Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe hits out at 'silly' Newcastle over Dan Ashworth demands

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has accused Newcastle United of behaving in a "silly" manner over their demands for sporting director Dan Ashworth.

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 co-owner Ratcliffe branded "absurd" and "stupid".

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"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.

"It would be different if you were the sporting director at Manchester City because you would just be maintaining a level, at Manchester United you've got quite a significant building job. I think he would be a very good addition to Manchester United but he needs to decide whether he's going to make that jump.

"We've obviously had words with Newcastle. They would clearly be disappointed to lose Dan. Newcastle have been very, very successful, they've done really well since the new ownership, they play some good football and it's transformed the club. I understand why