Ashley has been urged to hire Terry Venables to fill the void created by stricken Joe Kinnear in order to protect the beleaguered club's top-flight status.
Macdonald, a legend on Tyneside, is adamant that the sports retail tycoon should try to persuade him to Tyneside again.
Ashley's First Steps To Getting Venables?
Macdonald believes Ashley should enlist the former England and Tottenham manager's services instead of gambling on coaches Chris Hughton and Colin Calderwood.
Macdonald told Telegraph Sport: "If they could get Terry Venables in that would be brilliant.
"In the current circumstances they need somebody with a proven track record.
"First and foremost, Mike Ashley needs someone that can guarantee safety. You cannot take any risks. And then they can think what their next step would be come the end of the season.
"Until you know you are not going to be relegated you can't plan for anything. That's the immediacy of football. You need someone that will definitely safeguard the club's Premier League status and Terry Venables would do that without any shadow of a doubt.
"I like Venners a lot. I like what he does. I like how it does it. Players always react brilliantly to his methods. Always.
"Plus, he did an excellent job at Middlesbrough a few years ago in similar circumstances. That's because he knew exactly what was required. What he did at the Riverside might not have been pretty but it was absolutely necessary.
"And that's the beauty of him as a manager. He can size up a situation very quickly and come up with an answer to their problems as soon as possible and put a solution in place.
"He could certainly do the job at Newcastle. I don't know whether he would take to the way everything is structured out."