Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson has urged Manchester United to get Dan Ashworth as new sporting director before the summer.
Merson believes it will be key for United to get Ashworth in order to improve their recruitment, which he say “has not been good enough”.
Merson told in his column on Sky Sports: “He’s talking about knocking Man City and Liverpool off their perch, but what about Arsenal, Tottenham, Aston Villa and Chelsea? They’re all getting better.
“Man City are the team, I get that. But you still have to look at the others.
“It’s going to be hard, they have to get Dan Ashworth and they have to start from the bottom. Their recruitment hasn’t been good enough.
“Antony is not worth £86m, Jadon Sancho was £73m and is out on loan. If he gets the right people in place, who knows? You have to be careful how quickly it is.
“How much would I pay for Ashworth? He is the future, so you pay whatever in my opinion. He is a signing.
“You’ve got to start from the bottom, you can’t build a house on water, on a puddle, you have to put the concrete down. Ashworth, I know he’ll need people around him, but he will get them in. And then you start recruiting the right people.
“No disrespect to Sancho and Antony, but you can’t keep throwing £160m away light-heartedly. It’s willy-nilly and you can’t go around like that. A lot of Ashworth’s signings that he has overseen at Newcastle could play for Man Utd.”
Newcastle United confirmed that they had put Manchester United bound Ashworth on gardening leave earlier this week.
