We take a break from the Matthijs De Ligt saga to cover some other Manchester United transfer narratives. Dan Ashworth is now officially the Sporting Director. He’s now completed his “gardening leave,” and the former Newcastle front office man is hitting the ground running in his new gig.
Reportedly, he’s a big reason Joshua Zirkzee has agreed to make the switch to join United.
Ashworth, along with manager Erik ten Hag, convinced Zirkzee to leave Bologna.
They assured him that there will be a prominent role for him, alongside Rasmus Hojlund. United badly need a second striker to support the Danish lad.
Now they just need to activate the £34 million release clause. And it sounds like they’re going to do it, sooner rather than later. Give Me Sport has more.
Moving on to Ronald Araujo, FC Barcelona will reportedly let the stellar defender leave, if he himself wants to. However, the Catalan club would only allow a deal to be done if they can get their asking price of €100m met.
In other words, they don’t really want him to leave, and you can file this one under “not going to happen.” Football Espana has more.
Props to Araujo though for how he played in Uruguay’s win over the United States in the Copa America on Monday night.
It wasn’t just the USMNT elimination match that has seen Araujo look dominant. He’s been in top form all tournament long, and it will be interesting to see what Barca do with him long term, as his club future is still uncertain.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to Ravens Wire, part of the USA Today SMG’s NFL Wire Network and the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and the Washington Times. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.