Manchester United ‘win’ Dan Ashworth battle with Newcastle United – Funny kind of win | OneFootball

The stalemate between Newcastle United and Manchester United over Dan Ashworth has finally ended.

Monday brought the news that agreement had been reached on Ashworth’s employment situation.

Manchester United on their official site announcing (see below) that agreement had been reached for the ‘immediate release of Dan Ashworth’ (makes it sound like he had been held hostage, a prisoner!(.

Newcastle United simultaneously doing the same.

Manchester United official site – 1 July 2024:

“Newcastle United and Manchester United have reached an agreement for the immediate release of Dan Ashworth from his contractual obligations at Newcastle United. The terms of this agreement remain confidential between the clubs. Newcastle United thanks Dan for his services and wishes him well for the future.”

I was interested to see the reaction to this news from both media and fans.

The coverage had been abysmal during the stalemate, overwhelmingly we saw lame journalists lazily/with bias going along with the idea that Newcastle United were the bad guys in all of this, that it was a disgrace poor old tax exile Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his mates the Glazers couldn’t simply get their own way. The media slavishly repeating without challenge, time after time, quotes from Sir Jim Ratcliffe that this was some bizarre unknown thing, a company holding its employee to his contractual obligations, when he decided that he wanted to move to a direct rival company.

In this case, the contractual details saying that Dan Ashworth would be on gardening leave until January 2026, unless Manchester United offered appropriate acceptable compensation to Newcastle United.

Maybe the most embarrassing thing when it came to the lame and slavish media loving Man U coverage, was that only two years earlier Newcastle United had found themselves in exactly the same position with exactly the same person, Dan Ashworth.

So what was happening now between Manchester United and Newcastle United, was an exact repeat of Brighton and Newcastle United in 2022.

On that occasion, Newcastle did everything professionally and by the book, approached Brighton for permission to speak to Dan Ashworth, he agreed to come to St James’ Park. Brighton then putting Ashworth on gardening leave in advance of the move being completed, then behind the scenes Newcastle United coming to an agreement on compensation, that meant he was able to start work for NUFC ahead of the summer 2022 transfer window.

Moving forward two years and on this occasion, Man U did nothing professionally and by the book. Ratcliffe and his people didn’t approach Newcastle United  for permission to speak to Dan Ashworth, instead they secretly went direct to the NUFC Sporting Director. He agreed to move to Old Trafford. Newcastle United then put Ashworth on gardening leave on 19 February 2024 in advance of the move being completed. Then instead of confidential quiet behind the scenes negotiations with Newcastle United in order to come to an agreement on compensation, that meant he would be able to start work for MUFC ahead of the summer 2024 transfer window… Sir Jim Ratcliffe chose an alternative route of very publicly slagging off Newcastle United and claiming this was a unique situation of a rival company being so awkward about letting one of their most senior employees move on. Incredibly so much of the media and clueless Man U fans lapped this up, tax exile ‘man of the people’ Sir Jim Ratcliffe leading this valiant fight against such an unscrupulous rival, who were acting so inappropriately, supposedly.

You have to laugh.

Whilst the media were claiming (and then simply repeating and repeating), without any proof, that Newcastle United were holding out for not a penny less than £20m for the release of Dan Ashworth, the message from the more reliable journalists was that the big sticking point was actually Manchester United refusing to not contemplate paying a penny more than £2m compensation for Ashworth.

It is funny how they went to such great lengths to target Dan Ashworth and then Sir Jim Ratcliffe to make so clear, time after time, in these embarrassing media interviews (Press Releases!), how desperate they were to have him at Man U, yet then claim worth so little in compensation, the equivalent of one of £85m star signing Antony’s toenail clippings pretty much.

So anyway, fast forward to the here and now.

If we accept the media figures used overwhelmingly, what has been the eventual outcome?

Well according to them (the media), Newcastle United were demanding £20m and Manchester United were only prepared to pay £2m. With the widely reported belated compromise figure ending up as £10m.

Bizarrely, I see most of the media and so many Man U fans declaring this as a massive victory for Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Manchester United.

Hmmm, I see, so paying five times more than what you wanted to pay, wasting five months or more unprofessionally playing it out in the media instead of negotiating behind closed doors, then Dan Ashworth not available until well into the summer/transfer window instead of months ahead of it opening.