Dan Ashworth and Paul Mitchell

Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos are considering bringing in both Dan Ashworth and Paul Mitchell to completely revamp how Manchester United approach the transfer market.

Former Tottenham head of recruitment Mitchell had been a frontrunner to take over as director of football from John Murtough, who is widely expected to leave his role once Ratcliffe’s 25 per cent stake in United has been ratified in the next six to eight weeks.

However, sources have told i that while Mitchell is still very much of interest to Sir Dave Brailsford, Ineos’s head of sport who is overseeing an audit of the club, he is in fact being considered for a head of recruitment role, with Ashworth still No 1 priority as sporting director.

Ashworth is happy in his current role at Newcastle United and the North-east club are adamant it is “business as usual", with no plans to allow the former Brighton chief to leave St James’ Park having only joined in 2022.

However, that has not deterred Brailsford, an insider has told i, even if it would require a substantial compensation package to prize Ashworth from his current employer.

“This is what he is good at – getting the right people in, in the right roles. He won’t interfere with coaching or tell a manager which players to sign.

“He will get the right person in to do that. And he always gets his man."

Should Brailsford fail in his attempts to convince Ashworth, who is a long-standing friend, to join United, Mitchell could still be handed the director of football role.

With £1.67bn having been spent and largely wasted on a host of ill-fitting stars, Brailsford and Ratcliffe have made it their priority to completely reset the club’s transfer philosophy.

Ratcliffe and Brailsford told the United hierarchy, in no uncertain terms, what they thought of their transfer market record in the post Sir Alex Ferguson era when they visited Old Trafford in March.

Chief executive Richard Arnold has since departed and is expected to be replaced by Jean-Claude Blanc, with Murtough soon to follow Arnold out the door, several sources told i.

Blanc accompanied Brailsford and Ratcliffe at Old Trafford and Carrington for meetings with staff on Monday, with plans for an introduction with Erik ten Hag in place for Tuesday. The players will also get to spend time with the Manchester-born billionaire at some point this week as part of initiation procedures.

Despite United slipping to a 21st defeat of the calendar year on Saturday, Ten Hag’s position is not under immediate threat, insiders said, while Brailsford attempts to oversee a major overhaul further up the hierarchical structure.

Brailsford and Ashworth are close, with their relationship going back many years. Only last year Ashworth invited Brailsford to address his Newcastle squad after he arrived at St James’ Park.

At the time, Ashworth commented: “I’ve known Sir Dave for a number of years, working across various different sports and he is without doubt the best in world sport at creating a high-performance culture and turning that into winning."

Mitchell’s track record is an impressive one, helping Mauricio Pochettino make his way in England at Southampton, bringing Sadio Mane, Graziano Pelle and Dusan Tadic to the south coast.

He went with Pochettino to Spurs, acquiring Dele Alli, Son Heung-min, Kieran Trippier and Toby Alderweireld, before moving to RB Leipzig and then Monaco.

Mitchell operated in the “same circles", insiders said, as Monaco resident Ratcliffe and is well liked by the Ineos chairman. Brailsford, however, has a different favourite.

There has been an attempt to take a different approach to the transfer market since Ten Hag came in at United, with more faith put in the manager to identify and bring in new arrivals – to equally limited success – £85m Antony a prime example of yet another failure.

Combining Ashworth’s and Mitchell’s talents, however, could give United a structure to match Manchester City’s impressive set-up, one capable of righting the previous decade of transfer wrongs.

https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/man-utd-dan-ashworth-paul-mitchell-transfer-strategy-2834044