Lukaku swoop and Matic discovery: Inside Newcastle sporting director Dan Ashworth's transfer success

Newcastle United's new sporting director Dan Ashworth will play a crucial role in the recruitment on Tyneside both this summer and beyond. The 51-year-old arrives in the north east with a respected track record and a wealth of knowledge in this field.

Ashworth 's time at the FA coincided with England's U17 and U20 sides winning their respective World Cups. Gareth Southgate also praised the work of his technical director before he departed for Brighton.

It was on the south coast where he continued his good work, overseeing six key roles as he worked closely with Brighton chairman Tony Bloom. Before then Ashworth honed his craft at West Brom.

It's a long time since his stint at the Baggies but Ashworth is still remembered fondly at the Hawthorns. The director himself also rates his time at the club as a success, despite admitting in recent years that he had very limited knowledge of what a sporting director's role entailed when he was promoted to that position.

Ashworth believes Romelu Lukaku was his best signing at the club after they managed to persuade then up and coming Belgian to leave Chelsea temporarily. “I think as a loan, Lukaku has gone on to have a fantastic career so player-wise probably him,” he said earlier this year.

“We put a presentation together because he had two or three other Premier League clubs who were in for him at the time. And Rom came to us and scored 17 goals that season and really helped us finish in the top eight."

Ashworth has made no secret of his penchant for travelling abroad and scouting unknown gems. But it doesn't always work out, as he discovered when he took Roy Hodgson to the Netherlands to scout a centre-back. “Roy didn’t like him, said he was no good and told me I’d wasted