Matt1892

Nico Williams is on big money at Bilbao apparently.

How much would he be valued at if he had a couple of years left on his contract?

I wouldn’t be surprised if Leicester approach us about signing Barnes back this summer.

How was that not a foul on Gordon?

The push on Wilson for Isak’s goal.

Isak!

Lazy penalty

How many penalties as Gordon won in the league now?

Give it a rest, man.

Burnley started well but their confidence went as soon as we scored the opener. We could have scored 5 or 6 here.

Burnley falling apart.

Nearly a second

Good move that for the goal.

It was a great recovery tackle from Burn but it was also his man who he let casually drift away from him.

We need to slow this game down.

Iraola has got Bournemouth their highest ever top flight points total, he still has 3 games to go. They went through a period at the beginning of the season where players struggled to adjust to his style of play but since then they have been excellent, really good football too.

I think the argument from Ashworth’s camp will be that the covenant isn’t reasonable, as to be enforceable it should not be longer than is reasonably necessary to protect those interests. They will likely argue that it won’t protect any business interests, as Ashworth has already been out of the loop regarding company business due to him being on gardening leave for the previous 12 months before leaving the company. All guesswork by the way.

If I had to guess on the position it would be that Ashworth has a 12 month notice and then a 6 month restrictive covenant to stop him working for a rival during that time, meaning he wouldn’t be able to join Man Utd until just before the January 2026 window. If that is the case then his angle at arbitration should be that the covenant isn’t fair, as they are only enforceable if inserted to protect legitimate business interests and extend no further than is reasonably necessary to protect those interests. I think he could make a reasonable argument that this isn’t the case, meaning he could leave and work for Man Utd when his contract ends, which he will see as a move to making negotiations easier. I am still not sure that the club would do a deal under those circumstances, if anything they will double down.

An employer can put whatever notice period they want in to a contract. However, that doesn’t mean it is enforceable. The only way to test that in this case would be for Ashworth to give a leaving date before his notice period was due to end, then defend himself on it not being enforceable when the club go after him for breach of contract, although even if he did do that he would still have the covenants within his contract for not working for a competitor for a set period. I am not sure what his notice is by the way, I don’t think it has been made clear what time period is his notice and what the length of time is the restricted covenant. If he did walk out before his contract finished he would be liable for any costs we could prove were associated by his departure. Again, that isn’t without even considering the covenant within his contract.

No, he cannot buy himself out.

I work within employment law and it doesn’t work like that, the scope of an Employment Tribunal is limited and you cannot go there on the grounds of thinking it isn’t fair that your employer won’t let you leave without completing the notice period you are contractually committed to. Even if he did raise it to an Employment Tribunal, it would never get as far as a full case hearing as he would have to set out what specific part of legislation his employer has broken and their isn’t any regarding him signing a notice that he no longer wants to work, which is why people can’t go purely on the grounds of thinking their employer isn’t being fair. They would judge that his case has no reasonable prospects of being successful and the case would never be heard.

You cannot go to an Employment Tribunal if you are not happy with something in your contract though, you certainly cannot go if you think your employer is being unfair.

It is uncommon in the UK.

Ashworth can’t go to an Employment Tribunal though, his options are he negotiates his way out of an early release or he ends his notice early and we try to have an injunction put in place to stop him working for Man Utd, or having to claim compensation. By going to arbitration we will be confident of our position under employment law and Ashworth will not be able to walk out.

Why?