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The former Newcastle United sporting director is in talks over a return to the FA, claim reports.
Dan Ashworth continues to make headlines with all eyes on his next move.
Ashworth officially left Newcastle United last summer to join Manchester United as sporting director but lasted just five months at Old Trafford before leaving. Earlier this month the 54-year-old was linked with a move to his third club in 12 months as SportItalia claim he is in talks with Saudi Pro League club Al-Nassr.
Like Newcastle, Al-Nassr are majority owned by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund and have a decorated squad which includes the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Sadio Mane. Ashworth was reportedly in talks to be appointed in a football director role following the departure of former Real Madrid star Fernando Hierro.
But fresh reports in the past 24-hours have now claimed Ashworth is in talks over a return to the Football Association.
PA report: “The 54-year-old, who left Old Trafford in December after just five months in his role, served as the governing body’s director of elite development between 2012 and 2018 and was credited as one of the driving forces behind the England men’s team reaching the semi-finals at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
“Reports have suggested he is in discussions over a role overseeing the technical aspects on the men’s and women’s national teams and the next stage of the international set-up’s home at St George’s Park. The FA has declined to comment on the claims.”
After Ashworth’s departure from Manchester United – his recruitment and untimely exit cost the club £4.1million – co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe described both his appointment in July 2024 and the retention of then manager Erik ten Hag as “errors”.
Manchester United pursued Ashworth for months in an attempt to get Newcastle to agree to a compensation fee for the sporting director. Eventually an agreement was reached but Ashworth’s time at Man United was ultimately short-lived.
According to Manchester United’s financial figures for the second quarter of the 2024-25 season, Ashworth was paid £4.1million in compensation by the club to leave. Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe recently addressed Ashworth’s departure when speaking to Gary Neville on The Overlap, admitting the appointment was an error.
Neville worked alongside Ashworth during his time with England and the Football Association and pointed to the sporting director’s success during his brief spell at Newcastle as well as Brighton & Hove Albion before that.
What did Man Utd co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe say?
In a guarded and cagey response, Ratcliffe said: “You may know Dan better than I do, I'm sure you do, but I don't want to go into the details of [his departure] because I don't think it serves any it doesn't serve much purpose.
“I mean at the end of the day it was chemistry. Maybe a bit more than chemistry but let's just say chemistry and it didn't work. “I know it's an unpopular decision and it's seen as an error and it was an error [to appoint Ashworth] but again I think slightly in our defence we did recognise it as being something that would not work and therefore we decided we would make a change what would have been far easier because of the scrutiny that we knew we would get in the media would have been to live with it but I wasn't prepared to live with it.
“That has to be part of our mentality at Manchester even though we're having to make unpopular decisions if we think it's the right thing then we're going to do it.”
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