Man Utd supremo Dan Ashworth ‘hurt’ over claims Newcastle’s transfer structure is ‘not fit for purpose’
MANCHESTER UNITED chief Dan Ashworth is reportedly “hurt” over comments made by his successor at Newcastle.
Toon sporting director Paul Mitchell criticised the previous regime he took over from at St. James’ Park as he defended the club’s poor transfer window.
Newcastle failed to land a marquee signing and were forced to sell promising youngsters Elliott Anderson and Yankuba Minteh to comply with profit and sustainability rules.
Mitchell laid the blame at the door of his predecessors for their £250million net spend over the last couple of years, while criticising their failure to sell players.
Ashworth, who left Newcastle in February to eventually become United sporting director, has been left “hurt” and “bemused” by Mitchell’s claims, according to The Telegraph.
He is not the only one, with former co-owner Amanda Staveley, her husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi and chief scout Steve Nickson said to feel the same way.
Mitchell blamed Ashworth for Newcastle’s underwhelming window and hinted that his actions prevented him from being able to improve the squad this summer.
He said: “You look at the money we have invested up to this point, £250 million net over the last two-and-a-half years.
“It’s a lot of money and was our model in place to be able to spend more to the levels we would have liked to keep enhancing the team?
“I don’t think it was, because we haven’t sold a player during that time, barring what we were forced to do through legislation of PSR.
BEST FREE BET SIGN UP OFFERS FOR UK BOOKMAKERS
“There hasn’t been a clear strategic strategy over the last five years to say once we get to this point, can we keep enhancing the team with the same level of investment?
“I don’t think that was factored into the strategies we had and that is a learning for everyone but I do think we have to be more global in our vision of the players we sign.
“I think the skill, whether it be personal philosophy or the demands of financial fair play has to come into play where you have to find undervalued talent at a certain age profile.”
He continued: “Should our scouting and recruitment be driven more extensively with a wider reaching net?
“It definitely should be because this is becoming a really nuanced space now, when you just can’t capitally fund everything every year and buying loads of players at peak age and peak price.
“Of course it needs to be, and that’s the responsibility of me, the scouting team, the recruitment team and Eddie. To do that, to look at that. Is it fit for purpose?
“Not last winter gone, the winter before that. Is it fit for purpose in the modern game, with the modern challenges?
“Because other clubs that have maybe adopted a different approach over time, with more intelligence, maybe more data-informed than what we are, actually prospered, didn’t they, this window?
“And I think that’s where we have to grow to be now.
“It’s kind of the next phase of the growth of this project. We have to become better in this area of expertise, and there’s a skill.”