In this past summer, Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS were chasing after Dan Ashworth to be Manchester United's new Sporting Director. At the time, he was employed by fellow Premier League side, Newcastle. Negotiation for his release took months but the two clubs finally reached an agreement. However, it's become apparent that that was a waste of time.
Ashworth's tenure at Manchester United lasted five months. 20 minutes after the loss to Nottingham Forest this past Saturday, he took a rare route out of the directors’ lounge under the stands, walking through the press conference room alongside Chief Operating Officer, Collette Roche. He was on his way to [CEO] Omar Berrada’s office, where he was told by the chief executive his brief time at United was coming to an end.
Ashworth had let people know it was difficult working in Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s newly assembled football leadership team and so perhaps there is some relief at the development. In hindsight, it was possible to perceive a hint of awkwardness between the executives when Ashworth arrived in his seat ahead of the defeat to Forest, which he had invited family members to attend.
The 53-year-old is expected to have no shortage of offers. Several people in the game are privately pointing out how Arsenal are searching for a new sporting director and their managing director is Richard Garlick, a close colleague of Ashworth’s from their West Bromwich Albion days, although there are no indications of anything substantive at this stage.
Nevertheless, his departure from United was instigated by those at the top of the club. The sense among staff was that it was a joint decision between Ratcliffe, Berrada, Sir Dave Brailsford and co-owner, Joel Glazer. Berrada’s role does cross over into the football department.
The signs of disharmony were detectable at the very moment that Ashworth would have been expected to prove his worth. In searching for a replacement for Erik ten Hag as manager, Ratcliffe wanted to hear ideas from the man he had sanctioned spending around £2.5million ($3.2million) to bring in from Newcastle United due to his expertise at building structures. Ashworth, it's claimed, didn't provide clear, compelling arguments for who to bring in.
Instead, there was a list and those he did propose had a theme: Premier League experience. Suggestions included: Eddie Howe, despite the picture not always being rosy at Newcastle United; Marco Silva, the Fulham manager and Thomas Frank, the Brentford manager. Graham Potter was another name mentioned by Ashworth, possibly as an interim until the end of the season.
Ratcliffe wanted more decisiveness and a dynamic appointment, someone with a certain charisma who was capable of shouldering the enormous responsibility and scrutiny that comes with leading one of the world’s biggest clubs.
It seemed no coincidence that after being quoted on Ten Hag’s contract extension and every signing brought in during the summer, there was nothing from Ashworth on the official announcement of Ruben Amorim’s appointment.
Ashworth was said to have had little input on selecting Amorim as United’s new head coach, with Berrada a major influence on the Portuguese getting the job. It was Berrada who flew to Lisbon when Ten Hag was sacked to negotiate with Sporting CP president, Frederico Varandas, face-to-face.
There are other reasons for that, such as it being described as a one-person job, with United wanting to show respect by sending the equal counterpart. United also needed someone at Carrington to run the club, with Ashworth staying to support interim manager Ruud van Nistelrooy. However, it is also notable that Berrada went because he, rather than Ashworth, knew the people at Sporting.
Friction was also apparent when Ashworth proposed bringing in a data company to evaluate the candidates to replace Ten Hag. Ratcliffe was said to have reacted badly, countering that it was Ashworth’s job to know such matters rather than outsource, while also making him question United’s in-house capabilities.
There are also questions about what Ratcliffe thought he was getting in Ashworth and whether due diligence was done, despite long-standing relationships. Ashworth is primarily an operations manager, according to people who have worked with him, rather than a transfer guru. He made a good impression at Carrington, where he was regarded as, "the man" at the top of all sporting functions; hence why his exit now has caused such shock. Colleagues say he is honest, very intelligent and a good figurehead.
In a bid to explain the decision, Brailsford, Berrada and technical director, Jason Wilcox, addressed players and staff at Carrington on Sunday, going through the turbulence experienced and why they felt a change was necessary. Berrada and Wilcox are close, having worked at Manchester City together.
The relationship between Ratcliffe and his primary football executive had become strained after the only public address given by Ashworth as a United employee. Before kick-off in the Liverpool game on 1 September, Ashworth and Berrada spoke to journalists to map out their thoughts on how the summer window had gone and what might come next. Both denied being involved in Ten Hag staying and extending terms after United’s FA Cup final victory but they were across the decision, according to sources.
