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Manchester United Sporting Director Dan Ashworth leaves the club after just five months

According to multiple reports, Sporting Director Dan Ashworth has left Manchester United after just five months at the helm. Ashworth was in charge of football performance, recruitment, and operations at the club.

Soumit BhattacharyaDecember 8, 2024 at 11:09 AM • 3 min read
Manchester United Sporting Director Dan Ashworth leaves the club after just five months
According to multiple reports, Sporting Director Dan Ashworth has left Manchester United after just five months at the helm. Ashworth was in charge of football performance, recruitment, and operations at the club.

Manchester United Sporting Director Dan Ashworth has left the position at the club after just five months of being appointed. According to multiple reports, the decision was finalized following the Red Devils' 2-3 defeat against Nottingham Forest last night.

A major change at Old Trafford

Dan Ashworth joined Manchester United only in July 2024 to oversee the operations of football performance and recruitment at Old Trafford. Ashworth did a sensational job at his previous club Newcastle United to help them rebuild which caught the attention of the new Manchester United owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe. The 53-year-old executive pulled off some huge deals for the Red Devils as he played a crucial role in signing Joshua Zirkzee, Matthijs De Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui, Manuel Ugarte and Leny Yoro in the 2024 summer transfer window. Ashworth was also on the committee that sacked former boss Erik Ten Hag. 

However, Simone Stone, the journalist for BBC Sport who was at Old Trafford yesterday to cover the match, reported that Ashworth kept his head down and didn’t make eye contact with the journalists present in the mixed zone after the game. Stone hinted that there could be a lot of work in front of the United officials. There was nothing to confirm the shock decision but now it seems that Ashworth was sure about the decision of him getting dismissed.

According to a report by renowned journalist David Ornstein of TheAthletic, Ashworth reached a mutual agreement to depart from Old Trafford after the Forest game. following discussions with Omar Berrada, the newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of Manchester United.

It has also been reported that United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe instigated the decision, who once praised Ashworth as one of the top sporting directors in the world. Now the officials in the club believe that Ashworth's transition at the club "has not been smooth" as the news is now officially confirmed. Manchester United have just confirmed the decision minutes ago which reads:

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.
There has been no official confirmation on who will be appointed as the predecessor of Ashworth but the United official will need to speed up the process as the winter transfer window in January will approach in just 22 days. 

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Soumit Bhattacharya

Soumit Bhattacharya's path to football content writing has been a natural progression of his innate love for sports, especially for football. Being a dedicated football enthusiast since childhood, he is well-versed and has a profound passion for the beautiful game, sharing readers a vast knowledge base through insighful narratives.

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