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Soon-to-be sporting director of Manchester United, Dan Ashworth, has reportedly met with former Brighton and Chelsea boss, Graham Potter.
News broke last month that Ashworth has given the green light to a move to Old Trafford and to take up a significant role in INEOS’ brand new recruitment team.
The director is currently on gardening leave at Newcastle as the two Premier League clubs try and negotiate the compensation fee United will have to pay the Magpies to release Ashworth from his contract.
However, it appears that this has not stopped the 52 year old from making an unofficial start at his new job.
The Sun report that United’s “incoming sporting director Dan Ashworth has met with Graham Potter as pressure grows on Erik ten Hag”.
“Ashworth and Potter worked closely at Brighton and it is understood the pair got together last weekend”.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is certainly a known admirer of Potter.
The paper claims that Ratcliffe is “a big fan of the ex-Brighton boss and tried to get him to manage his French side Nice”.
The same newspaper reported back in December that Ratcliffe met with the former Chelsea man and favours him as the new boss should Ten Hag be sacked at the end of the window.
It is also highlighted by The Sun that Ratcliffe failed to offer his public backing to Erik ten Hag during extensive interviews he held with various news outlets once the INEOS deal to own part of the club was rubber stamped.
It does seem more likely that Erik ten Hag and United’s futures will be away from one another.
An unthinkable situation at the end of last season, poor tactical choices and stubbornness have led even his biggest fans to question his future at the club.
Consequently, the Old Trafford side have been linked to a range of different managers. What we consider to be much more reliable sources earlier in the week reported that Potter wasn’t even on INEOS’ three man short list of Thomas Tuchel, Roberto De Zerbi and Antonio Conte to replace the former Ajax chief.
However, with the Englishman’s connections to Ashworth and Ratcliffe, it cannot be totally ruled out that Potter could be INEOS’ choice to replace the Dutchman.
[…] source https://www.soccer2day.co.za/2024/03/02/dan-ashworth-reportedly-meets-graham-potter-to-spark-rumours… […]