Manchester United confirm appointment of new sporting director Dan Ashworth

Manchester United have finally reached an agreement with Newcastle United for Dan Ashworth to become their sporting director.

Newcastle placed Ashworth on gardening leave in February after United failed to agree a compensation fee for the 53-year-old, who had indicated that he wanted to move to Old Trafford.

Newcastle had initially demanded £20 million from United for Ashworth and now after several months of negotiations, an agreement has been reached.

A joint statement from the two clubs on Monday read: ‘Newcastle United and Manchester United have reached an agreement for the immediate release of Dan Ashworth from his contractual obligations at Newcastle United.

‘The terms of this agreement remain confidential between the clubs. Newcastle United thanks Dan for his services and wishes him well for the future.’

Earlier this month, United’ co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe criticised Newcastle for their conduct in the negotiations for Ashworth.

‘One of the biggest issues in football, which I have to say I wasn’t fully prepared for, was the gardening leave issue, which is not something that I bump into in my business world,’ Ratcliffe told Bloomberg.

‘I see absolutely no point in the gardening leave thing that they have in football. It just makes it difficult to change things with pace because Omar [Berrada] is on six months, Dan Ashworth is on one-and-a-half years.

‘We had a very sensible conversation with Southampton about Jason Wilcox. We managed to find a solution to that. Newcastle are just being very difficult and very awkward about Dan. Until you get the people in, it’s quite difficult to drive the change and it’s just frustrating.’

Ashworth becomes United’s latest addition to their sporting hierarchy after Jason Wilcox left Southampton to become the club’s technical director in April.

United also lured Omar Berrada from Manchester City and he will start his role as CEO on July 13.

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