Dan Ashworth
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The Dan Ashworth experiment at Manchester United was a true disaster.
Hailed as an executive brought in as a sign of United putting ‘best in class’ at a structural level, Ashworth’s time at the club ended up short and expensive.
After just 5 months at Old Trafford, Dan Ashworth left Manchester United in what was seen as a major black eye to INEOS.
The new owners of The Red Devils had wanted to appoint Ashworth as sporting director almost from the moment that they took over part ownership with the club and endured a bit of a messy saga with Newcastle United to bring him to the club.
Newcastle didn’t want to let Dan Ashworth leave the club and initially demanded £20m from their English Premier League rivals, before settling for a sum of around £3m.
While in Manchester, it is believed INEOS and their newly appointed sporting director had tension.
This ultimately led to his departure.
After Ashworth left the club, it was reported that Manchester United paid him a compensation package of £4.1m – meaning his 5 months at the club cost £7.1m.
At a time where the club have been making an unprecedented number of redundancies with more on the horizon, wasting £7.1m on one individual is not a good look.
Not that it has harmed the way that Dan Ashworth is viewed by the wider world.
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The footballing fraternity knows that Manchester United is a place of turmoil at this moment in time and Ashworth’s previous work still holds him in good stead.
From West Bromwich Albion in December 2007 to FA Director of Elite Development in 2012 to working at Brighton & Hove Albion as Technical Director in September 2018, Dan Ashworth has a CV and track record that shows his impressive credentials.
Therefore, news of an English Premier League club wanting to bring the former Manchester United sporting director to their club should not be that surprising of news.
According to Football Insider, West Ham United are in talks to appoint Dan Ashworth as their new sporting director.
The Hammers are looking for a suitable candidate to replace Tim Steidten, , who left the London side in the January transfer window.
This new post would put Ashworth back alongside his old friend Graham Potter, with whom he is very familiar from their time together at West Brom.
The move will also be a chance for Dan Ashworth to pump some life back into The Hammers, who have struggled to climb higher than 15th in the league since Potter replaced Julen Lopetegui in January this year.
With a new and young manager in the shape of Graham Potter to work with, West Ham may present Dan Ashworth an exciting chance to get back into the English Premier League game and help shape the direction of their squad into the future.
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