The first thing you need to know about Dan Ashworth is that his leadership style is not that of an iron fist.
“None of the places I’ve been has it been ‘Dan Ashworth’s philosophy,’” he told the paper Training Ground Guru Podcast in 2020. ‘My principles are not autocratic. I don’t believe in telling people: ‘this is how we’re going to do it’, I believe in collaboration.’
It’s easy to see why Manchester United are in love with the affable former gym teacher.
Ashworth’s track record speaks for itself: he helped West Brom to the Premier League, devised the ‘England DNA’ model, before laying the foundations for Brighton and Newcastle to crack European football.
He has his faults like any manager – the handling of the Mark Sampson and Eni Aluko scandal is a testament to his name – but Ashworth would be a perfect appointment as Manchester United’s first sporting director – and INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe know that .
Dan Ashworth (left) is reportedly keen to take on the role of sporting director of Man United, a key piece of the puzzle for Sir Jim Ratcliffe (right) and INEOS in controlling football operations.
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Ashworth, like many youngsters, nurtured the football dream in his teenage years and tried his best to make it as a right-back in Norwich City’s academy.
He was released at the age of 17 and spent a season in non-league, joining Eastbourne Town in 1989.
But Ashworth is smart enough to know when to change paths and after making the switch to semi-professional football, he combined his work as a PE teacher at Darrick Wood School in Orpington with playing for St Leonards.
After a spell as a coach in the United States with West Florida Fury, he returned to a teaching gig in England while playing for Wisbech Town. In addition to his teaching, he further honed his knowledge and subsequently obtained the UEFA Pro license.
Ashworth’s influence in football since being released by Norwich was also indicated to move into an administrative and strategic role off the pitch.
It was at Peterborough United, where he had become academy director in 2000 and risen through the Cambridgeshire ranks after starting as an education and welfare officer.
Ashworth (left) cut his teeth at West Brom, where he helped send them to the Premier League
No job was ever beneath him either. Wash the set? No problem. Driving the minibus? Give me the keys. It did not go unnoticed from the higher parts of London Road.
“Even then, Dan impressed,” said Barry Fry, Peterborough’s then first-team manager. the Athletics.
‘The boys always found his sessions stimulating and different. It was never, ‘Do it this way.’ He encouraged them to solve problems. He was always a deep thinker and looked for ways to improve the whole club.”
He would spend three years as head of the Center of Excellence at Cambridge United before cutting his teeth in a big way; West Brom wanted him.
Initially he held an academy post helping out old friend Aidy Boothroyd, but by 2007 he was sporting and technical director overseeing four departments.
Then-manager Tony Mowbray praised West Brom as a ‘visionary’ club for handing the role to Ashworth, who helped greatly ease the burden on the coaching staff.
Recruitment was a much bigger focus for him then than it is now and insiders speak of ‘The Shire’, his video room at West Brom which was famous in the Black Country for its forensic analysis of potential players.
Ashworth, a Lord of the Rings fan, hence the name, had cinema-style seating and a multi-screen setup to map players from around the world.
It was DVD recorders he relied on back then, long before he was just one click away from every little detail of services like WyScout, now so popular with top teams.
He was subsequently headhunted by the FA and was instrumental in delivering the ‘England DNA’
Together with Gareth Southgate (left), Ashworth helped lay the foundation for tournament success
“The principle for a technical director, in my opinion, is to look after the medium to long-term interests of the football club,” he told Training Ground Guru in 2020.
‘What is also important is the connection from the boardroom to the field.
‘Every club has a CEO and chairman – and budgets, philosophies and principles – and it’s really important that we convey that, whether it’s club values or maximizing the budget and making sure we spend the money in the right way .’
And the long-term goal at West Brom was to reach the Premier League and stay there; Ashworth delivered. From his time in the role between 2007 and 2012, the Baggies were promoted to the Premier League and subsequently achieved a top half finish.
What is perhaps more relevant – and interesting – in relation to Ashworth and the links with Manchester United are the foundations he laid for success at England, Brighton and most recently Newcastle.
Ashworth was tasked by the FA to transform England’s fortunes – on a wider scale across the game but with the end goal of achieving major tournament success – and oversaw the implementation of the ‘England DNA’ model.
It played an important role in its implementation and consisted of five key elements:
- The future English player
Take the playing style philosophy as a facet of the DNA model; it is something he, along with Erik ten Hag, would have to work on at United if he were to take the job.
“England teams strive to dominate possession intelligently, selecting the right moments to progress and penetrate the opposition,” reads the DNA Bible.
‘Out of Possession: English teams aim to intelligently regain possession as early and efficiently as possible. All aspects of the out of possession philosophy take into account the state of the game, the environment and the predetermined game plan.
‘Transition: English teams strive to sense changing moments in the game, both in and out of possession, and respond instinctively and intelligently.
‘Formation: English teams will play with tactical flexibility, based on the profile of available players and the requirements of the match or competition.’
It is undeniable that the manifesto, which was presented by Ashworth and colleagues to more than 1,500 coaches in 2014, has not had a positive impact on the national team.
In 2018 they reached the semi-finals of the World Cup and at Euro 2020 they were defeated as finalists at Wembley. At the 2022 Qatar World Cup, they were defeated in the quarter-finals by eventual runners-up France.
Ashworth’s fingerprints were all over the place and it was no surprise that United were sniffing around him in 2018, ahead of his move to Brighton. Jose Mourinho cried out for a sporting director to help him at Old Trafford. One never arrived and Mourinho ended up paying with his job.
At Brighton, and most recently Newcastle, the job specs for Ashworth were less about recruitment and the day-to-day planning and more about the longer-term planning to achieve the end goal: in Brighton’s case, European football, something they achieved last season. At Newcastle he had to get into the top four, and they did that in his first year.
“Complacency is dangerous, isn’t it? There is certainly no complacency here,” he said the Telegraph in November, and then scoffed at any prospect of swapping Newcastle for Manchester.
In Newcastle, Eddie Howe (right) has Ashworth help oversee the fulfillment of a vision
United have lost their way in recent years and Ashworth could have a big job ahead of him
United have already plucked Omar Berrada from rivals Manchester City to become their new CEO
‘We want to keep striving and keep pushing. Whether that be with our under nine academy. Whether that is the women’s first team. Whether that is improving the facilities, psychology and player care around the team.
‘Whether it’s improving the training pitch, we have to keep pushing. If you stand still in top sport, you are full. It’s about keep pushing, keep pushing, keep driving in all areas of the football club.’
Manchester United need a visionary, a person INEOS can implicitly trust to work with new CEO Omar Berrada, first team boss Erik ten Hag and key figures such as Academy Director Nick Cox.
As a close friend of Ratcliffe’s right-hand man Sir Dave Brailsford, any move to Old Trafford would be a familiar one. The two are so close that Brailsford gave a speech to the Newcastle United players early in Ashworth’s tenure.
Now it looks like Brailsford will call in his own favor on United: come and make them Premier League champions again.
It’s a tough pitch for Ashworth to turn down.
