Newcastle United face a long wait to bring Dan Ashworth into the club unless they pay Brighton a significant fee, according to Martyn Ziegler of The Times.
What’s the latest Newcastle United news?
Ashworth has long been linked with a move to St James’ Park as the club’s PIF owners attempt to instill the kind of structure seen at leading teams around Europe.
Highly rated for his work at Brighton, as well as with the England team, the 51-year-old has since been put on gardening leave by his current employers after expressing an interest to move to Newcastle.
So far, there have been no fresh developments as to when Ashworth might start work with Ziegler reporting the club potentially face a long wait to land their main target in the sporting director role.
Indeed, Brighton are reportedly willing to make Ashworth wait until October unless Newcastle cough up a significant compensation package.
What will Ashworth’s role be?
Should he take over in a sporting director role, it might be easy to assume Ashworth would focus on player recruitment.
Still, as The Athletic revealed earlier this month, that was rarely his remit at Brighton. Rather, Ashworth will reportedly focus on working “in tandem with the new CEO” and “to examine and construct Newcastle’s football operation, get separate departments talking and working together with a common cause and identity.”
Having helped create the “England DNA” to have served Gareth Southgate’s side so well in recent years, the idea of instilling that kind of philosophy at Newcastle is hugely exciting.
What has been said about Ashworth and Newcastle?
Speaking to Football Insider in February, pundit Kevin Campbell said: “Listen, this could be Newcastle’s most important signings. He can help them achieve their ambitions moving forward.
“For the large-scale investment they want to make they need to get people in who can get a grip and do the job. Ashworth is going to be that guy. He’s going to have a really important role.
“They were focused on getting him and they’ve got their man. He will help take the club forward.”
