Manchester United are preparing to hire a new sporting director and it looks like it will be Dan Ashworth, who is currently under contract at Newcastle.
An approach has yet to be made to Newcastle but they are anticipating one as Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s new regime at Old Trafford materialises.
The Premier League gave its approval to Ratcliffe’s deal to acquire 25% of Manchester United. The buy in is set to be formally announced later this week.
Then we can only suspect that Ratcliffe and his Ineos Group posse will be planning to make changes to the club’s structure. That will involve hiring a sporting director, with United identifying Newcastle’s Ashworth as their No.1 target.
According to The Athletic, the situation is expected to develop rapidly, with Ashworth understood to be open to the opportunity of joining United’s football operations under Ineos.
There is no way United, or Ineos for that matter, would be briefing this information if they didn’t believe they had convinced Ashworth to join.
Ashworth would arrive at United with a strong reputation as a shrewd talent-spotted. He has had his hands deep in Newcastle’s transfer policy since switching from Brighton, where he held the role as technical director.
After arriving at Newcastle in February 2022, Ashworth could soon find himself on gardening leave for the remainder of the season because there is no way he will be involved in their strategy building process for the summer if he plans to ditching them to move to Old Trafford.
The latest shock appoint by Ineos came when Omar Berrada announced his switch from rivals Man City.
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