Ben Foster has named his choice as sporting director at Manchester United, arguing the team need experience to help with recruitment.
Manchester United’s various managers in the largely unsuccessful post-Sir Alex Ferguson era have all struggled in one key area, recruitment.
Since taking over as manager in 2022, Erik ten Hag has arguably had too much sway, and this has been because of a lack of expertise above him, forcing the manager to take a lead role.
But the problems go back to the moment Fergie left, and Ed Woodward replaced David Gill as chief executive. Current Football Director John Murtough is currently battling for his future amid United’s imminent investment from Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
Director of football expected
Manchester United’s need for a director of football has been discussed at length for years. When the club finally made a decision to hire one, the appointment of John Murtough was an underwhelming choice.
Murtough had no track record in a similar role at a major club, and was promoted internally. It felt like an easy choice from the owners, rather than them going out and hiring the ‘best in class’.
The sentiment remains that Manchester United need to make a new external hire and bring in expertise.
Talksport report that Sir Jim Ratcliffe intends to bring in multiple figures, a committee, with Paul Mitchell among those linked.
Another one suggested last week was Newcastle sporting director Dan Ashworth. 90Min report Ashworth is close to Ratcliffe’s key advisor Dave Brailsford.
Ben Foster backs Ashworth to Manchester United
In an interview with The United Stand, former goalkeeper Ben Foster believes Dan Ashworth is exactly what the club need.
He said: “The manager does need to take some responsibility for the players that he signed. It comes down to, we spoke a few weeks ago, the sporting director role.
“Dan Ashworth, that’s all he does at Newcstle, he finds out about a player, does he work well in a team? Is he reliable? Is he hard-working? When the chips are down is he going to be there, is he going to stand up, and just get on with it?
“That’s what Man United haven’t got, they’ve just looked at technical ability, talent, speed, or potential ability, and forget the rest, whether he’s a nice guy or whether he works well in the team, they don’t care about that.
“They’ve got factors like age, probably resale value, and commercialism around the world, that’s what they care about.”
These are just Foster’s opinions, as United may argue they do in fact look at these traits, but are they given enough weight?
Looking at the farce that has transpired with Jadon Sancho, it looks not.
Foster asked several questions, which when applied to Sancho, is looks like the answer is ‘no’ for each and every one. He has high technical ability, but clearly no desire and determination to become a success at the club.
Sancho will go down as one of the most expensive misses of all time for the club, possibly the worst signing ever, and there is lots of competition. United can’t afford any more bad signings of this scale.
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