“It’s unworkable…” – Former Premier League chief slams Newcastle approach to Dan Ashworth’s move to Man United

A former Premier League chief has claimed that Newcastle United’s approach to Dan Ashworth’s impending departure to Manchester United is “unworkable”.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the INEOS team want Ashworth to lead the project at Old Trafford as sporting director, and he is currently on gardening leave awaiting the move.

Yet, Newcastle are playing hardball with the former FA director of elite development and had originally slapped a £20 million compensation price tag on him.

Negotiations have been so difficult that United co-owner Ratcliffe attempted to progress things by meeting Newcastle owner Amanda Staveley. Since then, Ashworth has taken the Magpies to arbitration in an effort to resolve the impasse over his intended move to Manchester.

Another aspect that seems to be taking time in the process is Newcastle’s attempt to protect their players. Ashworth previously was the brains behind the operation that saw Eddie Howe’s side fly up the table.

According to a recent report, Newcastle want to place a ‘transfer ban’ on United that prevents them from swooping for any of their players as long as Ashworth is employed at Old Trafford.

However, speaking to Football Insider’s podcast, Former Everton and Aston Villa chief Keith Wyness believes such a deal is impossible to make work in reality.

“I’ve been in situations where agreements like that have been discussed,” he said. “Clubs take a manager and you try and implement a transfer ban to make it so they can’t come back and raid the squad for a certain amount of time.”

“But in the end, it’s unworkable, it’s disastrous. Agents will work behind the scenes to agitate for moves. Really, it’s not the way to go about it.”

However, Wyness also believes that the fact that a compensation fee has not been agreed upon yet is problematic.

“Ashworth should be in place at Man United. He’s got a lot of hard work ahead of him in this summer window,” he added.

“If you can’t meet the compensation value, then something isn’t quite right in this whole decision-making process.”

Technical director Jason Wilcox is set to take charge at Old Trafford this summer if Ashworth is not in place by then.