Report: Newcastle eye former Chelsea man for top job amid prolonged negotiations

Newcastle United are assessing their options when it comes to a new sporting director after Dan Ashworth was placed on gardening leave by the club.

Dan Ashworth submitted a request to leave following Sir Jim Ratcliffe's buy-in to Manchester United being approved with the INEOS giant always keen on taking the form FA man away from Newcastle when the deal was complete.

Newcastle granted Ashworth's request but placed him on garden leave for the duration of his contract which expires at the end of 2025. Negotiations between the two clubs over a compensation package that would trigger Newcastle to release Ashworth early have been ongoing for weeks with no end in sight, although it is being reported that talks are progressing amicably.

Meanwhile, Newcastle's search for a replacement continues with several names in the frame.

Scott McLachlan oversaw some huge transfers for Chelsea

TeamTalk have now claimed that the Magpies are considering former Chelsea head of international scouting, Scott McLachlan who was with the Blues for 11 years under Roman Abramovich but left following the takeover by Todd Boehly.

If we think about the players that came and went at Chelsea through the Abramovich era, 2011 onwards, then there were some big, big names who ended up there, the bulk of which will have resulted from McLachlan's work. The likes of Kevin de Bruyne, Eden Hazard and Antonio Rudiger all went to Chelsea under McLachlan's watch.

However, it was Michael Emenalo (P Q R S...) who was the head of recruitment until 2017 before McLachlan was promoted to that role, so although McLachlan was involved, he didn't have the final say for the first six years. However, 2017 saw Chelsea bringing Kepa Arrizabalaga, Jorginho and Christian Pulisic to name a few.

Ignore the fact that Chelsea, during that time, partook in some creative accounting, we hope that McLachlan had no part of that, then he looks like another decent candidate for the role, especially as it's understood that whoever comes in next won't have the same amount of responsibility that Dan Ashworth was said to have and will be more heavily focused on player recruitment, then someone like McLachlan would be ideal.

Although, it is also worth mentioning that Chelsea fans did turn on McLachlan toward the end of his career there, after Chelsea spent over £200million on players who didn't even make it into the starting lineup.

Newcastle are being thorough with their search

There are other names in the frame for Newcastle with Phil Giles of Brentford, Bournemouth's Richard Hughes and former Monaco man Paul Mitchell have all been mentioned along with a few other outsider candidates.

Giles is a Newcastle fan and has overseen Brentford's rise to the Premier League and he would probably be our frontrunner, just for his north east connections, however, Paul Mitchell has a sterling reputation in the game, and now there's no denying Scott McLachlan's credentials either.

Ideally, we'd like the club to avoid having to wait out any gardening leave, so that could rule out the move for Giles as he's still under contract at Brentford, but Mitchell and McLachlan are pretty much good to go.