PE teacher to Champions League: Former West Brom technical director Dan Ashworth's rise to Europe with Newcastle United

Howe, his assistant Jason Tindall and his Newcastle players will quite rightly receive the plaudits for upsetting the odds and breaking into the Premier League's top four.

However, another man who has played a big hand in the Magpies return to Europe is former West Brom technical director Dan Ashworth.

Ashworth, a former PE teacher, arrived at St James' Park less than a year ago.

He has overseen two transfer windows that saw the club bring in key players such as Alexander Isak, Matt Targett, Sven Botman and Nick Pope, while making big changes behind the scenes at the club.

The 52-year-old, whose son Zac has recently returned to West Brom following a loan spell at Burton Albion, was arguably the most in-demand sporting and technical director in the country before taking the job at Newcastle.

His move came on the back of successful spells at Brighton and England, but his journey began back at The Hawthorns back in 2008 when, the role of a technical director did not even exist.

Prior to taking over at St James' Park in 2022, Ashworth spoke exclusively to the Express & Star's Baggies Broadcast podcast about his career, and how the club played a part in revolutionising the technical director role.

He explained: "The chairman Jeremy Peace called me and asked me to come and see him. I just thought it was a monthly meeting about the academy.

“But he said he’d spoken to Tony Mowbray and they wanted me to be sporting and technical director.

“I said ‘what is it?’

“Jeremy was a visionary. He had spent a lot of time looking at clubs across Europe and felt he wanted the role to fit between the board and the football side. And he explained what he wanted me to do. He said there are four main areas, player recruitment, men’s first-team, the academy and medical and sports science.

“It was about devising and getting a strategy that would put West Bromwich Albion in a good place for years to come and just get a thoroughness around those processes.

“But I said again, ‘I don’t really know what the job is, chairman.

“I didn’t know what the job was but Jeremy told me to have a go at it.

“He said his rationale was that he wanted a suit that could wear a tracksuit and a tracksuit that can wear a suit.

“He wanted to be able to put together a plan that would help us medium to long-term."

Ashworth had little time to think about the job before accepting it - and he made sure that if the role wasn't for him that he had a back up plan.

He explained: “He didn’t give me long. I really didn’t know what the job was so I told him I would do it until the end of the season but I had a couple of conditions.

“I said I wanted to have it in writing that if he didn’t like me doing the job, or I didn’t like the job, I could have my academy manager’s job back at the end of the season.

“And he said, okay.

“So I had it in writing that I was sporting and technical director until the end of the season and either one of us could say it’s not quite worked out, you can have your academy manager’s job back.

“I did become sporting and technical director without knowing what the job was. And I’ve stayed there ever since.”

It is safe to say that Ashworth didn't need his back up plan and thrived in the position created by Peace.

He is still fondly remembered for his time at Albion. He helped to build a first class academy as well as a top quality scouting network that led to a string of top signings. Those signings would go on to help the club enjoy eight successive seasons in the Premier League.

The 52-year-old left the club to join the England set up in 2013, spending five years working for the FA.

He made another considerable impact in the job, and was at one stage linked with a host of top clubs, including Manchester United.

While with England, the national youth and women's sides enjoyed a string of successes. The women finished third in the 2015 World Cup, the under 19 men won the European Championships, with other youth sides winning a number of Toulon titles.

Following a successful 2018 World Cup campaign, which saw the men's senior side reach the semi-finals of a major tournament for the first time since 1996, Ashworth departed to join Brighton.

And yet again, he left a lasting impression on those at the club.

Speaking recently on the High Performance Podcast, Brighton CEO Paul Barber said: "Dan [Ashworth] is one, if not, the best technical directors that I have worked with."

In February 2022, he resigned his role at the Amex Stadium before taking over at Newcastle in June and less than a year later the club has returned to European football's biggest stage.