Five possible candidates for key Newcastle United role including former Liverpool and Spurs employees

Manchester United’s attempts to lure Dan Ashworth away from Newcastle United took a step forward when the Magpies placed their Sporting Director on gardening leave.

The former England head of elite development has spent the last two years at St James Park but his time on Tyneside has now come to an end after the Magpies confirmed his departure in a short statement released on Monday afternoon.

It read: “Newcastle United can announce that Dan Ashworth has commenced a period of gardening leave. Darren Eales, Newcastle United CEO, said: "We are naturally disappointed that Dan has chosen to leave, however our exciting journey doesn't stop and the process to recruit a new sporting director will begin immediately. We thank Dan for his efforts at Newcastle United and we wish him and his family well for the future."

Talks over a move to Old Trafford are believed to be ongoing as Newcastle are reportedly looking to receive a fee of over £15m before they will give the green light to their Premier League rivals and allow Ashworth to head up a new look recruitment team with the Red Devils. Newcastle are already considering several candidates to succeed Ashworth and there are a number of key figures already being linked with a move to St James Park.

Richard Hughes

It probably should not be a surprise to see Hughes linked with the role at Newcastle. The former Scotland international worked as part of Eddie Howe’s recruitment team during his managerial reign at Bournemouth and stepped up to the role of technical director. Hughes has been linked with a similar role at Liverpool in recent months. The 44-year-old opened up on recruitment and building on Howe’s work in an interview with the Cherries website in 2019.

He said: “The thing about recruitment, you’re dealing with humans and human performance so all you can do is to be as knowledgeable as possible, have as much information as possible and hope that you make more good decisions than bad. Here, character and attitude is such a huge aspect of the players we have and the culture that Eddie’s instilled at the club. That means that finding information out about a player beyond what you can see in the 90 minutes is more important.  That’s something which we’ve always been big on but we’ve increased our efforts in finding out as much as we can about the individuals that we’re bringing into the building.”

Michael Edwards

Possibly the most high-profile name to be linked with the vacancy left behind by Ashworth’s exit, Edwards enjoyed a successful spell at Liverpool and he has been described as ‘a prime target’ for the Magpies hierarchy. Edwards left his role at Anfield in June 2022 and has since worked alongside Liverpool’s former director of research to set up an advisory firm within the football industry.

Edwards has been credited with the successful signings of the likes of Mo Salah, Sadio Mane, Andy Robertson, Virgil van Dijk and Alisson during his time at Anfield and oversaw a number of big sales as academy graduates Dominic Solanke, Rhian Brewster and Jordan Ice were sold for combined fees of around £60m.

Phil Giles

A lifelong Newcastle United supporter from a family full of Magpies fans, Giles has forged an impressive reputation for himself after being named as director of football at Brentford in May 2015. Giles was also appointed to the Bees’ main board of directors just over a year later and has been constantly mentioned as a key factor behind Brentford’s rise from the Championship to becoming an established Premier League club.

Speaking about the environment at the club last year, he said: “Fundamentally, a high-performance environment is all in the mind; it’s that willingness to reach the next level. When your owner is so aligned to a high-performance environment and just being better every day, and he isn’t judging the results themselves but rather the underlying performances and what’s happening on the ground day to day, that means that people can actually be confident and faithful to that belief.

“One of the things about football is that you can go home after a game on Saturday and the league table is on national news. You are effectively putting on the television a judgement on how you are doing.”

Paul Mitchell

Newcastle are far from the only club said to be considering a move for the former Wigan Athletic and MK Dons player after he forged a strong reputation within recruitment circles. After his playing career came to an end in 2009, Mitchell was named as MK Dons’ first ever head of recruitment during the following year before taking up a similar role working under Maurice Pochettino at Southampton in January 2012.

Mitchell followed the current Chelsea boss to Spurs just over two years later and was credited with the signings of as Dele Alli, Son Heung-min, Toby Alderweireld and Newcastle star Kieran Trippier. Mitchell has also worked as Technical Director within Red Bull’s global football group and joined French club Monaco as sporting director in June 2020. The likes of Manchester United and Liverpool are also said to be keen on the 42-year-old.

Tiago Pinto

This could be a chance of right person at the right time after Pinto left his role as Roma’s general manager last month. After joining the Serie A club in 2021, Pinto caused something of a shock when he persuaded former Chelsea and Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho to take charge at Roma. His moves in the transfer market, which included a deal to sign Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham, played a part in helping the club become the first ever winners of the Europa Conference League.

However, he left the club in February after they were unable to find a place in this season’s Champions League and show little indication of wronging that right during the current campaign. Pinto was still the recipient of warm praise when his departure was confirmed.

Speaking about Pinto’s departure, Roma joint-owners Dan and Ryan Friedkin said: "We would like to thank Tiago for his tireless commitment to the entire Organization since day one, from the Men’s First Team to the Youth Academy and the Women’s Department. His term of office will come to an end at the closing of this winter transfer window. The process of hiring a new sporting director is underway and we look forward to making an announcement in the coming weeks.”