After what has been a bit of a long wait, Dan Ashworth has finally been announced as the new Sporting Director of Manchester United Football Club.
United issued a joint statement with Newcastle saying:
“Newcastle United and Manchester United have reached an agreement for the immediate release of Dan Ashworth from his contractual obligations at Newcastle United. The terms of this agreement remain confidential between the clubs. Newcastle United thanks Dan for his services and wishes him well for the future.”
As we know, Ashworth was part of Newcastle's new regime with their Saudi owners and joined the club just two years ago.
However, ever since INEOS took over 27.7% of the club and the football operations, they have wanted Dan to be the man in terms of that Sporting Director role.
The departures of both Richard Arnold and John Murtough made it more important that new appointments be made with Ashworth along with a few others being choices for Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his team to fill those holes left by Arnold and Murtough.
But there was no real competition as Ashworth always appeared the outright favorite for INEOS. The only issue was that compensation fee to get him out of Newcastle which is one of the reasons as to why it may have taken longer to bring him in than they would've liked.
Now, they have their man and he becomes the third appointment above Erik ten Hag when it comes to the club hierarchy after Omar Berrada and Jason Wilcox were added to the Man Utd board.
Things are taking place at Old Trafford and at a pretty good pace. INEOS don't look to be wasting time in terms of getting these deals done.
Ashworth has a really good reputation of finding young, talented players all across the world and end up selling them for pretty prices when you look at the likes of Moises Caicedo, Leandro Trossard and Anthony Gordon.
These are the type of players I think we need and no longer the big name, shirt sellers that we've become accustomed to over the years. Of course, one or two heavy hitters would be expected as we are Man Utd but overspending on signings simply because of their reputation and name is not something that we should look to continue.
This is yet another great coup by INEOS in my opinion to go with that of Berrada and Wilcox. All these types of people above Erik ten Hag would finally mean a good structure above a manager allowing him to get the best possible recruitment and deals for players.
Background: Dan Ashworth | Image credit: Getty Images via Goal.com