like Ashworth will be our top goalscorer next season!
However, the report adds that Newcastle are happy for Head of Recruitment Steve Nixon to take control of transfers. At the same time, [Man] United’s new chief executive Omar Berrada will be given the same responsibilities at Old Trafford until Ashworth is let go from ‘Saudi Arabia Sportswashing FC’.
I don’t think Sir Jim Ratcliffe or [Man] United, as a whole, can be blamed for their reluctance to dance for a state-owned football club’s carrot. Ashworth may be considered one of the best sporting directors in football, but I’d argue spending £20m on compensation for any sporting director is crazy.
It says a lot about Newcastle that they want to forbid Ashworth from working for the foreseeable period. Perhaps this is a warning call to any sporting directors they want to hire in the foreseeable future.
Newcastle fan, sportingswashing aficionado and journalist Luke Edwards came across rattled in his latest Telegraph column.
In Edwards’ little world, the human rights-abusing owners at St James’ Park can do no wrong but instead, he has chosen to focus on Ashworth. The former Brighton technical director appeared popular among journalists until it was clear that a move to Old Trafford was on the cards.’
Very embarrassing for these Manchester United fans claiming how life is so unfair, where do you start with their laughable nonsense above.
Have they really got zero idea about how the law operates and what happens in large scale business, including football, when it comes to key senior personnel?
Paul Barber, the CEO of Brighton, absolutely schooled the shameless Sir Jim Ratcliffe on this very subject.
Such gardening leave clauses are the norm when it comes to business and football is no different. The ignorance / stupidity is mind boggling.
As I say above, surely if tax exile muti-billionaire Ratcliffe and his Glazer mates think Ashworth will be such a great asset, then what is £15m-20m in the grand scheme of things?
However, the absolutely cherry on top of this nonsense from Manchester United fans above, is this lame name calling of Newcastle United and the NUFC fanbase.
As always with any Manchester United fans going down this path…
The Saudi regime / Saudi Arabia PIF, through the state owned Saudi Telecom, have ploughed fortunes into Old Trafford since 2008 and continue to do so, millions every season. The Saudi regime are Man U’s longest standing sponsors.
Then in 2017, Man Utd agreed yet another very lucrative revenue stream from the Saudi Arabia regime, ‘the General Sports Authority of Saudi Arabia’ in partnership with Manchester United.
If indeed Newcastle United are insisting on Man U paying £20m to cut short Dan Ashworth’s gardening leave, well you are only talking about a small proportion of the fortunes the Old Trafford club have banked from the Saudi regime these past 16 years and counting.
As for all these highly principled Manchester United fans, I look forward to their mass protests against Man U taking money off the Saudi regime. Although the fact that they have been happy for their club to indulge in Sportswashing (nothing could be more obviously ‘Sportswashing’ than taking money in sponsorship for over a decade and a half, in return for allowing the Saudi regime to be branded alongside Man U) for the last 16 years without any protests, doesn’t suggest they will suddenly start doing so now.

 
