Dan Ashworth (on gardening leave)

[Danh1]

4 minutes ago, Mikky said:

I can’t see Ashworth leaving for Man U - No way our owners let it happen - They moved heavan on earth for him - he stays 

I’m not so sure tbh.

 

Be disappointed in him if he goes as he has only just started building something. You’d think he’d want to see that through. Imagine being the man who masterminded Newcastle United becoming a force?

 

Obviously we don’t know everything about what his role is here and what it’d be at Man Utd if he was to go like. 

[Checko]

15 minutes ago, Fezzle said:

Imagine how many more injuries we could have from headlocks to players

They'd develop necks like bulls and we'd score from every corner.

 

16 minutes ago, Danh1 said:

Would he be happy to do that role though and not be involved in the team side of things? 

 

Perhaps he could let us know. I'm sure we could distract him with a few beers on match days.

[Fezzle]

1 minute ago, Checko said:

They'd develop necks like bulls and we'd score from every corner.

 

 

Perhaps he could let us know. I'm sure we could distract him with a few beers on match days.

Just have Popworlds shotgirls patrolling the ground, will keep him busy

[matta]

21 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

They don’t get a choice once the compensation has been agreed. If he wants to go and they are willing to pay up it’s done. 

Didn't Brighton put him on gardening leave for like 6months before he joined us? Not sure if that matters at all for them, since it certainly did not for us

[Geogaddi]

Wouldn't be surprised if he left , just look at the money Man United can throw about compared to us , they have such a massive glory supporter fan base all over the world and will always be able to generate more income and revenue than we ever will because of this .

[huss9]

Ashworth at Brighton vs Richards at Bournemouth is night and day. would be a massive step down

[Dokko]

Wider if the Saudis have held him accountable for the Tonali fuck up. 

 

Does show he's not perfect, and was a massive mistake Tbf. 

[Chapo]

He jumped ship from an exciting project once so it wouldn’t be a big shock for him to do it again. 

[Dokko]

£8-10m compo at least. We paid £3m didn't we? 

[Yorkie]

You can understand the appeal of wanting to rebuild Man Utd but if he goes now, barely five minutes into his current project, it would leave a pretty sour taste. If he's that talented (no reason to believe he isn't) then major opportunities will keep coming. Not to mention that he's already got one; and it would be nice if he'd consider seeing it through and having a fair crack at achieving what he was recruited to achieve. 

[Adam P]

20 minutes ago, Dokko said:

Wider if the Saudis have held him accountable for the Tonali fuck up. 

 

Does show he's not perfect, and was a massive mistake Tbf. 

 

Was going to say the same thing, might be his reputation and position with management is not great after spending the majority of our money on a player with a gambling problem. 

[Interpolic]

1 minute ago, Adam P said:

 

Was going to say the same thing, might be his reputation and position with management is not great after spending the majority of our money on a player with a gambling problem. 

 

Unless he knew about it then it's a non-factor, surely. How's he meant to have known? 

[CallumG6]

I'll be sick to the stomach if he plods off to Manure.

Whilst I can understand his reasoning if it is for a big payrise, but with us he's got a genuinely exciting project that will do more for his CV than being at MUFC would.

 

If he's as cut-throat and intelligent as they say, you'd like to think he'd recognise our project as being better for him than theirs.

[mondonewc]

They already tried to get him before he came to us right? So he isn't going for money, maybe Ratcliffe changes things but besides that don't see him going. 

 

 

Edited December 19, 2023 by mondonewc

[Adam P]

6 minutes ago, Interpolic said:

 

Unless he knew about it then it's a non-factor, surely. How's he meant to have known? 

 

Just speculating on how the management will view his performance as one of their highest paid non-playing staff. They may see this as a failure of due diligence given that his playing colleagues were aware of his illegal gambling before he signed. 

[Dokko]

12 minutes ago, Interpolic said:

 

Unless he knew about it then it's a non-factor, surely. How's he meant to have known? 

 

I reckon you'd have been able to find it out easily enough. Pretty clear it was an open secret between players and of course Milan knew. Proving it is more difficult but there would have been enough there. I reckon we rushed it through as we couldn't believe we were getting such a highly rated player on the relative cheap, considering his son status at the club. 

 

I'm actually shocked someone didn't get punted from within the club once the ban kicked in. It's at least an £11m mistake, and if you look at the injury crisis that money not spent elsewhere could have cost us CL.  

