Gary Neville, who saw Dan Ashworth closely in a former capacity, has moved to clarify what he might contribute to Manchester United. Following positions with the Football Association (FA), West Brom, and Brighton, Ashworth, 52, is presently the sporting director of Newcastle United.
Back in December, The Manchester Evening News reported that Sir Dave Brailsford had declared Ashworth his first pick to take over as sporting director. Ashworth and Brailsford have a history of collaboration from earlier projects, and it’s known that Ashworth wants to continue that relationship at Old Trafford.
Neville believes Ashworth’s potential appointment might be well worth the trouble, even though he admits that it won’t be easy to get Ashworth from another Premier League team. United invested £180 million on three players in the summer of last year, and their recent outlays haven’t always yielded the greatest results.
In the transfer market, Ashworth, on the other hand, has received nothing but positive feedback. When the Newcastle owner served as the FA’s director of elite development, Neville coached England in the backroom.
During Sunday afternoon’s TV broadcast of United’s victory over Luton, Neville was questioned about Ashworth. “I don’t know if Dan has anything in his contract, or how easy it is to get a sporting director out of his contract, I’m not sure how it works,” the former United captain said to Sky Sports.
He won’t be able to go for free or turn up to work for United tomorrow, so I’d anticipate it to be more of a typical employee issue. I’m sure Newcastle United will have added a clause to his contract prohibiting him from working for another club in the same space for a full year if that’s the sporting director they want. I’d expect there will be some type of restriction on his departure.”
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