So Brighton are after £5000000 from us to buy out Dan Ashworth’s gardening leave. Originally Brighton acted as if it was all ok but now they are playing hard ball. Are our owners to blame? Is he worth all this trouble? Can we afford not to get him before the summer and let EH make all the signings?
**** them. He can still give advice to us off the record before he starts. Just gotta make sure there is no paper trail.
Brighton think we'll sort this. After the £25m for Wood (not his fault) we may as well come to a deal and move on.
I thought that there was a 9month garden leave clause in his contract so when he resigned it was understood he would not take another job for 9months. Newcastle are now trying to negotiate a reduction in the length of the leave for a payment. Probably too late now but if Newcastle had just backed off and let him discuss it with them he could probably have got it sorted. Once they thought we were desperate they smelled a pay-off. He is probably unofficially already involved with us anyway.
£5m? Our new owners will have lost more than that down their sofas and not even noticed. Tiz but a drop in the ocean!
Let's be honest Brighton are not going to make it easy for us. We've already basically stolen the Geordie Maldini off them. At this moment we are a direct rival to them and we are now getting Ashworth who it seems has been a huge part of their development. I think he's the perfect choice so hope they can get it done as soon as poss.
Just negotiate it down a bit to 2m or something, just to show we down fritter away cash for the hell of it. They're rich but the ain't being exploited, like when they didn't give in to Man U's ridiculous Lingard offer.
Nah, **** that. That sets a ridiculous precedent. The guy's a ****ing suit not an up and coming striker. Its hardly ****ing rocket science the job he does. Go to best training ground in world, show architects what you want - boom. Speak with scouts and hoover up best young talent - boom. They're off their ****ing rocker asking £5m - utter bellends.
I'm sure he could accidentally drop some designs/notes next to the SJP offices. Or, as part of the selection process follow-up, the owners could ask him to present what 'type' of thing he 'might' do 'if' he were in the role now. Fairly standard procedure for appointing senior/strategy roles.
