Manchester United have been a club in disarray ever since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013.
The 2013 retirements of Sir Alex Ferguson and David Gill are events Manchester United have never really recovered from.
What that has meant is that when Ineos took over in late 2023, they inherited a club dealing with financial problems as well as sporting ones.
A race to comply with PSR led to some difficult decisions, and it’s fair to say Sir Jim Ratcliffe and co. have not got all of them right.
Dan Ashworth exit left United fans reeling
Manchester United fans were left reeling by the decision Dan Ashworth would leave the club, via a statement issued last weekend.
United appointed Ashworth as the club’s first ever sporting director in July. Five months later he is gone.
While later revelations on Ashworth have explained United’s reasons for letting him leave, the optics are not good.
This was raised by former Manchester United winger Karel Poborsky, in an interview with Czech outlet SZ ahead of the Red Devils’ game with Plzen.
Poborsky, who has often returned to Old Trafford to play in legends games, feels this creates a worrying perception of the club.
He admitted: “It’s a surprise, I didn’t expect this and it doesn’t make a good impression on anyone at all. Manchester is in a rebuilding phase and he started it. Or rather, he led it quite a bit from the position of sports director. The results or the games are what they are, but I didn’t expect him to leave.”
The former international winger added: “God knows what happened there and what prompted him to leave, but it doesn’t make a good impression on the outside.”
There is an alternate view, that Ratcliffe acted quickly to correct a mistake and should be commended, but his margin for error next time becomes smaller, after this first high-profile blunder.
| Position | Team | Played MP | Won W | Drawn D | Lost L | For GF | Against GA | Diff GD | Points Pts |
| 12 |  NewcastleNewcastle | 15 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 19 | 21 | -2 | 20 |
| 13 |  Man UtdManchester United | 15 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 19 | 18 | 1 | 19 |
| 14 |  West HamWest Ham | 15 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 20 | 28 | -8 | 18 |
McTominay exit upsets Poborsky
One of the challenges facing United is financial, leading to cashing in on academy graduate Scott McTominay in the summer.
United received a fee of £25.7 million for McTominay, represented as pure profit on the books.
But Poborsky is one of many to feel that selling the midfielder is a clear mistake from the Old Trafford hierarchy, which Ashworth was a part of.
He commented: “[It’s] a word that has slowly faded away, but for me the last such player, clubman, brawler was Scott McTominay, who was sold to Napoli. Manchester lacks such types.”
McTominay has taken his talents to Napoli, where he has scored four goals and provided two assists in 17 appearances to date.
Poborksy feels Plzen are playing United at a good time – but has some optimism about current head coach Ruben Amorim, and wants him to be given space and time to succeed.
He added: “If he gets space from the management, it could work. But it certainly won’t be about months, unfortunately I have to say that it will be more about seasons.”
Receive a digest of our best United content each week direct to your mailbox
