Eddie Howe has revealed that Newcastle United are 'working as we were' until Dan Ashworth is appointed as the club's new sporting director.
Ashworth resigned as Brighton's technical director last month after being headhunted by recruitment firm Nolan Partners on Newcastle's behalf. Ashworth is currently on an extended period of gardening leave, but Newcastle hope to strike an agreement with the Seagulls so that the 50-year-old can start work as soon as possible.
Brighton are understandably not in a massive rush to essentially strengthen a rival while Newcastle's owners have previously made it clear in negotiations that they will not pay inflated fees for players. It is hard to see that stance suddenly changing to cut short Ashworth's notice.
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Newcastle actually play Brighton at St James' Park on Saturday and, perhaps, it would be a surprise if Ashworth's name did not crop up when Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi welcome their counterparts from the South Coast to the boardroom. Until a breakthrough is made, however, Howe and the club's owners will continue to plough on.
"Until something is official and done, I'm sure you will be the first to hear of it," Howe said when asked more generally about the sporting director search. "We are working as we were until that appointment is made."
Howe and assistant Jason Tindall were part of a transfer committee alongside head of recruitment Steve Nickson and the club's owners as Newcastle tackled an intense January transfer window without a sporting director earlier this year. These figures will continue to have a big say on transfers moving forward.
Recruitment, after all, will be just one part of Ashworth's huge brief at Newcastle and it is important to stress that Paul Winstanley, Brighton's head of recruitment, handled incomings at the Amex. Ashworth, meanwhile, tended to focus on outgoings and contracts on the recruitment side as well as overseeing the men's first team, the women's team, the academy, medical and sports science and the loan department.
Although Ashworth only started work at Brighton in 2019, when the Seagulls were already a Premier League outfit, the technical director has certainly played his part in the club's progress since then at all levels. Howe has previously said that he 'highly respects Dan and his work' and the Newcastle boss has admired how Brighton have operated from afar.
"They have been a very well-run club for a number of years," he said. "You look first at their training ground, which I always think is such a critical place to get right in terms of how it looks, how it feels, the use for the players that are there every day. They've got one of the best training grounds in the country.
"They've got some key appointments right in terms of building the team around the players. It's absolutely crucial you get those appointments right and I think they have.
"Of course, the manager and the players play a huge part in that and that's why I highlighted Graham [Potter] in the job that he has done there but, right from the top, it seems they have got a plan and a strategy and they've implemented it very well."
When it comes to infrastructure, Ashworth will certainly have an input when he takes up his new role. Newcastle's owners are currently looking at sites for a state of the art facility that would house the men's team, the women's team and the academy.
However, this will take a few years yet to plan and build so the hierarchy are keen to do all they can to improve the club's current facility at Benton in the the meantime. There have been a number of cosmetic changes made inside the building and more work is planned before Newcastle eventually move on.
"These things do take time," Howe added. "I remember Brighton having no stadium. For many years, we played them at the Withdean so it wasn't an overnight thing for Brighton.
"It took a lot of time for them to get to where they are now and I'm not certain on the timescales here. It would be foolish of me to say that.
"We have a good training facility here. It's not perfect, but I think it's good. It could be a lot better and we are looking to improve things, especially shorter term, but, longer-term, the club have big ambitions for the training facility but how long that will be? I don't know."
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