Dan Ashworth makes Newcastle United transfer claim plus Man Utd & Liverpool admission after £25m deal

Ashworth’s first season at Newcastle saw the club claim a surprise fourth place finish in the Premier League and qualify for the Champions League for the first time in over 20 years.

And now The Magpies are competing with Europe’s elite clubs, the objective is to stay there. But that is easier said than done given the competitive nature of the Premier League.

And Ashworth has warned there may be some ‘bumps in the road’ as the club strives for success.

“The vision of the football club [over] the next number of years is to fight and get into the top six on a regular basis and compete for trophies,” Ashworth said ahead of Newcastle United’s Champions League trip to Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday night (5:45pm kick-off).

“But in football, it can flip around really quickly as well. You can lose two or three on the trot and all of a sudden... we lost three games on the trot at the start of the season and it was ‘okay, what’s happened?’ Success has never been a straight line.

“I know it’s a bit of corny phrase, especially in the Premier League where anyone can beat anybody and things can happen really quickly. We’re on an upward trajectory but there are definitely some bumps in the road.

“And that’s the nature of football but we’re on the right pathway.”

Newcastle United’s commercial revenue has increased significantly since Ashworth’s appointment with lucrative partnerships agreed with the likes of Noon.com, Saudia and the record £25million-per-season shirt sponsorship deal with Sela.

But The Magpies’ commercial revenue is still some way behind the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool and Manchester City, thus limiting their spending power due to Financial Fair Play.

“What’s really difficult is to be able to compete commercially [with ‘top six’ clubs],” Ashworth admitted.

“Some of those clubs have been a global brand for decades and that’s one of the big challenges for Peter [Silverstone], Darren [Eales] and the team as well as we’ve all got to try and work together to try and get ourselves into a situation where not only are we a top six club on the pitch but also a top six club off the pitch and really try and drive the revenues and interest in the club as well which gives us more ammunition in order to be able to compete on the pitch.

“The more revenue we can drive, the more income we can get and the easier it is to be more competitive because the budget, the playing budget is able to be increased. It’s also about making the most of the resources that we’ve got so we can acquire players below market value and acquire potential players rather than performance players.

“So players who maybe are younger that we see a huge amount of potential in. It’s about opening up pathways for the academy. If Elliot’s [Anderson] and Lewis’ [Miley] can come and step up into the Premier League, that’s a really cost efficient way of using your resources. So, as a club, it’s really important to me and to us that we look at all aspects about how we can make our resources go further.”

Ashworth also explained how Newcastle’s future budgets will be dictated by Champions League and European qualification.

“There are historic top six clubs who haven’t got European revenue this year and they would have adjusted their budgets accordingly,” he continued.

“Of course we want to be in the Champions League as much as we can over the coming years but it’s incredibly difficult.”