With Brighton and Hove Albion confirming at the end of May that an agreement had finally been struck with Newcastle United over the services of former Football Association Technical Director Dan Ashworth, on Monday afternoon the relevant Premier League approval process was completed, and he has now begun his new role as Sporting Director at St James’ Park.
Having spent six years with the FA after leaving his role with West Bromwich Albion, the 51-year-old joined Brighton in 2018, but resigned from his role at The Amex Stadium back February and he was on a period of gardening leave as both clubs entered into negotiations.
Following last October’s takeover of the club by our new Saudi Arabian backed owners, Ashworth is the first executive appointment and many fans will simply assume he will be the first of many backroom changes as our new owners look to kick on following their investment.
With agreement struck at the end of last month, an official Newcastle statement read:
“Newcastle United are delighted to announce that Dan Ashworth will become the club’s sporting director after an agreement was reached with Brighton and Hove Albion to release him from his current contractual obligations with immediate effect. The terms of this agreement will remain confidential between the clubs and are subject to Premier League approval. Newcastle United will issue further information following the relevant approval process.”
With the PL process now at an end of the betting season, and Ashworth officially unveiled at the club, he was understandably looking forward to getting his feet under the table and beginning work properly on what will undoubtedly be a huge summer of change when it comes down to manager Eddie Howe’s playing staff, according to UK Gambler.
“Newcastle United is an incredible football club and I’m delighted to be joining at this very exciting time. Each time I’ve been to St James’ Park in the past, I have been reminded of the club’s long history and the unrivalled passion of its fanbase. It is a huge football club with great potential, and I am incredibly positive about what we can collectively achieve. I’m excited to start work immediately and look forward to being part of a team that is helping the club to grow and achieve long-term success.”
With plenty of transfer window speculation doing the rounds in the media over the last few weeks, some of the potential targets the club are reportedly looking at are very exciting propositions for fans, as there is every expectation that our wealthy new backers will spend big before the window slams shut so we can see some real progress on the pitch in the coming 2022/23 campaign.
With an incredibly poor start to 2021/22, it did take Eddie Howe a while to get his message across to the players and start turning our form around, but the improvement was pretty stark by the end of the season as we comfortably took eleventh place in the table and we had long ended any worries of a potential relegation.
There are plenty of improvements still to be made though, and everyone will have their own hopes and thoughts for what particular positions should be prioritised as we head towards the end of the summer and the return of pre season, but given Ashworth’s record and successes at his previous clubs, his appointment should prove to be key – particularly when it comes to his history of snapping up good talented bargains and highly rated youngsters.
All eyes to 2022/23.