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On Sunday, the bomb fell in English football when Manchester United announced in a public statement that sporting director Dan Ashworth is done with the club – only five months after owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe is said to have paid close to £5 million to get him, according to The Times.
A press release consisting of 41(!) words was all Manchester United communicated, but The Athletic has claimed in several cases that it has been simmering behind the scenes at Old Trafford.
According to the website, Ashworth is said to have suggested Eddie Howe, Marco Silva and Graham Potter when the club was to replace head coach Erik ten Hag.
Instead, owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the rest of the management are said to have ditched Ashworth, and instead gone for Ruben Amorim.
"Ashworth wasn't keen on Ruben Amorim according to The Athletic" 🗣️
The Sun report Dan Ashworth had Eddie Howe, Marco Silva, Thomas Frank and Graham Potter on a four-man shortlist to replace Erik ten Hag 🔴 pic.twitter.com/siiLfXZnmq
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) December 10, 2024
Dan Ashworth only got five months as sporting director at Manchester United. Several disagreements are said to have led to Ratcliffe mercilessly getting rid of the sporting director.
It is shocking that in a situation where you have to build up the club, you wait six months for your man, Newcastle pays two and a half million pounds after tough negotiations, and then he is sent out the door.
Eivind Holth of United.no, and former Monaco Sporting Director Tor Kristian Karlsen reflects on the decision making in a recent interview with Norwegian Nettavisen.
Karlsen explains, it is a shock for many reasons. They have spent so much time “headhunting” him, and that also requires that you have done some work with profiling. That they have investigated the type, how he works and what he represents.
Holth believes the shock decision to get rid of Ashworth shakes the whole project of Ratcliffe, and has major repercussions on the confidence of the supporters.
The trust, which has been quite high, has received a strong shot in the bow in the last week, he states.
Ashworth is said to have been mainly responsible for United’s signings this summer, when the club spent close to £200m on, among others, Noussair Mazraoui and Matthijs de Ligt.
Tor-Kristian Karlsen explains further saying a sporting director job must be considered over a longer period. He believes it is startling that disappointing signings this summer have been used as a possible argument for Ashworth getting fired.
It strikes me as absurd. It is obvious that ten Hag had influence considering that several of those who came were his former students. Secondly, it is too early to assess several of the players.
According to the Manchester Evening News, Ashworth is said to have also worked to replace ten Hag with Gareth Southgate, but director Omar Berrada is said to have taken over the reins instead, and convinced Amorim to join the club in the middle of the season.
It is also said to have begun to simmer among the United top brass when Ashworth is said to have suggested bringing in external data analysts to evaluate the candidates to replace ten Hag.
According to The Athletic, the proposal did not go down well with Ratcliffe.
Karlsen believes the club should rather look at themselves in the mirror after doing the background check when they hired Ashworth.
It must have been a theme when hiring Ashworth. What kind of methods does he use? Does he only do traditional scouting, or is he concerned with being 100 per cent up to date on figures and the latest in analysis, he sums up, and thinks it seems that the club has been unprepared and has not prioritized the right details.
The decision to get rid of Ashworth joins a string of controversial decisions made by Ratcliffe. The businessman, who is said to be worth over £21 billion, has already cut the club from over 200 staff, stripped Sir Alex Ferguson of an ambassadorial role, and announced an increase in ticket prices after he bought the club in February.
When you add all this together, there are many critical eyes directed at Ratcliffe. One wonders “what is going on?”. United fans were used to poor club management with the Glazers and this is what Ratcliffe was supposed to fix, but it was not a year before he scored his first own goal. It is disturbing, says Holth.
Many have seen colleagues and friends disappear this summer, and there is uncertainty about what the next decision will be. People are quite scared, a source is said to have told the newspaper.
Another anonymous club source believes the firing of Ashworth creates a frightening precedent in the club. When they are prepared to do it against a sports director they brought too much money, what about the rest of us?
Holth, for his part, thinks it is worrying that there are apparently no clear roles at the club, after Ashworth is said to have been overtaken in the employment of Amorim. It seems that it started with questions about whether ten Hag should keep the job or not, then the question became who will take over and then they did not agree on that either, he says, and adds.
Ashworth was not involved in the hiring of Amorim, who is absolutely sick if that is true. It is he who has been responsible for the £182 million United spent on players this summer. What are they doing?
He believes Ratcliffe will come out badly from the whole thing, having added himself to the list of ten Hag replacements with whom Ashworth is supposed to have sat. Ratcliffe is said to have stated that the club’s goal is to win the Premier League by 2028, and Holth believes that the decisions bear the stamp of the 73-year-old having a bad time.
He removes people, and would probably fire ten Hag this summer if he could. It is the businessman Ratcliffe who operates, not the United supporter.
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