Crystal Palace man now 'preferred choice' as Dan Ashworth replacement appointment nears

Newcastle United's search for Dan Ashworth's replacement is in its final stages and could still be wrapped up in time for the summer transfer window.

After being left high and dry by the man who was brought into revolutionise the club, Newcastle have placed the former FA man on gardening leave while they argue with Mike Ashley 2.0, Sir Jim Ratcliffe over compensation. If you're wondering what we mean by that, just have a look at some of the things Ratcliffe is doing in his new role. Things are going to get a lot worse at Old Trafford before they get better, if in fact they do get better.

Crystal Palace's head of recruitment Dougie Freedman came out of nowhere as a potential candidate shortly after it was revealed that the final three in the frame were Tiago Pinto, Paul Mitchell and Rui Pedro Braz.

Now the Daily Mail have claimed that a few people involved in the recruitment process have Freedman as their frontrunner.

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Manchester United also want Dougie Freedman

Interestingly, Manchester United are also keen to bring in Freedman to work alongside Dan Ashworth and Jason Wilcox.

With that information in mind, Freedman is now our first choice candidate and we hope he chooses us over them so we can laugh just that little bit more.

In all seriousness, though, the sooner things are resolved in this regard the better so that the winning candidate can get to work ahead of the summer recruitment drive.

Can we bring in Freedman and take Michael Olise too?

There's a lot of work to be done in terms or player recruitment and apparently, not a lot of budget to do it in.

Ideally, if Freedman were to come to Newcastle, that could maybe make things easier for Newcastle to go after Michael Olise from Crystal Palace who has been on the Magpies radar before.

Newcastle will be looking to make their announcement soon with the end of the season drawing ever nearer, things need to be wrapped up quickly.