The home loss to Nottingham Forest was set to dominate the headlines for a while but Manchester United were determined to not let that happen.
Unfortunately, the way they managed that was by providing even more shocking news in a negative sense as Dan Ashworth’s Man Utd departure was announced.
The highly-rated sporting director leaves after just five months in charge, longer than it took to get him in at Old Trafford as the crown jewel of Ineos‘ new executive structure.
Here’s making sense of the situation and gauging the fan sentiment on the shocking bit of news that’s come out of nowhere-
Man Utd announce Dan Ashworth departure
Just minutes after the news broke, United released an official statement confirming the news that Ashworth would leave his role at United.
In a short and simple statement, United left nobody in any doubt that even though it has presented as a mutual agreement, all is not well at Carrington.
United’s statement 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.”
The finer details will come out in due course of time but for now, there seems to have been a clear conflict of opinion between Dan Ashworth and the rest of the executive team on the way forward for the club.
Some of Dan Ashworth’s decisions were against Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s and what he thought was the best course of action, be it the choice of manager (Ashworth reportedly preferred an English manager), or transfer strategy.
Still, despite all this brewing behind the scenes, the shock doesn’t get any lesser especially as there were no whispers leading up to the move.
That caught the fans off guard.
Fans on Dan Ashworth’s departure
When Ineos arrived at Old Trafford, the hope was that they would finally give the club a sense of identity and direction long missing under the Glazers.
So far, that identity has been one of confusion and lack of conviction over their own decisions. Be it backing Ten Hag then sacking him, or doing it later than it should have happened, the on-pitch calls are contentious.
Off the pitch, their cost-cutting measures haven’t won them any fans so in many ways, this news of Ashworth’s shock departure is the straw that has broken the camel’s back.
“This is really controversial, we chased him for 6 months, just to have him, then sack him after 5 months. INEOS what’s up?”, said one fan as another termed it a “very messy situation”.
“This is wild, what is happening behind the scenes at Old Trafford?!” said another while a fourth threw a jibe at the “revolving door” at United not letting any stability happen.
A fifth said: “What a shambles! Transitional period? If Sir Jim was upset about the summer strategy, Ashworth only started in July! Make it make sense!”.
Another added: “What’s he managed to do in 5 months? Would’ve been better if he wasn’t appointed at all if the summer strategy was an issue.”
“All that money we spent to get him and gone already. What a joke,” said one fan, perfectly summing up the sentiment in the fanbase right now.
The credit in the bank is well and truly dried up and Ineos need to start showing something tangible to earn fans back on their side.
After all, “better than the Glazers” will only work for so long as an endorsement since that’s not a very high bar to clear in the first place.
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