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Good to hear Eales mention that we’re searching, this dispels any of the Man U fans wet dreams that it impacts us. It’s similar to how it’s handled with managers on the continent really, they don’t sack them they just put them on gardening leave so they continue to be paid for essentially doing nowt. I know the Man U fans are all dreaming that Ashworth could work while on leave, of course he could try and get around it but if they were to get caught doing something like that it would be a massive court case and likely something outside of football, I can’t see Man U or Ashworth risking it tbf. At the very minimum I can’t see us letting him have any impact in the summer window, and possibly next January neither. People don’t seem to be understanding we hold all the cards here . They pay the contractual amount and he sits on leave for 20 months as stipulated by his contract or they give us whatever we demand. We have no real need for money here, and the other options besides paying us the rate and have him sitting for 20 month is he spends his entire contract out of footy as he’d still be employed by NUFC. The bloke is likely on around £1m a year so I’ve no clue why Man U fans keep bringing FFP up as his cost is negligible regardless of it counts to ffp or not. Agree fully with Gemmill that the way Man U have conducted themselves is a fucking disgrace. You’re dealing with a club you’ve had history big timing (see the Lingard deal) so how is the right approach to act like there’s a new party to the relationship to approach only the director himself, along with leaking the approach through limpets like Romano and Ornstein? NUFC still haven’t been approached for their employee, and it’s at the point where his position is completely untenable, yet the press and Man U fans are expecting us “to be reasonable” . In complete contrast when we made our approach for Ashworth we went to Brighton, dealt with them and accepted their terms. I can see a lot of disgust from our side just from Howe’s responses to the situation so I can only imagine how people like Al Rummayyan will be receiving this type of treatment.

The model

Siri, give me an example of a rhetorical question

Investigation ongoing.

WHEN Manchester United needed a new defender, they quite happily paid Leicester City £80m to sign Harry Maguire. A midfielder? Why not spend £82m to prise Antony from Ajax? A new centre-forward? Here’s £75m to sign Romelu Lukaku from Everton. And that was back in 2017. None of the above helped address the long-term malaise that has set in at Old Trafford over the last decade or so, so rather than blow the budget on yet another big-name player, Sir Jim Ratcliffe has sensibly decided that his first move as part-owner of Manchester United should be the acquisition of a world-class sporting director capable of overhauling the club’s entire transfer policy. If he’s deemed to be that important, though, it’s surely only logical that Ratcliffe will have to pay top dollar to get him. If an error-prone centre-half is priced at £80m, what is the value of someone who can ensure that similar sums are not wasted in the future? Twice that? Four times as much? That’s not the sporting world we live in, but it makes the point. All of which brings us to Dan Ashworth, and the current stand-off between Newcastle United and Manchester United over the former’s sporting director. Manchester United want Ashworth to be the driving force behind the INEOS-led restructuring of the club’s recruitment operation. Ashworth wants to be allowed to swap St James’ Park for Old Trafford. So far, so simple. But, understandably, Newcastle’s executive team do not really want to lose the figure they entrusted to lead their own rebuilding project. And if he is to go, they want to ensure they are properly compensated for the inconvenience of having to recruit a second new sporting director in the space of two years, not to mention the possible damage caused by the departure of someone with detailed knowledge of the club’s transfer policy to a leading rival. Newcastle are understood to be demanding compensation of more than £20m, but the initial indication is that Manchester United’s new owners regard that as much too high. Really? Is upwards of £20m too much to pay for someone who is being appointed in the hope of completely transforming the way an entire club operates? Pay £100m for a striker, and you might get a few goals over the course of the next couple of years. Appoint a world-class sporting director – and for all that his record at Newcastle is chequered, with major question marks hanging over the summer signings of Sandro Tonali and Lewis Hall, that is how Ashworth is regarded within Premier League circles – and you have the potential to supercharge your club’s fortunes for decades. Newcastle are right to dig their heels in over Ashworth, not least because a large compensation fee potentially has major repercussions when it comes to the club’s ongoing attempts to stay on the right side of the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules. If Newcastle receive more than £20m for their sporting director – the vast majority of which will be entered as profit on the P&S balance sheet – it potentially negates the need to sell a big-name player in order to fund purchases this summer. Allow Ashworth to leave for £5m, and you might be waving goodbye to Bruno Guimaraes at the end of the season. Bank £25m instead, and you might be able to sign a new striker while still keeping the Brazilian midfielder on the books. And who are one of the clubs consistently championing the current FFP rules, largely because it enables them to retain their own privileged position as one of the Premier League’s biggest spenders? Manchester United, of course, desperate to keep upstarts like Newcastle in their box while they continue to outspend pretty much every team in the league even though they have not really challenged for the title since the days of Sir Alex Ferguson. Having made a set of rules that encourage clubs to hold out for the maximum possible fee for anyone that leaves them while under contract, it is disingenuous of Manchester United to start wailing and moaning just because they are having to live by them. One more figure to throw into the mix. £14.5m. That is the sum, comprised of a loan fee and a Premier League survival bonus, that Manchester United were demanding when Newcastle wanted to sign Jesse Lingard on loan for the final four months of the 2022-23 season. £14.5m for four months of football from a fringe winger who left Manchester United as a free agent five months after Newcastle were quoted that figure, and who is now plying his trade in the South Korean league with FC Seoul. That was an outrageous attempt to overinflate the value of an employee who was wanted by a Premier League rival. Newcastle’s demands for more than £20m for Ashworth are anything but.

