Manchester United hold positive Dan Ashworth talks, fee could be much cheaper than expected

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Manchester United have held positive talks with Newcastle United over a potential deal for their sporting director Dan Ashworth.

It looked like Ineos were closing in on Dan Ashworth around a month ago.

United made Ashworth their top target to become the club’s new sporting director and he communicated his desire to make the move.

Newcastle responded by placing him on gardening leave, seemingly paving the way for a move to Old Trafford.

The big sticking point has been the compensation.

Newcastle allegedly wanted as much as £20million for Ashworth, demands which Sir Jim Ratcliffe branded ‘a bit silly’.

We are now a month on and there has been no movement, in fact things have gone a little quiet – until now.

Manchester United hold Dan Ashworth talks

iNews now report that United have held ‘constructive talks’ with Newcastle over a potential deal for Ashworth.

United spoke to Magpies CEO Darren Eales in the hope of advancing the move.

The report does though note that United and Newcastle ‘remain a fair distance apart’ in terms of their valuations of Ashworth.

A £9million agreement has been played down and sources inside Old Trafford allegedly expect the fee to be even lower.

Newcastle paid around £3million to prise Ashworth away from Brighton and Hove Albion in 2022 and United expect any agreement to be closer to that amount.

That would be quite the comedown from Newcastle’s £20million demand and United will hope to have an agreement wrapped up soon.

Could United be ‘barred’ from Newcastle deals?

The report adds that finer details will be sorted out down the line and the topic of buying Newcastle players could come up.

It’s suggested that United could be ‘barred’ from signing Newcastle players for a certain period of time.

The Magpies won’t want to see Ashworth come and raid them, so an agreement could be put in place for no such deals in the near future.

Newcastle may need to make a big sale or two in the near future and United will surely already have interest in the likes of Bruno Guimaraes and Alexander Isak.

Landing Ashworth may mean that United can’t go anywhere near either player though, ruling out Old Trafford moves.

There is clearly still plenty of work to do, but this update seems encouraging as Newcastle at least seem willing to talk about a deal.

Whether it’s £3million, £9million or £20million, United will surely land Ashworth sooner rather than later – and mark a real coup for the Ineos era.