After luring Omar Berrada from arch-rivals Manchester City and making him their new CEO, Jim Ratcliffe and Manchester United now want to appoint the club’s first sporting director and have set their sights firmly on Dan Ashworth.
United have yet to make a formal approach to Newcastle, where Ashworth is currently employed, but the Englishman wants to make the move to Old Trafford and INEOS are so confident of securing his services that they haven’t even bothered sounding out alternative targets.
Ratcliffe attended meetings at Carrington last season as he ramps up his overhaul, and the future of football director John Murtough is now said to lie in the balance.
Ashworth eyes up Jewell for Man Utd role
Reporting for ESPN, Rob Dawson says that Ashworth would have influence over appointments in United’s recruitment department if indeed he joins the Red Devils.
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Erik ten Hag is a big admirer of the player, who’s enjoying a phenomenal season.
He’s said to be a “big admirer” of Sam Jewell, the head of recruitment at his former club Brighton, and he could make an effort to bring him to Manchester should he assume the sporting director role.
Caicedo is Jewell’s crowning achievement
Jewell was previously the emerging talent manager at the Amex Stadium but was promoted to the head of recruitment gig after predecessor Paul Winstanley was picked up by Chelsea. Moises Caicedo is without doubt his outstanding success story with the Seagulls, having generated a staggering £111m profit when he moved to Stamford Bridge in a Premier League-record transfer last summer, two and a half years on from his £4m arrival from Ecuadorian club Independiente del Valle.
As you can see in the table below, only three transfers in football history have been more profitable, so it’s no wonder that Jewell has attracted interest already. Rangers tried to make him their technical director last autumn, but he resisted their approach because he was happy at Brighton.
Biggest transfer profits ever (as of Aug 2023) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Rank | Player | Left | Joined | Profit |
1 | Philippe Coutinho | Liverpool | Barcelona | £136m |
2 | Neymar | Barcelona | PSG | £129m |
3 | Ousmane Dembele | Borussia Dortmund | Barcelona | £124m |
4 | Moises Caicedo | Brighton | Chelsea | £111m |
5 | Enzo Fernandez | Benfica | Chelsea | £98m |
6 | Eden Hazard | Chelsea | Real Madrid | £87m |
7 | Antoine Griezmann | Atletico Madrid | Barcelona | £84m |
8 | Gareth Bale | Spurs | Real Madrid | £75m |
9 | Harry Maguire | Leicester | Man Utd | £68m |
10 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Man Utd | Real Madrid | £68m |
However, the opportunity to work under Ashworth at the beginning of a new era at 20-time English champions Man Utd is a different matter entirely. If he does prove to be Ashworth’s first appointment, then it will be interesting to see how he adapts to an entirely different recruitment task, looking to find established superstars rather than hidden gems who can be sold on for massive windfalls further down the line.
