The end of the 2023/24 season is still 10 games away, but that isn’t stopping Man United from desperately trying to reach agreement with Newcastle United for Dan Ashworth.
The former Magpies sporting director has been on gardening leave ever since the announcement was made, however, the North East giants are playing hard ball in terms of their negotiations with the Red Devils, and are quite prepared to wait as long as it takes to get the amount of compensation that they believe they deserve.
In the meantime, it means that Ashworth is unable to do any work with his new club and cannot return to Newcastle, so he’s in a footballing no man’s land at the moment.
Newcastle will hold firm on Dan Ashworth compensation
According to Ben Jacobs, if Newcastle don’t get what they want, they’ll wait as long as it takes, even if it takes 18 months.
It’s a situation that clearly hurts Man United, but Newcastles’ owners, the Saudi Public Investment Fund are holding firm.
“I think the main aim of Manchester United and Ratcliffe is to ensure that, in an ideal world, Ashworth only misses one window at worst,” Jacobs told Give Me Sport.
“So, if they can get him for this summer, that would be great. But if they can’t, they’ll want him to start in September, so he’ll be well set to begin planning for 2025 and beyond. This is because deep down, despite all of the ambition and positivity, Ratcliffe, INEOS, and Man Utd’s old regime know that they won’t be able to fix everything overnight on the football side.
“They’ve got a five-window plan, which includes three summers and two winters. Therefore, it wouldn’t be a disaster if Ashworth missed one summer window.
“But it would be much more frustrating for the project if he can’t start until after the 2025 winter transfer window. Talks are ongoing, and they are just about compensation.”
From Newcastle’s point of view they’re laughing, as they’re already moving on from Ashworth’s tenure.
Man United on the other hand cannot have any sort of strategy in place unless their sporting director is in situ.
What the present situation evidences of course is that clubs just can’t ride roughshod over each other when they feel like it.