Interesting the narrative around Ashworth in the media, which is wholly supportive of Newcastle from what I have seen. Compare it to the Real-Ronaldo-Slavery nonsense, that was lapped up by the media at the time. This is far more egregious. You could argue one summer transfer window is all a non-compete should reasonably cover, that gives Newcastle the chance to act on the work he has done on their behalf. Any more time than that and you could argue the game has moved on and they are preventing a reasonable request to move on with his career.
Wonder if these type of shenanigans could eventually lead to rules similar to the NFL, which don't permit blocking certain types of staff move.
I think this is probably what it will come down to. The intention of the noncompete is to stop him bringing director intel from Newcastle. I'm guessing Ashworth will either be allowed to start in September or January - I say January as a possibility because when Ashworth left Brighton, his gardening leave was 9 months, meaning he was only able to start his duties up north just before the summer transfer window.
As for the compensation, what we've offered is the value of his contract over the period of his GL. This is what we did with Wilcox and it was only a little more that was needed to get it over the line, and with an immediate start, no less. Supposedly the full value of Ashworth's remaining contract is around £3m, so I doubt it'll end up being too much more.
I don't really know what Newcastle think they were doing with the whole £20m stuff. By all accounts, he was brought in to do a job that they haven't really let him do, since Eddie Howe and his brother had already established a lot of control at the club while Ashworth was trimming hedges on the south coast. I genuinely think they saw that idiot Martin Samuel's article, where he plucked a big number out of thin air and thought "hey, that's a good idea!"