Those responses irritated Ratcliffe. Berrada and Ashworth had been on gardening leave, so understandably, had to be careful on the record but both were in communication on United business before they were officially in the building.
Ratcliffe felt the concept of gardening leave, "absurd," so wanted his incoming executives to get started straight away. For instance, Berrada was in meetings when Ten Hag’s future was agreed upon.
At times, as the proposed arbitration with Newcastle loomed, Ashworth went radio silent. There was much greater legal sensitivity around his appointment than that of Berrada but Ashworth had been in touch with United colleagues and involved in some meetings about prospective managers when Ten Hag’s future looked in deep jeopardy.
Ratcliffe’s instinct had been to move on from Ten Hag, who was himself anticipating his dismissal. The lukewarm greeting from Ratcliffe to Ten Hag when he went to lift the FA Cup spoke volumes. Ratcliffe and everyone else were persuaded to stick with him given there was so much change elsewhere at the club, as well as difficulties in appointing Thomas Tuchel with no viable alternative.
Therefore, the backing given by Berrada and Ashworth to Ten Hag during that briefing before the Liverpool game took Ratcliffe by surprise.
Ashworth once described himself as being at the centre of several spokes of a wheel but United is Ratcliffe’s wheel and he wanted more from a sporting director. Ratcliffe could have waited until the end of the season to make the change given how acting now can be seen as an embarrassing about-turn. It was only February when he was describing Ashworth as "clearly one of the top sporting directors in the world," ranking him, "10 out of 10."
However, aged 73, Ratcliffe has shown himself as a man in a hurry and having decided things weren’t working, concluded it was better to cut the cord immediately and move on. Teething problems are not uncommon when new regimes take charge of clubs.
Ashworth felt undermined by the ownership and excluded from what he saw as key processes, as it became clear the appointment was working for neither party. The decision was met with surprise by staff but talks regarding Ashworth’s role have taken place over a number of weeks by the main stakeholders at Old Trafford. It soon became apparent that things were not working as planned, concluding with the confirmation of the sporting director’s exit on Sunday.
Former United defender, Gary Neville, was shocked by this decision. He said, "Something like that can’t be mutual. I think when INEOS came to Manchester United, everyone knew that there were going to be big changes and there has been massive redundancies within the club, a complete overhaul of the executive of the club in terms of the CEO, CFO, sporting director, technical director, manager, obviously, just recently as well."
"You would have expected large changes but not changes for this position. Dan Ashworth was headhunted for many, many months. He was chased for about ten months, he was on gardening leave for around four of five months, he was paid millions of pounds."
"I worked with Dan Ashworth at the FA for probably two years and he’s been very successful wherever he’s been, at Brighton, West Brom, the FA and Newcastle most recently. I’m really shocked that this has happened and it’s not a great look at all. It’s something that’s going to need a lot of explaining and I think the statement that the club have put out is really poor."
Neville believes Ashworth must have been involved in a, "fracture" behind the scenes and would rather United were just honest with the truth in such instances.
"Manchester United haven’t had a voice for about ten years. They’ve lost their authority, they’ve lost their boldness."
"I think they’ve been getting it back a little bit in the last 12 months but what’s really clear here is that there is a fracture, something has happened. You can’t bring somebody in of the level of Dan Ashworth and then lose him after five months and think that something hasn’t gone wrong."
"Fans are now going to be asking the question, “What’s gone wrong?”, they’re going to speculate, it’s going to leave huge voids. I think you’re better off just punching us in the face with the truth ometimes. When it’s so obvious that something has gone wrong between the personalities of Dan Ashworth, Omar Berrada, Sir Dave Brailsford, whoever it is in these last few months that have obviously not got on with each other or it’s not been working… just tell us because it’s obvious that something has happened."
Manchester United have reportedly decided against appointing a replacement for Dan Ashworth, opting to completely eliminate the sporting director role from their structure.
I was suprised to see this happen. I believe this was an unwanted decision. You don't chase after someone for a prolonged period only to ditch him five months later. His choices of managers were surprising. I also saw that he also wanted Gareth Southgate. Appointing the latter would've been disastrous. The good news for Ashworth is that he will probably find a new job soon. He is a highly sought after man.