Another day, another controversial piece of Newcastle news and this one surrounds the immediate future of Dan Ashworth and his proposed move to either work with a club with Antony or to work with antihistamines.

Dan Ashworth joined us back in February 2022, with hopes of him being the spearhead to the operations of the new regime, however to now Ashworth has had a limited impact on Newcastle’s transfer policy. Since joining we’ve signed Isak; Botman; Targett; Pope; Ashby; Kuol; Gordon; Karius; Tonali; Barnes; Livramento; Minteh and Hall, of which only four of these has input from Ashworth: Tonali, Barnes, Hall and Minteh.

So, the four signings he’s helped make possible, how successful have they been? Well firstly I’ll disregard Yankuba Minteh as he’s spent the season at Feyenoord but the other three let’s touch upon.

Lewis Hall was signed as a young left back to be used in rotation with Dan Burn but this hasn’t been the case and it seems as though he was never wanted by anyone at the club, especially Eddie and has turned out to be more of a 4^th string left back (behind Targett, Tino and Burn).

Barnes I’d say has been the most successful of the bunch, playing 10 games in all competitions for us registering one goal and one assist in this time. Yet, most of Barnes time has been disrupted by injury and with Anthony Gordon making himself a key player (signed after Ashworth joined nonetheless but very much by Eddie and the ownership and NOT Ashworth) Barnes route into the team when everyone is fit is questionable at best.

And now for the big one, the £55m signing Sandro Tonali who has had a superbly woeful season. Ashworth, like Tonali is forever the gambler, and in similarity to the Italian also doesn’t know when to hold them and when to fold as he doesn’t even seem to have questioned why AC Milan were willing to let a 23-year-old playing well, and only going to get better go for less than £60m. Just shows a lack of questioning which could define someone within that role.

The big question is why? Why leave us now when he believes in the project? Why a club like Manchester Reds? Well, the simple answer is he has no loyalty. Jumped ship from West Brom to the FA, left them for Brighton, allegedly did a “fantastic” job at a Brighton (they’ve done better both before and after him) and who’s to say he won’t scam his way up to Real Madrid or Bayern Munich within five minutes of entering Old Trashford?

Simply, take the £20m off of Manchester Reds tell Ashworth to pack his bags and move on, or let him become the next Alan Titchmarsh and get his secreters out to prune his bushes because there’s not a cat in hells chance he’s allowed back to Newcastle

Joe Horn