The talent spotter who brought Garang Kuol to the Premier League is set to be poached by Manchester United, further clouding the future of one of Australian football’s brightest young talents.
Newcastle United sporting director Dan Ashworth was placed on gardening leave this week after telling the club that he wants to quit and take up an offer from Manchester United, whose new part-owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, has made his appointment a priority.
Like many Aussies before him who have headed to Europe, Garang Kuol’s career is being heavily shaped by factors outside of his control.Credit: Illustration: Stephen Kiprillis
Ratcliffe’s 25 per cent buy-in was officially approved this week, and the British petrochemical tycoon is planning a major shake-up of the underachieving club. His move for Ashworth, who he has described as one of the best sporting directors in the world, is central to those plans – and it could have significant consequences for Kuol, who is on loan at Dutch Eredivisie club FC Volendam from Newcastle this season.
Ashworth was the key driver behind Kuol’s signing from the Central Coast Mariners last January in a deal that supposedly heralded a new direction for Newcastle’s youth and academy recruitment after their purchase by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
Ashworth had been in the job for less than three months when Newcastle fended off interest from the likes of Barcelona, Chelsea and VfB Stuttgart to secure the teenager, who burst onto the scene with a series of stunning cameos off the bench in the A-League in 2022 and earned selection for the World Cup in Qatar despite never having started a professional match. At 18, he became the youngest player to feature in the knockout stages of the competition since Pele in 1958 and came agonisingly close to forcing eventual champions Argentina into extra time in their round of 16 clash with Australia.
When Kuol returns to Newcastle at the end of the Eredivisie season, his most crucial ally at the club will not be there, and there is no guarantee that Ashworth’s replacement will hold him in the same esteem. Having struggled for game time in his second successive loan spell, partly due to political upheaval behind the scenes at Volendam, that does not bode well for Kuol’s hopes of playing Premier League football in the short or even medium term, or for his prospects of a Socceroos recall.
Kuol’s situation is a reminder of how many factors that can influence a young footballer’s career are beyond their control. It also echoes the warning sounded by Daniel Arzani, the Socceroos’ last “next big thing” who was once on Manchester City’s books, about the pitfalls of being a developing player at an elite club.
Hearts’ Socceroos contingent grew to four when Garang Kuol (second left) joined Nathaniel Atkinson, Cammy Devlin and Kye Rowles at the Edinburgh club.Credit: Getty
Ashworth was fully aware that Kuol was an unpolished gem when he penned his four-year deal with Newcastle given that he had only been playing organised football for a couple of years before his emergence in the A-League. With so much physical, technical and tactical improvement needed before he was ready for Eddie Howe’s Premier League squad, the club mapped out an 18-month plan to round out his attributes and expose him to first-team football elsewhere rather than dropping him down to Newcastle’s under-21s – a level he was deemed too good for.
How Manchester United’s sale could leave Socceroos young gun out in the cold
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24.02.2024
The talent spotter who brought Garang Kuol to the Premier League is set to be poached by Manchester United, further clouding the future of one of Australian football’s brightest young talents.
Newcastle United sporting director Dan Ashworth was placed on gardening leave this week after telling the club that he wants to quit and take up an offer from Manchester United, whose new part-owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, has made his appointment a priority.
Like many Aussies before him who have headed to Europe, Garang Kuol’s career is being heavily shaped by factors outside of his control.Credit: Illustration: Stephen Kiprillis
Ratcliffe’s 25 per cent buy-in was officially approved this week, and the British petrochemical tycoon is planning a major shake-up of the underachieving club. His move for Ashworth, who he has described as one of the best sporting directors in........
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