MANCHESTER UNITED have released a brutal statement to confirm the departure of Dan Ashworth.
The sporting director has surprisingly left the club after just five months.
United confirmed the news in a short statement, which read: “Dan Ashworth will be leaving his role as Sporting Director of Manchester United by mutual agreement.
“We would like to thank Dan for his work and support during a transitional period for the club and wish him well for the future.”
Ashworth held showdown talks with CEO Omar Berrada after the 3-2 defeat to Nottingham Forest last night and decided to end his time at Old Trafford.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe was pivotal in pushing for a shock boardroom shake-up.
Ashworth’s move from Newcastle has “not worked out” and SunSport exclusively revealed last month the United hierarchy were involved in a blame game over the transfer business in the summer.
It comes after the Red Devils had difficulty getting him out of a gardening leave period he took after he departed St James’ Park.
The two sides agreed on a £3million compensation deal.
Ashworth then went on to spend £183m on Leny Yoro, Manuel Ugarte, Matthijs De Ligt, Joshua Zirkzee and Noussair Mazraoui in the first transfer window under Ineos leadership.
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Meanwhile, the chief was involved in the decision to eventually keep then manager Erik ten Hag and offer him a new contract.
But just 14 matches later, they made a U-turn and sacked him.
Before his arrival in Manchester, Ratcliffe hailed Ashworth as “clearly one of the top sporting directors in the world”.
But the owner claimed yesterday that United are still far behind where they need to be in terms of a recruitment structure.
Ratcliffe said: “We must have the best recruitment in the world. Data analysis comes alongside recruitment.
“It doesn’t really exist here. We’re still in the last century on data analysis here.
“There’s an immense amount of useful data that we can get from data analysis and we’re in the ‘very poor’ bracket with data analysis here.
“These things don’t happen overnight. You can’t just flick a light switch and sort out recruitment.
“It’s all about people and we need to find the right people.”
DAN ASHWORTH is a true footballing man who has progressed through the game’s ranks all the way from player to club director.
He never made it to the top as a player, instead featuring for a number of non-league sides and in the US.
After hanging up his boots he quickly moved into the backroom, landing his first job at Peterborough.His big break came at West Brom, before he moved on to the Three Lions job where he was instrumental in creating ‘England’s DNA’.
Two roles with Premier League clubs followed before Man Utd swooped in the summer.
So what’s next for Ashworth?
READ HIS FULL STORY HERE:
