Some more fascinating quotes have emerged from sporting director Dan Ashworth, who has been speaking to the local press about all things Newcastle United.
He reveals that our vision is to break the ‘big six’ – on and off the pitch – compete for trophies and maintain our place in the Champions League, also discussing his intent on improving all areas of the club; from the academy to the women’s team.
Ashworth poured cold water on reports linking him with Man Utd, insisting he’s “really happy” at the club and has NO release clause in his contract.
The 52-year-old also played down talk of Eddie Howe replacing Gareth Southgate at England and refused to confirm or deny whether Bruno Guimaraes has a £100m clause in his new deal, also discussing the challenges ahead when it comes to recruitment, budgets and FFP. Read his latest quotes in full below:
Ashworth on Newcastle’s vision:
“That (break up the so-called Big Six) is the vision of the football club. To fight, get into the top six on a regular basis and compete for trophies. But, in football, it can flip around really quickly as well. Success has never been a straight line.
“I’m really pleased with the direction this club is heading. We’re on an upward trajectory but there are definitely some bumps in the road. We’re on the right pathway. Of course, we want to be in the Champions League as much as we can but it’s incredibly difficult.“There’s also the wider thing where we’ve seen huge improvements to the training ground, the women’s team have gone full-time and got promoted last year. We’ve got some really good young players out on loan, some players coming through the academy system…”“In your question about the top six, what’s really difficult is to be able to compete commercially as well. Some of those clubs have been a global brand for decades and that’s one of the big challenges for Peter [Silverstone, chief commercial officer], Darren [Eales, chief executive officer] and the [finance] team as well.“We’ve all got to try and work together to try and get ourselves into a situation where not only are we a top six club on the pitch, but also a top six club off the pitch. That gives us more ammunition in order to be able to compete on the pitch.“Complacency is a dangerous thing, isn’t it? Certainly there’s no complacency here. We want to keep striving and keep pushing. Whether that’s with our academy from under-9s. Whether that’s the women’s first-team. Whether that’s improving the provision and psychology and player care around the team.“Whether that’s making improvements to the training ground, we’ve got to keep pushing. If you start to stand still in professional sport, you’re stuffed. It’s about keep pushing, keep pushing, keep driving in all areas of the football club.”
Ashworth on Howe’s links to England:
“I’m sure if Gareth wins the Euros in the summer, it won’t be available!
“All I can say is, Eddie has got a brilliant relationship across the club with staff, board and supporters — he’s doing a wonderful job and in a really good place, and long may it continue.”
Ashworth’s response to interest from Man Utd:
“The same situation as Eddie, I think. I’m really happy, it’s a brilliant city, club and project. I’m thoroughly engaged in throwing myself into all of those things and really enjoying the challenge.
“I’ve got NO release clause in my Newcastle contract.”
Ashworth when asked if a release clause exists in Bruno Guimaraes’ contract:
“I’m not going to confirm whether there is or isn’t any release clause in Bruno or any other of our players’ contracts. They’re all private and confidential.
“I can talk to you about the principles of release clauses. You can have a situation where a player may have a dream country or club that they want to play for and you can make it specific to them; (so) that it can sit outside of your competitors in the Premier League.
“Sometimes players are happy to sign a long-term contract but, if family situations change, they may want to experience something different. It’s not always just about the players wanting an exit.”
Ashworth on the challenges ahead off the pitch:
“We’ve got this challenge as a whole football club. The more revenue we can drive, the more income we can get and the easier it is to be more competitive because the budget, the playing budget is able to be increased.“It’s also about making the most of the resources that we’ve got so we can acquire players below market value and acquire potential players rather than performance players. So players who maybe are younger that we see a huge amount of potential in. It’s about opening up pathways for the academy players too.“We’ll adjust our budgets if we haven’t got Champions League revenue and we’ll adjust our budgets if we’ve got Europa League revenue. You make sure you plan well enough so you know what you can and can’t do depending on the revenue that’s coming in and that’s normal.“There are historic top six clubs who haven’t got European revenue this year and they would have adjusted their budgets accordingly as well. Of course we want to be in the Champions League as much as we can over the coming years but it’s incredibly difficult.”
But he’s under fire according to your article the other day ????
Porkpie(Quote)
Yes under-fire being click bait speak for being mildly asked some questions over tonali’s signing.
John M(Quote)
We didn’t say he was under fire. We were sharing a report saying that, based on him and Steve Nickson being spoken to as part of an internal investigation over Tonali’s signing.
Olly Hawkins(Quote)
Must be hard getting engagement Olly, but I think I would rather see content that was more pro-Newcastle or at least less sensationalised.
There is a risk I think of sacrificing credibility in repeating hyperbole even if you don’t author it. Why give fuel to inflammatory articles (or reports) when there is plenty of great stuff you can be writing about this team.
Overall though I do love your site, generally a lot less rubbish articles than many other fan sites.
John M(Quote)