New Man United sporting director Dan Ashworth looks on
Dan Ashworth will depart Manchester United mere months after joining from Newcastle United
Dan Ashworth is the latest Manchester United employee to leave the club after they mutually agreed that the sporting director would depart barely five months after arriving.
United paid Newcastle United a multi-million-pound compensation fee in the summer to end months of negotiations over Ashworth, and the Reds have now parted ways before the year is over. The club reportedly showed interest in Dougie Freedman earlier this year, with the Crystal Palace sporting director said to be open to the move, according to The Guardian.
Links to Andrea Berta have also emerged again, and the Atletico Madrid sporting director is expected to depart the Spanish club this summer. The Manchester Evening News have asked our writers about the development.
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Matthew Abbott
It appears too late for any replacement to arrive before the winter transfer window opens this January, as those plans should already be in place at this stage. An incumbent sporting director leaving a role mid-season also seems unlikely, so it may be better for United to hold off on an appointment until the new year, who would start next season.
That is what Manchester City have done with Hugo Viana, albeit Txiki Begiristain is seeing out the campaign rather than departing immediately. Despite that, they are not alone in having a sporting director over recent months, with Arsenal also leaving his role at Arsenal.
United is unlikely to welcome such competition, especially within what does not appear to be a crowded group of options. Freedman, though, is someone they are said to have held an interest in appointing as their head of recruitment in March.
At that point, United had already officially approached Newcastle for Ashworth. However, aside from the Eagles obliging and Freedman wanting the move - with his openness to joining reported earlier this year, there appears to be no reason why the Crystal Palace sporting director could not now assume Ashworth's old role on the club's leadership team.
Kieran Horn
Given how intensely Man United chased the services of Dan Ashworth, it was certainly a surprise to see him depart just five months after officially joining. In the wake of his exit, however, it is actually perhaps becoming clearer as to why he has left the club.
Disagreeing on a number of big decisions with other members of United's background team is firstly far from ideal, and the suggestion he wanted Erik ten Hag to remain in a job also makes it quite easy to understand the difference in opinion between him and the likes of Jason Wilcox and Omar Berrada.
In terms of replacements, it has to be stressed that Ineos and Sir Jim Ratcliffe have to get this next decision right. There are plenty of possible options, but perhaps the best is Real Sociedad's Robert Olabe, especially having already announced his departure from Spain.
He has helped Sociedad agree to some savvy deals, and for that reason, he is expected to have a number of clubs interested in his services, with United now possibly being added to that list.
Isaac Seelochan
I have mixed feelings over Ashworth's departure. None of United's summer signings have been a success, bar perhaps Noussair Mazraoui, after spending £200million plus.
There are also reports that he wanted Gareth Southgate, despite him being unqualified for such a big Premier League job. It seems like a hasty decision to get rid of Ashworth, but I would also say most of his decisions were questionable.
As far as a replacement goes, maybe they don't need one. 'Too many cooks' has been one phrase battered around when it comes to Ashworth's departure. Could Jason Wilcox be promoted to that position, for example?
Alternatively, perhaps a cheeky move for Txiki Begiristain is worth considering as he looks set to leave Manchester City at the end of the season. United have already pinched Omar Berrada from City, after all.
Dougie Freedman would also be a sensible option, given his work bringing through young talent at Crystal Palace.
Isaac Johnson
With Ratcliffe on a cost-cutting mission, it's more likely he spreads the responsibility out among the existing executives than hire a newbie, not least because of the money it would require.
There had been whispers that there were too many cooks in the kitchen anyway, so to speak, with CEO Omar Berrada and technical director Jason Wilcox also in situ. And that's not mentioning Ineos chiefs Sir Dave Brailsford and Jean-Claude Blanc, nor recruitment director Christopher Vivell.
On the balance of probabilities, I think the role - newly-created for the first time at United this summer - gets dissolved after five months. It would raise questions about Ratcliffe's initial blueprints for United, but a good leader changes tack when things aren't working. Regardless, the whole situation is still rather embarrassing and chaotic.
Tom Coley
There are two ways of looking at this. One is that United have made another massive mistake and are doing very little to inspire confidence in the new sporting regime. The other is that Ratcliffe and Ineos are at least decisive and aren't going to wait around if things aren't working.
It would have been worse, for example, had they stuck with Ten Hag for longer after realising pretty quickly that keeping him on was misplaced faith (if it can indeed even be called faith). The same is true of Ashworth.
Keeping him and being unhappy with his output is arguably a bigger issue, which they have avoided. This is all quite a lot of nonsense, though. United have messed up and have done it at a time whereby they are cutting jobs and penny-pinching elsewhere. It's a shocking look.
United, a little like Chelsea when Clearlake Capital-Todd Boehly took over, just needs a period of calm. Amorim is the guy to provide that on the pitch, but now the decision-makers must bring order themselves.
Maybe this means assessing those who are already in the building. Can Vivell be kept on in a permanent role? Berrada certainly has a lot of power; could he bridge the gap for a bit? Whatever happens, it will struggle to get much more embarrassing than this.