Speaking on his YouTube podcast, Rio Ferdinand said: "I think Dan Ashworth is the best. He's so calm, he's so sure in what he's doing. He's so focused, diligent, he knows the market.
"He's also not swayed at all, I don't think he gets bullied by agents and stuff like that. We should go back into the archives. I said that Manchester United should have got him time ago.
"If I had my choice to take a sporting director it would have been him. I spoke to him at Brighton. People at Newcastle asked me my opinion and I said, I'd go and get him and they went and got him."
Sir Jim Ratcliffe wants to put Ashworth in charge of Man United's new football project but Newcastle want too stop their sporting director from joining a rival.
The 52-year-old has been put on gardening leave by the Magpies who are now demanding a huge compensation to let him depart to Old Trafford.
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