Dan Ashworth never thought he would be a sporting director. In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that Ashworth did not even know what the role was when West Brom chairman Jeremy Peace summoned the club's academy manager to offer him the job in 2007.
It was a very different era - there were only a handful of technical directors working in the Premier League at the time - and Ashworth never imagined that he would go on to become one of the most-respected figures in his field in the country.
Indeed, Ashworth was so unsure about position, initially, that he only agreed to do the job at West Brom until the end of the season before getting it in writing that he could return to his old post if it did not work out. Ashworth need not have worried.
