Ashworth heading for early NUFC disaster on "absolutely outstanding" £40k-p/w tank - opinion

Newcastle navigated their way through the January transfer window without a permanent director of football in place at St. James’ Park.

PIF delayed making an appointment and were still able to enjoy a strong month, with Chris Wood, Kieran Trippier, Matt Targett, Dan Burn and Bruno Guimaraes all coming in.

However, they are reportedly ready to bring Dan Ashworth to the club at the end of the season to oversee all footballing matters to assist Eddie Howe moving forward.

The ex-Brighton chief will be thrown in at the deep end in the summer to bolster Newcastle’s team with new signings ahead of the 2022/23 campaign. He must also engage in squad management with the current crop of players by deciding who should and who should not stay.

One player he must avoid an early disaster with is central defender Fabian Schar. Ashworth is heading for a quick blunder as it stands as the Switzerland international is out of contract at the end of June and is set to leave on a free transfer.

Unless the situation is resolved before the former FA supremo officially takes the role on, it would be a huge howler not to hand the centre-back a fresh deal. Thus, Ashworth’s first decision in the job should be to offer him a new contract to extend his time with the Magpies as he has been in sensational form of late under Howe.

Since the turn of the year, Schar has played seven matches for the Magpies in all competitions and averaged a SofaScore rating of 7.31. Newcastle won four of those games and kept three clean sheets, with the defender also picking up an assist in the win over Brentford as he teed up Joe Willock for the second goal.

Journalist Dominic Scurr recently dubbed him as “absolutely outstanding” and his statistics certainly reflect that.