Dan Ashworth has emerged as a potential target for Arsenal’s vacant sporting director role.
This is primarily due to his good relationship with Arsenal managing director Richard Garlick, and having suddenly become available after leaving Manchester United.
The pair worked together at West Brom until Ashworth joined the Football Association in 2012 and have maintained a friendship since.
Ashworth’s departure from United, confirmed on Sunday, has seen his name added to the list of candidates to replace Edu at the Emirates.
However, it is premature to view Ashworth as the front-runner in a process the club are taking their time to consider and implement.
Edu’s previous No 2 Jason Ayto has stepped up as interim sporting director and is also viewed as a candidate for the role full-time.
Outgoing Real Sociedad sporting director Roberto Olabe is another name in the frame, due to his good relationship with manager Mikel Arteta.
Sky Sports News has already reported that PSG’s Luis Campos is another name under consideration.
Arsenal are not in a rush to appoint someone before the upcoming January transfer window and are more likely to have someone in place with a view to next summer.
The club are considering their medium-to-long-term strategy and who, therefore, would suit the club and the task of leading them forward.
Edu resigned as sporting director in November to take up a role overseeing Evangelos Marinakis’ group of clubs, which includes Nottingham Forest.
Why didn’t it work out for Ashworth at Man Utd?
Sky Sports News’ Melissa Reddy speaking on the Transfer Talk podcast:
“I’ve been told from the club (Man Utd) end that Ashworth is too passive compared to the others.
“He wasn’t taking command of his department and his areas that were under his jurisdiction, and he wasn’t working in the way the hierarchy wanted, and in the manner of which Omar Barada, Jason Wilcox and Christopher Vival have done.
“They felt he was the odd one out, not performing as they had expected him to perform.
“And then the counter to that is Ashworth felt he was being left out of a lot of key decision-making processes.
“A lot of the areas that he was in command of, other hands were involved there, so he wasn’t getting the opportunity to put his stamp on it.
“Things he had suggested in terms of collaborative working, and how the culture of the club could be improved, that had been vetoed.
“Even small little things like Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been very, very strong on United being so far behind in terms of recruitment, and especially analytics in recruitment.
“So when Ashworth would advise getting a very good outside analytics firm to come and help the club, that would get knocked down, and he’s in a position thinking, well, you want better analytics, we don’t have it at the moment, this can help us in the short term.
“Conflicting reports there, but it’s quite clear that the relationship, the set-up, the structure wasn’t working.
“Then you have to ask yourself, having pursued this man so heavily, and made such a fuss over him, his appointment, what did you think you were getting? Because the Dan Ashworth that arrived at United is exactly the Dan Ashworth that’s been at all the other clubs.
“He’s a very good organisational head. He never professed to be a transfer guru or at the cutting edge of analytics, but he’s very good at tying things together and putting a long-term strategy in place. There is a lot of questions surrounding INEOS’ running of the club.”
