Manchester United '£17m saving' hints at Sir Jim Ratcliffe's ruthless streak after fresh claim

Manchester United might have paid as little as £3million in compensation to Newcastle for Dan Ashworth, according to new claims about the nature of the deal between the two clubs.

Ashworth was placed on gardening leave in February by Newcastle bosses after signalling his intent to accept an offer to become the sporting director at Old Trafford, having been approached by the Ineos regime to head up their new football structure.

The two clubs struggled to reach a deal over compensation, however, with Newcastle initially demanding £20m to release Ashworth, a figure Sir Jim Ratcliffe branded "silly".

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It was expected that the negotiations would go to arbitration for Ashworth to finally be granted permission to start at Old Trafford, but a deal was suddenly struck that allowed the former Brighton technical director to begin earlier this month.

United and Newcastle announced an agreement had been reached on July 1 but have kept the terms of that deal private, but Stefan Borson, a former financial advisor to Manchester City and an expert in football finance, has claimed it might have been as little as £3m

"There is quite a lot of rumour and counter rumour about how much Newcastle settled for in the end on Ashworth," he told Football Insider. "I did hear one source say to me the fee was as low £3m. I’ve heard that it was well below £10m and nowhere near some of the numbers that have been rumoured.

"At the end of the day, Newcastle were over a barrel as they admitted last week. The CEO Darren Eales admitted that it was very close at the last minute in terms of Profit and