New Man Utd sporting director Dan Ashworth has been âhurtâ by Paul Mitchellâs comments about the state of recruitment at Newcastle, according to reports.
Ashworth eventually took over as sporting director at Old Trafford in July after months of wrangling over the compensation that would be owed to the Magpies.
Mitchell, meanwhile, arrived at Newcastle to take over from Ashworth after previous roles in scouting and club development at Southampton, Tottenham, RB Leipzig and Monaco.
Mitchell, 42, played professionally with clubs including Wigan and MK Dons before his career was cut short by injury and he moved into off-field roles.
He became chief scout at MK Dons before moving to Southampton in 2012. He followed manager Mauricio Pochettino to Tottenham in 2014, becoming their head of recruitment. His signings for the north London club included Dele Alli and Son Heung-min.
Mitchell â who has previously been linked with both Liverpool and Man Utd â later joined the Red Bull group, spending time with Leipzig and New York before being appointed as Monaco sporting director in 2020.
A report on Friday claimed that Eddie Howe and Mitchell have âclashed over transfers and the teamâs playing styleâ since the former Monaco man was appointed in July and the former came out to criticise the state of the recruitment department earlier this week.
Mitchell said: âThere are things we got wrong in our strategy for sure. Me coming in when I did probably wasnât the best timing for the organisation but what it has done is allow me to witness a process.
âAs custodians of this club, we canât just keep spending, spending, spending because at some point that wonât enable the club to facilitate its goals.
âI donât think any Newcastle fan wants to see this club in a place where other clubs were last season with docked points (or) financial penalties because that can really affect our growth.
âShould our scouting and recruitment be driven more extensively with a wider reaching net? It definitely should be because this is becoming a really nuanced space now. You canât just capital fund everything every year and buy loads of players at peak age and peak price.
âWas, letâs say, the scouting network, the lengths and breadths of our process and our strategies, including the influence of Eddie Howe, bigger and broader enough? Probably not. And thatâs the bit we analyse to be better. Thatâs the bit we have to adjust and modernise.â
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And now Luke Edwards in the Daily Telegraph has claimed that Man Utd sporting director Ashworth and âother former members of Newcastle Unitedâs recruitment team have been hurt and bemusedâ by Mitchellâs comments that their structure wasnât âfit for purposeâ.
Edwards wrote:
âTelegraph Sport has been told by multiple sources that Mitchellâs criticism has not gone down well with those who were involved in signing players before he took over. These include Ashworth, who left the club in February for Manchester United, as well as former co-owner Amanda Staveley, her husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi and chief scout Steve Nickson.â
The journalist added:
âSome have privately expressed frustration that their recruitment decisions were questioned by Mitchell and are proud of their record while in charge at St Jamesâ Park. One has even suggested this was an attempt to blame others for his own failure to sign a marquee player in his first window.â
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