Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville
Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville (Image: OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images)
Manchester United legend and pundit Gary Neville has voiced his astonishment over the departure of sporting director Dan Ashworth. Describing the club's brief 41-word statement as "really poor", he hinted at possible turmoil behind the scenes at Old Trafford.
News broke on Sunday that Ashworth had parted ways with Manchester United by mutual agreement after a sit-down with CEO Omar Berrada, in the wake of a disappointing 3-2 loss to Nottingham Forest. Ashworth was influential in bringing £200 million worth of talent to Manchester United, tasked with realigning them with their former glory as titans of English and European football.
Yet, his stint was unexpectedly cut short after just five months after leaving Newcastle United earlier this year. While providing commentary on NBC Sports, Neville couldn't conceal his surprise and urged the club to provide clarity.
He said: "Something like that can't be mutual. We all knew when INEOS came in, there would be huge changes, there has been - massive redundancies in the club, a complete overhaul of the executive in the club, CEO, CFO, sporting director, technical director, manager just recently as well.
You would have expected large changes but not for this position. Dan Ashworth was headhunted for many, many months, he was chased for about 10 months, he was on gardening leave for four or five minutes, he was paid millions of pounds for, I worked with Dan Ashworth at the FA and he's been successful wherever he has gone," reports the Manchester Evening News.
"I'm really shocked this morning that this has happened this morning and it's going to need a lot of explaining. The statement that the club has put out is really poor.
"Manchester United haven't had a voice for 10 years. They lost their authority, their boldness, I think they've been getting it back in the last 12 months but what is clear is that there's a fracture here, something has happened. You can't bring someone at the level of Dan Ashworth, lose him after five months and I think something hasn't gone wrong.
"Fans are going to be asking the question of what's gone wrong, they'll speculate, it'll leave huge voids and I think it's better to punch us in the face when it is so obvious that something has gone wrong between the personalities of Dan Ashworth, Omar Berrada, Sir Dave Brailsford.
"Whoever it is in the last few months that have not gone on with each other or it's not been working. Just tell us, it's obvious something has happened, I think that statement was weak."