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Manchester United’s new part-owners Ineos have hit the headlines today by letting go the sporting director they paid £2 million and waited 6 months for, Dan Ashworth.
The news was broken by David Ornstein of The Athletic before stories started to emerge as to what had gone wrong between Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the former Newcastle and Brighton executive.
The Athletic returned this evening to respond to that speculation more directly having spoken to some inside sources from the club.
Ashworth was dismissed by CEO Omar Berrada after the game against Nottingham Forest yesterday.
They have confirmed a number of issues leading up to that meeting.
– “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,” the report reads.
– The decision was “instigated” by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Joel Glazer, Sir Dave Brailsford and Berrada.
– When the decision to sack former manager Erik ten Hag was made, Ratcliffe was disappointed with the lack of clarity from Ashworth as to who should be brought in and complained that he “should have been more assertive” in targeting someone. Ashworth offered only managers with Premier League experience, including Eddie Howe, Thomas Frank, Marco Silva and Graham Potter.
– The Athletic note that “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.”
– Berrada was the driving force behind Amorim’s appointment with little input from Ashworth. Sir Jim had also held a meeting with Amorim before giving the green light. This may have led to some acrimony on Ashworth’s part.
– There were also raised eyebrows at Ashworth taking a holiday just after Amorim joined.
– Sir Jim was also unimpressed that Ashworth suggested hiring data consultants to make the decision on the new manager. The owner believed the sporting director should have the experience and wisdom to make the decision himself.
– There is a suggestion that Ineos thought Ashworth would be more of a transfer guru when in fact he is essentially an “operations manager.”
– Ratcliffe was upset that both Ashworth and Berrada made statements distancing themselves from the decision to retain Ten Hag over the summer, even though they were supposed to be on gardening leave. Sir Jim feels they should have said nothing and it “irritated” him. There is a suggestion as reported earlier that Ashworth may have been active in the decision to stick with the Dutchman which in itself was against Ratcliffe’s instincts and turned out to be a bad one.
– Ashworth was apparently reluctant to accept the job cuts planned for his department as Ineos shed 20% of the workforce.
The Athletic also suggest that Ineos may choose not to replace Ashworth directly. They mention the promotion of football director Jason Wilcox, Christopher Vivell, the interim director of recruitment, director of negotiations Matt Hargreaves as well as other executives Sam Erith and James Morton.
Whatever the case, it is another PR disaster for Ineos, who are already in hot water with fans over the decision to increase ticket prices in midseason, among a number of other things.
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