Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has accused Newcastle of being unreasonable and “silly” amidst the ongoing row over Dan Ashworth.
After Ratcliffe received final approval from the Premier League and the FA to complete his 25% partial investment into United, all attention turned towards appointing a sporting director.
It was relayed that Ashworth is INEOS’ number one target to assume the maiden role.
Over the weekend, Ashworth is understood to have informed his Newcastle bosses that he wants to leave to fulfill his wish to join United.
The Red Devils also made a formal approach to the Magpies to get their man.
Irked by the issue, Newcastle responded by placing Ashworth on immediate gardening leave. It’s thought that Eddie Howe’s side want an unrealistic compensation package worth £20m to part with their executive’s services.
United have no intention of paying that and the 20-time English champions are prepared to wait as long as it takes.
If Newcastle stick to their guns and keep Ashworth on gardening leave, the earliest he can begin work at Old Trafford is the 2026 January transfer window.
Ratcliffe spoke to the media and addressed supporters for the first time since his investment into United was officially confirmed.
He opened up about the Ashworth saga and said, “I think Dan Ashworth is clearly one of the top sporting directors in the world, I’ve no doubt. He’s a very capable person. He’s interested in the Manchester United job because it’s probably the biggest sporting director job in the world just now, with the biggest challenge.”
“It would be different if you were the sporting director at Manchester City because you would just be maintaining a level, at Manchester United you’ve got quite a significant building job. I think he would be a very good addition to Manchester United but he needs to decide whether he’s going to make that jump.”
“We’ve obviously had words with Newcastle. They would clearly be disappointed to lose Dan. Newcastle have been very, very successful, they’ve done really well since the new ownership, they play some good football and it’s transformed the club. I understand why they would be disappointed to lose Dan.”
“But then you can’t equally criticise Dan. It is a transient industry. It’s not like my world of chemicals, nobody ever goes from DOW to Ineos, you stay where you are. Football is transient. But you would understand why Dan is interested. It’s the ultimate challenge for a sporting director so we’ll have to see how it unfolds.”
Ratcliffe added, “It’s a bit silly, personally. I won’t get dragged into that. What I do think is completely absurd is suggesting a man who is really good at his job sits in his garden for one-and-a-half years. That’s completely stupid.”
The British businessman also delved into how he and his people went about poaching Omar Berrada from Manchester City.
Berrada is set to take over as United’s CEO and become Richard Arnold’s long-term successor.
Ratcliffe said about Berrada, “We had a very grown-up conversation with Manchester City about Omar. They were very, very disappointed in Omar’s decision but Omar again went for the same reasons. But we had a very grown-up conversation with them and when things calmed down we sorted it out very amicably, really.”
“At the end of the day, they could accept why Omar wanted to take on that challenge and they didn’t want to stand in his way. And you look at Pep with his footballers: if he has a footballer who doesn’t want to play for Manchester City, he says fine. He doesn’t tell him to sit in a garden for one-and-a-half years. He doesn’t do that.”
“It’s not the way the UK works, it’s not the way the law works in the UK. It supports a period of time that is sensible and fair but not silly periods of time.”
