Sacking the sporting director just five months after hiring him adds to the sense that the billionaire co-owner is taking the club backwards
Dan Ashworth spent about as much time on gardening leave as he did working for Manchester United. Let that sink in for a minute. The man who United believed was such a talented sporting director that they were prepared to wait five months for him to start work and paid up to £3 million ($3.8m) to prise him from Newcastle, was deemed not fit for purpose just five months into the role.
Ashworth is the latest high-profile name to drink from the poisoned chalice of working for Manchester United and see his impressive achievements at former clubs eaten up by his failure writ large at Old Trafford. Serial-winners such as Raphael Varane and Casemiro have been down this path, as have elite managers such as Jose Mourinho, Louis van Gaal and Erik ten Hag.
Now not even the executives are safe. And the highest ranking executive at the club comes out of this bizarre saga looking worst of all: Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
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