@wykikitoon Talksport have Pardew and Souness on discussing Newcastle if you want to bring on your inevitable massive coronary.

He smokes quack ?

Another of example of a bloke who gets paid money to talk about things he knows nothing about.

Aye, think how much they hate Short considering how much money he spent and then wrote off on the cunts.

It makes total sense as well when you think about it. This bloke should have the next 3 to 4 transfer windows plotted out for us, so of course we're not about to let him leave and start next month at a rival. I just feel like, much like the attitude on that redcafe forum and on social media, Man United are big timing us with the way that they've handled this so far. Even their journalists, like that Adam Crafton bloke saying that this will get sorted out for much lower sums and much shorter notice periods. Well yeah, the maximum is 20 months or whatever and it's likely we'll come down from that cos that's how negotiating works, but I feel like they all just assume that we're about to dance to their tune. The bloke wants to leave, and they're gonna get their man, but we absolutely have to put a marker down here for the way they've carried on when we've tried to sign one of their players recently. And most importantly, go protect our own interests.

Man is employed and his job doesn't quite match job description - is literally every job ever. If they think this is tantamount to constructive dismissal then they are fucking thick. His contract says two years, he signed the fucking thing - maybe they have just pushed hard for someone who doesn't read contracts properly, and given the job they are employing him to do that would be a massive fucking weakness

Fucking doped duck lipped nonce

As well as our two favourite smashed-in bulldogs, I’d almost forgotten that clip gave us this prime whopper.

Had on, have these knackers actually sacked Beale already?

At least it is refreshing my hatred for Man United fans. I started to feel a bit meh about those self entitled cunts.

Might aswell post this again

Christ, it must need a huge microscope.

What manager in world football wouldn't want that job? Two and a half years pay for just two months work.

"Ere marra, ah telt yiz three eppeys wasn't garna be eenough."

Also, how refreshing is it to see that NUFC had their bases covered on this. 2 years of gardening leave If the fat one was still running things Ashworth would be having a cup of tea at Old Trafford right now.

They really don't understand this do they? Every suggestion is just "lets do something illegal that will definitely get us sued"

Harry Kane turning Bayern into Spurs has to be the funniest thing for a long time.

Why trouble yourself with going to the pub when you can just rant into a mirror at home?

Perhaps the best bit about that video is it shows how fucking deluded they are, iirc it was after the midpoint in the season when it was pretty fucking clear to anyone with two brain cells to rub together that we were walking the league and they were favorites for the drop. Despite that they’re all adamant neither thing will happen, besides that one bloke that looks depressed

They should weigh them in the centre circle before KO.

Quite a stunning statistic. Maybe the manager isn't the problem, maybe it's something closer to home.

I'd love us to announce a new DOF next week, with a footnote to thank Ashworth for his time at the club and that he will be free to move on once his contract is up in 2026

Absolutely brutal that on the specky little ginger cunt.

Excellent post

It’s all part of the model lads

Testicular sovereignty

Louis Dreyfus: “There was no recruitment department, there was no data science department, there were no scouts, there was no academy manager. If you looked at the vacancies list, it was almost entirely vacant. While it seems like we’re completely different now, we have to keep a level of realism. These things take a little bit of time.”

This is payback for the Lingard deal. Eddie keeps mentioning we don’t have many friends in the league as well so it’s double payback.

I assume our lot will be fizzing at the way Man United have handled this. Leaking to Ornstein last year that they want the bloke, then taking their time to actually do anything about it. Approaching Ashworth before they've made any official approach to us, all the while causing a destabilising effect on us. I hope so anyway, cos I really hope they're gonna dig their heels in on this. And fuck Ashworth in terms of feeling bad if he has to sit in the house for a couple of years. He signed the contract and he's the one that wants to get out of it after 18 month.

Dunno how you square that one away, by protecting ourselves and demanding his contract be abided by, and not just letting them swing in and have whatever they want, we're small time? Aye ok. No wonder they break out the fucking norwich scarves whenver they've spent 300 million a window and are still shit. They're idiots.

I’m also creasing at the Man U fans saying it’s delaying our progress if we play hardball he’s on about £1m a year lads, we can stick him on gardening leave and go get another director. Oh aye and to those saying “you’re paying for our director” you’ll still be paying us to get him after the 2 year gardening leave so nah lads you’ll be paying for ours while you wait two fucking years for yours. Time to crack out the yellow and green scarves you glory hunting idiots.

It's a pity 'The town hall clock' wasn't consulted about the magic bullet theory regarding the JFK assassination in 1963. His expertise in angles would've been invaluable and his demonstrations would've convinced everyone.

Daughter sent me this today. I’ve never been so proud.

Its nice to see he was given a chance.