Sometimes TalkSPORT's Simon Jordan gets things so absolutely spot on that it's easy to forget all the times he's been incredibly wrong.
This is one of those times. The former Crystal Palace owner has a reputation for speaking his mind and being quite obnoxious while doing so, but there's always a truth to what he's saying whether you agree with him or not.
Now Jordan has waded in on the current situation at Newcastle United with the club demanding a hefty sum from Manchester United to buy Sporting Director Dan Ashworth out of his contract.
Man United are adamant that Newcastle are asking far too much money, and in a very real sense, yes they are, but not without reason.
Dan Ashworth is less than two years into a long-term project and has colluded with Sir Jim Ratcliffe before an official approach was made to the club, so on those two points alone, Newcastle deserve hefty compensation. Then when you also factor in how much Ashworth has been involved in the planning of Newcastle's ambitious project, it's no wonder the club feel they are owed a record fee.
It's that latter point that Simon Jordan believes justifies Newcastle's demands as he made his point clear on TalkSPORT.
“He’s been there for 20 months and been responsible for two or three hundred million on transfers. Most of them have worked out well and now he’s gone to Man United. Fair play to Newcastle. If Newcastle can go to Man United ‘you want him? You’ve got to pay for it’.
“Would I hold out for my £20million? Damn right I would. Damn straight I would. I’d make them pay every single last cent that I could possibly rinse out of them because they don’t get to take my vision in the same way Newcastle had to pay compensation to Brighton.
“Man United have brought in £1.6billion worth of players over the last 10 years. Their recruitment policy has gone to the dogs, their development of young players has gone to the dogs – they’re not a great football club at doing things on the pitch."
As Jordan has said there, they're not just taking away the person, they're taking away our vision. Regardless of how many of the ideas were actually Ashworth's, the point is, he knows them all and he could give Manchester United every opportunity to beat us to every potential transfer or every potential staff member and halt our progress massively.
For Man United it's surely a small price to pay for that insight, and for us, it's a fair compensation for the inconvenience it will cause.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Liverpool
|
12 | 16 | 31 |
2 |
Manchester City
|
12 | 5 | 23 |
3 |
Chelsea
|
12 | 9 | 22 |
4 |
Arsenal
|
12 | 9 | 22 |
5 |
Brighton
|
12 | 5 | 22 |
6 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
12 | 14 | 19 |
7 |
Nottingham Forest
|
12 | 2 | 19 |
8 |
Aston Villa
|
12 | 0 | 19 |
9 |
Fulham
|
12 | 0 | 18 |
10 |
Newcastle United
|
12 | 0 | 18 |
11 |
Brentford
|
12 | 0 | 17 |
12 |
Manchester United
|
12 | 0 | 16 |
13 |
Bournemouth
|
12 | -1 | 15 |
14 |
West Ham United
|
12 | -4 | 15 |
15 |
Everton
|
12 | -7 | 11 |
16 |
Leicester
|
12 | -8 | 10 |
17 |
Wolves
|
12 | -8 | 9 |
18 |
Ipswich
|
12 | -10 | 9 |
19 |
Crystal Palace
|
12 | -7 | 8 |
20 |
Southampton
|
12 | -15 | 4 |