Image Credits: Getty Images
With an agreement finally in place between Manchester United and Newcastle United, Dan Ashworth has been let off his garden leave to start at Old Trafford with immediate effect.
This is the final step of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s new United taking shape, with Ashworth joining as sporting director alongside Omar Berrada as the new CEO joining from Manchester City in two weeks time, and Jason Wilcox as technical director.
Ashworth has already been told where his focus needs to be from Berrada, explaining the importance of not overspending on players in the transfer market and ensuring the right structure has been assembled.
Whilst it was expected that the agreement would need to be settled at an arbitration hearing, the two Premier League clubs have been able to settle it between themselves this week.
A club statement read that “Newcastle United and Manchester United have reached an agreement for the immediate release of Dan Ashworth from his contractual obligations at Newcastle United.
It continued: “The terms of this agreement remain confidential between the clubs. Newcastle United thanks Dan for his services and wishes him well for the future.”
Whilst the details of the agreement have been kept confidentially by the clubs, recently new snippets of information have been revealed.
iPaperSport has expressed that although there is no specific figure for the fee paid by the Red Devils to the Magpies, it’s understood that the fee was ‘significantly less’ than the £20 million demanded by Newcastle.
The Sun have reported that the fee from United that has been accepted by Newcastle has not come close to £10 million, whilst Nigel B Golf has taken to X to explain that the fee was around the £6 million mark, tying in with the other two claims.
If the sum truly is £6 million, then this is less than a third of the initial demand from Newcastle, with Sir Jim Ratcliffe originally not expecting Ashworth to be free to join Old Trafford until late in 2025.
Ashworth’s imminent start along side the vastly reduced compensation fee from United to the Magpies has got to be seen as a win in both aspects for the Red Devils.
