Ashworth has been placed on gardening leave amid his desire to become the inaugural sporting director at United and the club officially made an approach to Newcastle this week. Newcastle have touted a figure ranging between £10million to £20m for Ashworth, which has baffled figures at United, Ratcliffe included.
It has also been suggested that Ashworth, who only joined Newcastle from Brighton less than two years ago, could serve gardening leave until 2026, which new United coowner Ratcliffe branded 'absurd' and 'stupid.
"I think Dan Ashworth is clearly one of the top sporting directors in the world, I've no doubt," Ashworth told the Manchester Evening News and other journalists.
"He's a very capable person. He's interested in the Manchester United job because it's probably the biggest sporting director job in the world just now, with the biggest challenge.
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