Ashworth in no hurry to appoint West Brom replacement

Dan Ashworth insists there will be no rush taken to find his successor as West Brom’s sporting and technical director.

The 41-year-old was named by the Football Association as their new director of elite development following the departure of Gareth Southgate in July but will remain in his current role at the Premier League club until the end of the 2012-13 season.

Ashworth has been in charge of player recruitment at the Hawthorns since December 2007 and claims that there is no shortage in applicants to fill his role.

“There is no time pressure on this. We don’t need to make any knee-jerk decisions,” he told West Brom’s official website.

“A lot of people have applied for the role. We’ve had approaches from abroad, especially as the role is more common in Europe, but we don’t have a time-frame on a shortlist. We are very much going through the process.

“We’ve done this a couple of times before when we have been looking for a new head coach.

“We’re still sifting through applications, talking to people and preparing a shortlist to ultimately make sure we get the right person.”

The director of football model has often been criticised in the English game, with several coaches refusing to work under such a figure, but Ashworth believes it can be prosperous.

“I think we’ll be looking for a certain personality. For example, I’m not sure that an abrasive, confrontational person would work at this football club,” he said.

“Of course, it would also be foolish of us also to appoint someone that, say, Steve Clarke has history with. These are the kind of things we’ll have to bear in mind.

“Ultimately, it will be a board decision.

“My job is to sift through the candidates and hopefully come up with some ideas in conjunction with (chief executive) Mark Jenkins and (legal director/secretary) Richard Garlick for the chairman to have final sign-off on.”