I was taking a shit when I saw this and I believe that that’s appropriate because this is absolute crap 💩.
We’re shit on the field, we’re shit off the field. We are just SHIT!
Anyway, this is coming from The Athletic (so you know it’s legit) as David Ornstein says:
“Dan Ashworth leaves Man Utd after 5 months as sporting director. 53yo’s move from Newcastle has not worked + departure agreed in meeting at Old Trafford last night; presented by #MUFC as mutual.”
“Ashworth’s departure was agreed in a meeting with Omar Berrada at Old Trafford last night. Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been pivotal to the call to part ways.”
Fabrizio Romano has said this on the situation:
"Tense situation with Sir Jim Ratcliffe, not happy at all with last summer strategy.
United spent around £3m to get Ashworth from Newcastle."
There were also reports that after United’s defeat to Nottingham Forest last night, Ashworth was seen escorted out of Old Trafford through a different exit.
Samuel Luckhurst of the Manchester Evening News said this:
“A grim-faced Dan Ashworth was escorted through the press conference room by Colette Roche after the game last night to take an alternative exit out of the stadium, accompanied by a security official. In retrospect, perhaps he was frogmarched out.”
Final Thoughts
Can’t even enjoy a fucking Sunday, which was already hard given our defeat last night.
I really didn’t expect to see something like this today or in fact any day in the next year to 18 months at the least. I think by then, we would’ve had a better idea of whether he [Ashworth] (or anyone else in the structure) would be good enough or if we should part ways.
Ashworth only joined the club in July. We spent a lot of time (and money) trying to bring him to United and as he was taken out of Newcastle, it meant he had gardening leave, which postponed his arrival. All of this took longer than the amount of time he was in a job! 5 BLOODY MONTHS!
Still can't wrap my head around it 🤯.
I also thought he was doing a good job. I wasn't necessarily a fan of him joining the club and also how we brought him in but as ever with United, we always give new people a chance. Ashworth came in along with Omar Berrada (CEO) and since July, I thought a lot of their decisions were good.
While they obviously got rid of Erik ten Hag after they backed him and spent all of £200m in the transfer market for the Dutchman, before eventually having to sack him and pay him £12m (which made them look a little silly), it was a decision that I agreed with. ten Hag deserved a chance after winning the FA Cup but he messed that up and deserved to be removed.
Mentioning this recent transfer window, I thought Ashworth and co did as good a job as possible. The signings of Zirkzee, Yoro, Mazraoui, De Ligt and Ugarte were all in my opinion, the right players to bring in (even if a couple were a little pricey) and in Mazraoui, De Ligt and Ugarte, three of five have performed pretty well so far. We still have to wait and see whether Yoro is good enough but his two games so far have been okay considering his 4-month injury layoff with the only question mark being Zirkzee. Yet there is still time for him to put things right.
Moving on the likes of Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Scott McTominay were also decisions that I thought were correct because I believed that they were not good enough and we needed money. Their removals allowed us to bring in the necessary funds and go on to sign Mazraoui, De Ligt and Ugarte, who happened to be the three of the five signings who've been really good.
They were also very quick to get Amorim as manager so soon after ten Hag's sacking. I believe that this was also a good choice because we know the potential with him as manager. Yes it's not been great on the pitch but Amorim's potential after having seen what he did at Sporting gave us a lot of hope for the future.
And as we know with Ashworth, it's only been 5 months. I don't think that even the Glazers got rid of someone this quickly. Surely they could've given him more time?
Similar to Amorim, Ashworth is INEOS' guy. They worked hard to get him, had a public battle with Newcastle to bring him to Old Trafford and spent a lot of money to appoint him as Sporting Director.
In fact, earlier this year, Sir Jim Ratcliffe (INEOS Chairman) said this about Ashworth:
"Dan Ashworth is clearly one of the top sporting directors in the world. I have no doubt he is a very capable person.
He is interested in Manchester United because it’s the biggest challenge at the biggest club in the world. It would be different at City because you’re maintaining a level. Here it’s a significant rebuilding job. He would be a very good addition."
So what this all about then?
Something that I would say is that while this is very ruthless and so was getting rid of how ever many staff, when are they going to start getting rid of players? When are they going to start removing those that don't belong in a United shirt? It was evident again last night that several players need to be shifted on.
If they start doing that, then maybe I can get more on board with this decision to remove the Sporting Director so soon.
Perhaps that was the reason for getting rid of Ashworth in the first place? Maybe he wanted to remove players that the rest of the hierarchy didn't? Maybe it's the opposite and Ashworth wanted to keep players that the club wanted to remove?
The decision to give Bruno Fernandes a new long-term contract was made with Berrada and Ashworth at the club. Was that the right call? The skipper was already on such a high wage and still had a couple of years on his original contract. He has been underperforming for a while and is now 30-years-old. Maybe there was a clash between Ashworth and the club for sanctioning such a deal when perhaps INEOS wanted to move away from such contracts with players?
This was more something we would do under the Glazers and previous board.
I've also always felt like Sir Jim Ratcliffe never liked ten Hag and wanted him gone as soon as possible. The fact that he was kept when the INEOS boss wanted him gone may have caused Sir Jim to have an issue with not just Ashworth but all involved with that decision?
There's obviously a lot of speculation as to why this happened but as this removal came so soon after the appointment, there was probably some fallout between Ashworth and someone or someones at the club.
This also makes one think that even though INEOS took Ashworth away from another club and spent a lot of time and money trying to get him only for them to mutual part ways him just 5 months later, could this be a potential warning sign to Amorim?
He is INEOS' manager just like Ashworth was INEOS' Sporting Director. They had no problem getting rid of him very quickly once things didn't go as they'd liked. In Amorim's 5 games in charge, he's won two, drawn one and lost two with the two defeats coming one after the other including a loss at home to Forest. In this time, United have conceded 7 goals with performances nowhere near the level we expected even though we weren't asking for much in the first place.
Could Amorim suffer the same fate as Ashworth in a few months time? We have City, Spurs, Liverpool and Arsenal all away from home in the next month. Chances are that in our current state, we will lose all of those.
Anything is possible with INEOS after this Ashworth decision.
I guess this also questions everyone's stance on Sir Jim and INEOS. How is everyone feeling after such a big call? We know that they don't have a good track record at Nice so there was no indication that they would come in and sort things out at United.
They were very quick to sack people (mainly managers) at that club as well.
I believe that whatever they do from here, HAS to be the correct decision. Similarly to sacking ten Hag and bringing in Amorim as that has to work out as well, whatever the club do regarding the next Sporting Director will have to be the correct one.
If we ever get to know the details of why they made this decision (which we probably never will), but should we somehow get to know, removing Ashworth better be done for the right reasons. If they removed him for what a lot of people could think was the wrong decisions, then we may have a problem.
I feel this quote by Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring comes to mind:
"The quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little, and it will fail to the ruin of all."
Is Sir Jim Ratcliffe another Glazer? So many questions man. So many questions.
Background Image: Technical Director Jason Wilcox and the now former Man Utd Sporting Director, Dan Ashworth | Creator: Eddie Keogh | Credit: Getty Images Copyright: 2024 Getty Images via Man Utd News