How can NUFC survive without a Newcastle United Sporting Director? | OneFootball

The position of Newcastle United Sporting Director remains vacant.

How can NUFC survive without one in place?

Alternatively, some might ask, why exactly do we need a Newcastle United Sporting Director?

Maybe the key question is, what does a Sporting Director actually do?

Which actually isn’t as helpful as you might think, because bottom line is, it varies massively between football clubs and even at the same club, when a change is made.

You have absolute extremes, where at some clubs the Sporting Director has absolute power when it comes to transfers, whilst at others the Sporting Director may have next to no say at all when it comes to which players arrive and depart.

Here we have Dan Ashworth explaining four years ago his role as Brighton ‘Technical Director’ to UCFB – 13 July 2020:

Ashworth moved to the Premier League club in 2019 following huge success in the same role at The Football Association, where during his time at the governing body England won two youth world cups and reached the semi-finals at both men’s and women’s senior competitions.

So, what does Ashworth do and how does his role fit alongside first team manager Graham Potter at the Amex?

“If it’s a big decision on who’s going to be the next academy manager then that’s not the first team coach’s job. That’s clear in my view,” he says. “If it’s a big decision where we’re signing a player then ultimately, there is no point having a disagreement with the manager. If I want to sign him and the manager doesn’t, then the player won’t play and it becomes a fruitless exercise.”

With the transfer of players often seen as the main job of a technical director by fans, Ashworth explains the issues “that everyone wants to get their teeth into”.

He says: “We would work off of a traffic light system; the recruitment department have got to like the player; the player has got to stack up on data and numbers like the contract and if we can afford him; and the first team manager has got to like the player. If all three things get the green light, then we’ll go ahead. If one is orange, then we need to have a discussion “

Is there much back and forth with the manager when debating the possibility of signing a player? “Yes, of course,” Ashworth explains. “They’re big, multi-million-pound decisions. If it didn’t go backwards and forwards, then there’d be something wrong!

“In any business, if there’s a multi-million-pound decision then several people will be getting involved. It’s healthy debate and constructive conflict. Graham might say “I like this player” and we ask “why?” because we think another player can do X, Y, and Z better and is better value. We then either agree or disagree, then sign the player, or we don’t.”

Ashworth ends our conversation by stating that his role is one as a “relationship builder”, adding: “I’ve got to get on the right page with whichever head coach I’m working with. I’ve got to understand their philosophy, what they want from their team and what they like and dislike, because there’s no point in me bringing them in a player that I know isn’t going to be any good to them.”

Just under two years later…

Newcastle United official announcement – 6 June 2022:

‘Dan Ashworth has commenced his role as Newcastle United’s sporting director after the club received formal Premier League approval for his move from Brighton & Hove Albion.

Ashworth will be responsible for the club’s overarching sporting strategy, football development, and recruitment at all age levels, and will work closely with head coach Eddie Howe, academy manager Steve Harper, and head of recruitment Steve Nickson.’

So what exactly was the role of Dan Ashworth at Newcastle United?

I have found it amusing that many fans now want to see ‘Dirty Dan’ as responsible for anything negative that happened at the club during his time at St James’ Park, whilst at the same time having played little part, if any, in anything positive that happened.

Such as, Ashworth’s fault for not having knowledge of Sandro Tonali’s gambling issues and the fact he ended up banned for ten months, whilst say the Sven Botman deal wasn’t down to the then Newcastle United Sporting Director, due to NUFC having already trying to buy Botman in January 2022 before Ashworth’s arrival.

Then there is the recruitment of younger players, both overseas and around the UK,  Dan Ashworth is to blame for Garang Kuol, but little/nothing to do with Yankuba Mintehand his successful signing/profit.

It is understandable that Newcastle United fans and those at other clubs, want to focus mainly (entirely!) on buying and selling players, however, I think when it comes to the Newcastle United Sporting Director role and Dan Ashworth, it is all probably a little bit more mundane.

Along with the likes of CEO Darren Eales and the many other senior staff employed by the Newcastle United owners since the takeover, as opposed to Lee Charnley and the other skeleton staff that (kind of) ran a minimal investment ghost club under Mike Ashley, Dan Ashworth helped rebuild the club behind the scenes in more boring aspects of the club, as opposed to the more interesting/sexy which big money signings arrived and who was responsible for selecting those signings.

As I say, the club is unrecognisable to what it was under Mike Ashley, massive investment into staff and resources, including now a worldwide recruitment network of scouts and so on, across the various countries and continents.

I think Dan Ashworth helped to get a lot of better/proper systems in place for how things could/should be done, including maybe especially overseeing the Academy side of things and the women’s team.

However, I think the signings of Isak, Botman, Gordon, Tonali, Barnes and others, were players that Eddie Howe wanted.

I’m sure Dan Ashworth was involved in the process but Eddie Howe was in charge. Whilst whether deals get done or not, I don’t think it is a case of having somebody with the magic touch employed to get them over the line, it is more a case of your club looking a good bet to be successful and be prepared to pay the necessary transfer fee and wages, then agents doing pretty all of the work in connecting the parties to get deals done. This explains of course why they end up taking so much money out of the game.

