Have AFC Bournemouth just dropped a huge hint about Newcastle United's future? We think so

Newcastle United are now shopping around for a new sporting director after Dan Ashworth handed in a request to leave last month amid interest from Manchester United.

Upon receiving Ashworth's request the club wasted no time in placing Ashworth on gardening leave - hardly the time of year for pruning rose bushes, but you get what you get, Ashworth.

That means there is now a huge vacancy left in the middle of everything that the club are trying to achieve with Ashworth previously installed as the centre of the wheel that made up the new-look Newcastle United.

Newcastle will be looking for a new sporting director

It's now believed that whoever fills that void will not have the same overarching power that Ashworth had and that his responsibilities will be spread more evenly throughout the club.

There will still be a need to bring in a sporting director/director of football and one name that is apparently on that list is Richard Hughes of Bournemouth.

Hughes was at Bournemouth with Eddie Howe and Jason Tindall so there's a pre-existing working relationship there which will be an advantage if he is to come to Newcastle, which now may happen with Bournemouth announcing today that Hughes will be leaving the club at the end of the season.

It could just be a huge coincidence, sure, but it doesn't feel like it.

Richard Hughes to Newcastle just seems a bit too ... easy

If this is the case then we really hope to be eating our words later down the line, but appointing from Bournemouth doesn't feel very ambitious, does it? We don't know a great deal about Hughes, so we're judging him purely off where he's coming from, but there are bigger and better names out there, people that do have a sterling reputation that we could be looking at.

Phil Giles of Brentford has done wonders with that club and is a Newcastle supporter, he sounds ideal. Then there's Michael Edwards who left Liverpool in 2022 - he may take some convincing, but he would be an excellent appointment.

Going for Hughes just seems too easy. But at the end of the day, I know nothing here and those inside the club know far more than I do. Also, this is just us jumping to a conclusion here, there's nothing yet to say he's on his way to Tyneside.