Dan Ashworth outlines his ambitions for Newcastle United

Speaking to The Northern Echo as part of his first series of interviews following his appointment as Newcastle’s sporting director, Ashworth was keen to spell out his vision for the Magpies’ growth in the next few years.

When Amanda Staveley completed her Saudi-backed group’s buyout of Ashley last autumn, she bullishly talked of toppling Manchester City as England’s leading club side.

Ashworth is slightly more reserved as he assesses Newcastle’s prospects, but while the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules might limit the extent to which Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) can financially support the club, he nevertheless regards winning trophies and challenging the established top six as a realistic ambition, even if that would require rapid growth in a number of different areas following a decade of stagnation under Ashley.

“I think everybody would admit there are certain areas of the club that have been run on more of a skeleton framework and a survival basis,” said Ashworth, “It was like, ‘If we can stay in the Premier League, that’s fine or enough’.

“That’s not enough anymore. So, consequently, we have to upscale the majority of departments and facilities in order to try to achieve our goals, which are to finish higher up the league and compete for trophies.

“They are our aspirational targets, and that’s the trajectory the club is going towards over the next few years. So, consequently, there is a building out of structures and capacity needed, in order to be able to achieve that.”

One of the early concrete examples of investment and improvement under the new regime has occurred at the training ground, where facilities have been improved for both the first-team group and academy.

There is a long-term desire to build a brand-new training complex, with Ashworth also working on a number of other long-term projects involving infrastructure, recruitment and scouting.

However, with investment levels having plummeted under Ashley, Newcastle’s new ownership group have been forced to make a number of immediate changes to address what was in danger of becoming an irreversible decline.

In key areas such as staffing numbers, commercial arrangements and physical infrastructure, Newcastle’s owners have been forced to act quickly to confront issues that had been allowed to remain unaddressed under the previous regime.

“Some things are probably stocked and fit for purpose,” said Ashworth. “But there are other areas that needed improvement. In some, that was an issue of head count, in others it might have been a facilities issue.

“So, the training ground is going through a period of improving our capacity. That’s not only to fit more people in there, it’s also to improve it for players on recovery, on diet and nutrition, a lot of money has gone into new training pitches for example.

“There are some short-term fixes you can have. But then there’s also the longer-term question of whether (the club needs) a purpose-built training (complex) that can incorporate an academy, women’s and first team, that may or may not be coming down the track. That’s more about the long-term, and those are processes that are harder to fix.”

Having taken up his post as sporting director in the summer, Ashworth, a former director of elite development at the Football Association, found himself pitched straight into the manic wheeler-dealing of the transfer window.

Newcastle made four senior additions during the summer window, before adding a fifth when Loris Karius arrived as a free agent last month, and while he concedes that no transfer period is ever perfect, Ashworth was more than satisfied with his first few months in charge of the Magpies’ recruitment team.

“Being pitched into a summer window without building relationships and understanding how the board works, how Eddie works or how the recruitment works, has been a challenge,” he said. “Obviously, you are stuck within a tight timeframe because the transfer window shuts on September 1.

“So, it was about getting players out and off the books, getting some players in on loan from a development pathway point of view, adjusting contracts, for example Elliot Anderson, and then bringing in some senior and youth recruits.

"We brought in five senior players, and signed five younger players (for the development ranks). I’ve been doing this job 15 years now, and I don’t think I’ve ever said the day after deadline, ‘That was perfect and we got every position we wanted and everybody we wanted’.

“I would always like more emerging talents for the category of those younger players, and possibly one more to support the first team. But, overall, I was really pleased with the players we signed and business we did.”