Dan Ashworth of course, wasn’t the first ever Newcastle United Sporting Director, Director of Football, or whatever title, if any, you want to put on it.

In January 2008, Dennis Wise was given the title of ‘Executive Director (Football), an ‘adviser to the club on football matters.’

Of course, as we later discovered, Mike Ashley had secretly given Dennis Wise absolute power on transfers in and out, whilst telling Kevin Keegan he had, which was the basis of KK’s successful £2m award for constructive dismissal, having been so abysmally treated by Ashley.

Who knows what other mischief Dennis Wise was responsible for at Newcastle United during his poisonous time there…

The next attempt at a Newcastle United Sporting Director figure, came with Graham Carr.

He arrived from Tottenham in February 201o and was given the title of ‘Chief Scout’ at Newcastle United, though clearly it grew into much more than that and we ended up in a ridiculous situation where managers were given no say on any transfers. Instead, it increasingly became a case of Graham Carr presenting transfer targets and then Mike Ashley giving the yes or no. Carr delivered some great deals as he discovered Demba Ba could leave West Ham on a free transfer due to a relegation clause, whilst also finding out Yohan Cabaye had a clause allowing him to leave Lille for a bargain £4.5m.

Other value for money successes also arrived, such as Cheick Tiote, Hatem Ben Arfa, Moussa Sissoko and others.

That then though was all brought to an abrupt halt by somebody who was given the title of Newcastle Director of Football, in one of the most embarrassing episodes under Mike Ashley, which takes some doing!

Yes JFK back in Toon, Joe Kinnear appointed June 2013 and stated that he report directly to the board (Mike Ashley!) as the senior executive in charge of all football related matters.

“Graham Carr and Alan Pardew will report into Joe”….

The club/Mike Ashley claimed that Joe Kinnear would have other far reaching areas of control in his Director of Football role but it quickly became transparent what this was really all about.

Mike Ashley had decided not to allow any money to be spent on new permanent signings and at the same time potentially sell the club’s best players if the right offers came in.

The role of Joe Kinnear was simply to sit there and take all the criticism as NUFC Director of Football, deflecting blame away from Mike Ashley.

In the year and a half following the January 2013 window and before the summer 2014, Newcastle United didn’t make a single permanent first team signing in the transfer windows JFK presided over. He left Newcastle United directly after the January 2014 window with his job done, Mike Ashley having sold Yohan Cabaye to PSG in that last JFK window, with Kinnear getting a lot of the blame.

We then saw Graham Carr back in charge of things, though not given any Newcastle United Sporting Director or Director of Football title.

Out of nowhere, we saw Mike Ashley suddenly allow major signings (by his standards) in summer 2015, over £50m paid out on Graham Carr targets, with Mitrovic, Thauvin, Mbemba and Wijnaldum arriving (and Ivan Toney…).

The only major flaw in this plan of course was that Mike Ashley employed Steve McClaren as a puppet manager, no say on the signings and not a clue what to with them.

Relegation was set in motion and by the time we got to January 2016, who knows who was in charge of signings, as Saivet, Townsend, Doumbia and Shelvey all arrived.

Bottom line though is that once Rafa Benitez agreed to replace McClaren in March 2016, the Director of Football cunning plan was at an end. Rafa was now in charge and who knows if Carr played any role at all once the Spaniard came in, Graham Carr formally announced as leaving NUFC in 2017.

So going back to where we started…

The position of Newcastle United Sporting Director remains vacant, how can NUFC survive without one in place? Alternatively, some might ask, why exactly do we need a Newcastle United Sporting Director?

Well, for me it is a case of a Sporting Director can be a big asset, if you have the right one in place.

However, I think far more important, by a massive degree, is having a good manager, who is also allowed to have the final say on all transfers.

With a Sporting Director, I see the role as simply a senior employee at a football club such as Newcastle United, but if the club has a proper set-up, a proper hierarchy, as Newcastle United appears to have now, when it comes to player recruitment at all levels, generating revenue, the legal department, and so on, then it is just another cog in the machine that helps the whole system to function properly. That is if you find a Sporting Director who is the right fit.

As a football club, can you manage without a Sporting Director?

I think so for sure, especially now in Newcastle United’s case they do have a proper framework in place and levels of staffing appropriate to a Premier League club.

Whilst specifically on the signing players side of things. The fact is that before we had ever heard of Dan Ashworth, that first transfer window after the new NUFC owners and Eddie Howe came in, Newcastle United (without a Sporting Director) signed Bruno Guimaraes, Kieran Trippier, Dan Burn, Matt Targett and Chris Wood (NUFC picked up 29 points that second half of the signing when Wood started in his 15 PL games of 2021/22).

Excellent signings that helped transform a club heading to the Championship, into instead one that had the third best points haul in the entire second half of that 2012/22 Premier League season.

So yes, great if a new Newcastle United Sporting Director is appointed in the near future IF the club find the right person. However, zero panic from me if the vacancy remains open for some time.