Journalist Tom Barclay has revealed that Dan Ashworth is set for a huge pay rise when he takes up his new position at Newcastle.

Having worked alongside Graham Potter at Brighton over the last three years, Ashworth has chosen to switch the South Coast for the North-East and will be arriving at St James' Park in the near future.

What's the latest news involving Ashworth?

Ashworth has previously worked for the FA as well, and has gained a reputation for spotting young talent over the years.

During his time at Brighton, he managed to entice the likes of Tariq Lamptey and Marc Cucurella to the Amex Stadium, who have proved to be fine additions to the Seagulls' squad.

Earlier this month, he opted to leave his position as the club's technical director, and he will take up a similar role at Newcastle once his gardening leave ends.

What has Barclay said about Ashworth moving to Newcastle?

With Brighton currently flourishing in the top half of the table, Barclay feels that it is a smart move for Newcastle to look to how they have built their success as they also signed defender Dan Burn from them last month.

He has claimed that Ashworth was always likely to take up the position at Newcastle due to the money that he was being offered by the club.

Speaking about Ashworth's imminent arrival on Tyneside, Barclay told GIVEMESPORT: “It’s a really canny appointment from Newcastle. I wrote a piece after the Newcastle takeover about how they should basically follow Brighton’s model in building a club.

“I didn’t literally mean for them to take their centre-back and technical director, but it’s a good move and one that he really couldn’t turn down. Financially, he’s going to more than double his money, and it’s a great project.”

Will Ashworth be able to take Newcastle to the next level?

His ability to do smart business in the transfer market could be a major asset to Newcastle moving forward.

The Magpies managed to complete five signings in January, but it was a chaotic month at times, and the club failed to bring in an attacking player in the final week of the window, despite knowing that Callum Wilson is going to be out for the majority of the campaign with a calf injury.

They seemed to be linked with almost every name under the sun, and yet there was no clear plan in place as to how they were going to strengthen the squad.

Ashworth has proven at Brighton that he knows what he's doing, and he can be trusted to find players that will help Eddie Howe to take the side forward.

Now that he has agreed to move to Tyneside, Newcastle fans can expect Ashworth to get straight to work on drawing up a list of realistic targets for the summer, which should make it a very interesting off-season for the Premier League club.