Last week, former Watford stopper Ben Foster revealed that he turned down the opportunity to join Newcastle United on a free transfer prior to Loris Karius’ arrival.
Despite the club agreeing to his demands, he decided against the move in order to stay with his family in the Midlands, calling our very own Dan Ashworth to explain his decision.
Speaking on his Youtube channel, Foster has revealed details of that phone call with our new sporting director – who clearly showed his class considering the 39-year-old had a late change of heart.
Foster claims that Ashworth is the “best out there” and someone he got on with “really well” during their time together at West Brom, explaining how understanding and appreciative he was.
Here’s what he had to say about the call, followed by the clip in full:
“I felt like I wasted his time and I don’t like doing that to people.
“I know the chief executive at Newcastle – Dan Ashworth, he was at West Brom. I actually get on really well with Dan. I said to Rich ‘I’ll ring Dan Ashworth and I’ll let him know because I can’t let you do that’.
“Dan answered the phone and said ‘Fozzy, are we all good, yeah?’ I said ‘I’ve got some bad news, I can’t sign, I’m so sorry’. I basically told him everything we’ve already spoken about.
“As far as chief executives go, he is the best out there.
“He was so sound about it and said ‘Fozzy, this is a tough call for you to make here but I actually really appreciate it. If you had rung me tomorrow when we had all the medicals booked, I’d have been annoyed but doing it now, I appreciate it’.
“I woke up the next morning buzzing with the decision I made. I know I’ve done the right thing.
“I’m 39-years-old. If I’m in my 20s, It’s a no-brainer. With everything else I’ve got going on at the moment – podcasts, football filming on a Monday.
“No hard feelings. The amount of times I’ve spoken about Newcastle and said ‘what a football club’. The atmosphere at St James’ Park, the fans… they are incredible.”
