REVEALED: Dan Ashworth has told Newcastle he wants to LEAVE the club… but Man United must agree a significant compensation fee to release sporting director from his contract or wait over TWO YEARS for him to join

Dan Ashworth has now told Newcastle he wants to leave the club - but he must wait for Manchester United to buy out his contract.

Mail Sport understands the period of gardening leave written into the sporting director’s current contract is close to two years.

That means Man United will have to negotiate a significant compensation fee to release him earlier or meet the terms of his contract and wait for his gardening leave to expire.

But Ashworth’s time at St James’ Park is now close to an end and, as Mail Sport reported last week, developments are expected to come to a head in the coming days.

The 52-year-old’s position felt as good as untenable following Eddie Howe’s pre-match press conference on Friday, in which he expressed his concern over Ashworth's access to the club's inner workings ahead of a likely defection to their rivals.

Howe said then it was for ‘someone above me’ to answer whether Ashworth should be asked to leave the building immediately. The inference was the head coach wanted the situation resolved imminently.

Ashworth remained over the weekend, attending scouting meetings and Saturday’s 2-2 draw at home to Bournemouth.

However, he informed the club of his desire to quit on Sunday, just 20 months after joining from Brighton. He will now be charged with leading the restructuring of football operations at Old Trafford under the new part-ownership of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos group. His key responsibility will be recruitment. When he takes up that role depends on the outcome of conversations with Newcastle this week.