Journalist Miles Starforth believes that Newcastle United bringing in Dan Ashworth could be the best decision PIF have made since they bought the club last year.
Dan Ashworth has already left his previous role as technical director while Newcastle United continue to work on a compensation package to bring him in as soon as possible and start planning for the years ahead on Tyneside.
Will Trippier start on Sunday?
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Starforth put together a piece about how PIF landing Ashworth could be the biggest piece of business they’ve done so far for the club given how important a director of football can be.
You just have to look at the last one Newcastle United had in Joe Kinnear, who failed to make a single permanent transfer. He was eventually dislodged from his role with Alan Pardew no longer wanting him overseeing transfer activity, as The Guardian claimed: ‘Alan Pardew appears to have won a major battle’ when Kinnear was sacked.
Starforth made a very hard-hitting claim when he was comparing Ashworth’s seemingly imminent appointment to when Kinnear was employed to such a high-profile role.
He said: ‘Kinnear was the wrong appointment at the wrong time. Ashworth, however, looks to be the right appointment for a club which finally looks to be moving in the right direction. This could be the biggest transfer yet for the club since it was taken over.’
TIF Thoughts on Ashworth joining Newcastle United…
If and when Ashworth finally arrives on Tyneside, he will surely be gearing up to guide Newcastle into a new dawn and will be able to work with funds he could only have dreamed of during his time with Brighton & Hove Albion.
The former technical director on the south coast admitted in an interview with Brighton that he didn’t apply for the job, but that the ‘pull’ of his future employers was too much.
Newcastle fans will be hoping he can find players of the ilk of Yves Bissouma and Adam Webster rather than Luuk de Jong, as Kinnear did.
Starforth is right to suggest that recruiting of Ashworth could potentially be PIF’s biggest signing since they took over – even surpassing the likes of La Liga winner Kieran Trippier and £40 million signing Bruno Guimaraes – as Ashworth could well transform the club from top to bottom and not just in terms of signings, as he was involved in all aspects of the club at Brighton.
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