[Dokko]

You also don't talk about getting the right character into the club without background checks, and when something like this comes up very quickly after signing, then the background checks weren't good enough. That's in the head of the recruitment team. It's their bollocks dropped. 

[TheBrownBottle]

Anyone who thinks that very well paid specialists are not held to account for decisions that cost super-wealthy clients lots of money and face - irrespective of how fair it is - has never worked for a super-wealthy client.

 

 

Edited December 19, 2023 by TheBrownBottle

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Money talks in football. So does reputation.

 

That said, while he'd be joining a bigger club, he certainly wouldn't be joining a bigger, more ambitious project. Man United are still owned by unambitious, careless people who see it as a business first and foremost, rather than sporting heritage.

 

I'd be desperately disappointed to see him leave at such an early stage of our uprising.

[TheBrownBottle]

5 minutes ago, ads said:

Money talks in football. So does reputation.

 

That said, while he'd be joining a bigger club, he certainly wouldn't be joining a bigger, more ambitious project. Man United are still owned by unambitious, careless people who see it as a business first and foremost, rather than sporting heritage.

 

I'd be desperately disappointed to see him leave at such an early stage of our uprising.

I said it earlier, but there is no way Radcliffe pays £2bn for a minority stake without the freedom being talked about re the day-to-day running of the club.  It looks like the Glazers would be silent partners and beneficiaries of the increased revenues coming their way.

 

An ambitious Man Utd is a bigger and more ambitious project - they’d be looking to win European Cups and titles and be the world’s biggest club.  Not sure how you can be more ambitious than that. 

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3 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

I said it earlier, but there is no way Radcliffe pays £2bn for a minority stake without the freedom being talked about re the day-to-day running of the club.  It looks like the Glazers would be silent partners and beneficiaries of the increased revenues coming their way.

 

An ambitious Man Utd is a bigger and more ambitious project - they’d be looking to win European Cups and titles and be the world’s biggest club.  Not sure how you can be more ambitious than that. 

Totally understand the sentiment but the Glazers were selling up in full not too long ago, right? They'd allegedly set an asking price, which was met, and then moved the goalposts. They don't want to sell and regardless of Ratcliffe's role, he'll still be hamstrung to a certain extent.

 

If this was a 100% takeover of the club and Ratcliffe was in complete control with ambitions to return Man United to their 'former glory', you could argue it's a step up for Ashworth. But there's still an element of the unknown with this deal. It's weird. There is still very much the chance that the Glazers make non-football related decisions which could impact what Ratcliffe is able to achieve in a football sense.

[Dr Jinx]

I feel the club have been overplaying the whole “doing it the right way” and not taking shortcuts like they are financially capable of doing.

 

Its going to be a long process and I wonder if it’s becoming clearer that the gap is even bigger than first thought.. taking longer to catch up and having the knock on effect of causing doubt among key employees.

 

There’s no way the club should be losing someone of that reputation to a rival.

[gbandit]

Not massively emotionally invested in this decision one way or another. I’d prefer to have stability and he is extremely highly regarded but I don’t think it would derail things much as I think we’d get in another elite person. Would prefer him not to go to Man U as they’re an utter shitshow off the pitch and currently on it 

[TheBrownBottle]

8 minutes ago, Dr Jinx said:

I feel the club have been overplaying the whole “doing it the right way” and not taking shortcuts like they are financially capable of doing.

 

Its going to be a long process and I wonder if it’s becoming clearer that the gap is even bigger than first thought.. taking longer to catch up and having the knock on effect of causing doubt among key employees.

 

There’s no way the club should be losing someone of that reputation to a rival.

Yeah, I agree.  They can’t achieve what they said they want to by simply ‘doing it the right way’.  There is a ceiling coming up - a very hard ceiling.  A well-run NUFC is absolutely capable of top six / seven finishes consistently.  If they’re wanting to win titles and European Cups, they’re not getting there via small steps.  The club would need consistent financial doping - and as long as they toe every line which has been set for them in terms of commercials and FFP there is no way to catch up. 

[bobbydazzla]

Could just be journo twaddle for clicks

 

But even if it isn't, my attitude is if someone is keen to leave so soon then let them go. I'd rather we had people here who were 100% committed, not looking to jump ship at the slightest fluttering of eyelashes from another club

 

We're an exciting prospect, in the early stages of a journey. If someone sees their future looking brighter elsewhere then so be it

 

That applies to players and staff