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Manchester United could give Dan Ashworth a colossal budget of £450m if he becomes the club’s new sporting director, according to a new report.
It had long been reported that the former FA employee was INEOS’ number one target for the role, partly owing to the long-standing relationship between Sir Dave Brailsford and Ashworth that stems from the time they worked in the Football Association together.
It was reported this week that Ashworth has already given the green light for the deal and that things are moving so fast that the sporting director could be officially announced as early as next week.
Football Insider reports that they have exclusive information claiming that “Dan Ashworth could have a budget of up to £450 million to work with at Man United if he completes a move from Newcastle”.
The website’s reasoning is that unless United pay a compensation that could be north of £10m, the sporting director may not be able to join for a while, as he would be put on gardening leave.
However, Football Insider believe this could actually work to United’s advantage.
“By the time Ashworth joins United, the Premier League may be working under new financial rules after they were discussed in a meeting with all 20 top-flight clubs last week”.
“United have had to limit their transfer spending under current Profit and Sustainability Rules, but the introduction of new regulations would grant Ashworth a huge budget”.
“The Premier League has proposed new regulations that match Uefa’s policy – capping spending to 70 percent of a club’s overall revenue”.
“United announced club record revenue of £648 million in 2022-23, meaning they would be free to spend up to £450million on wages, transfers and agent fees under the new financial rules”.
Whether INEOS would want to spend such swathes of money is another question but it has certainly been reported that the new owners will want to make their mark on their first transfer window with the club.
Football Insider’s Pollyanna-ish report overlooks the fact that profit and sustainability rules are so complex, both within the Premier League and in UEFA, that even if the PL votes later this year to adopt UEFA’s 70% model, there are still likely to be restrictions based on profitability, not just revenue. In other words, if a club’s revenue is a billion, neither UEFA nor the PL are likely to allow them to spend £700 million on transfers if they post a net loss of, say, £500 million.
Furthermore, whilst high levels of investment are clearly needed in the playing squad, INEOS will hope the recruitment of someone like Ashworth will lead to smarter spending. The Peoples Person relayed yesterday that United’s squad in 2022-2023 was the most expensive ever assembled at €1.42bn and contrasted sharply with the meagre €226.23m total cost of Ashworth’s Brighton squad in 2021-22, that finished only seven points behind the Red Devils.
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