“Changing…” Dan Ashworth’s Manchester United comments ring true following Marcus Rashford decision

Dan Ashworth’s recent comments have rang true for Manchester United following the speculation around Marcus Rashford.

Manchester United parted ways with sporting director Dan Ashworth earlier this month despite him only being at the club for a matter of months.

Another potential exit from the club looks like it could be Marcus Rashford, with various reports claiming that the 27-year-old is up for sale.

The club’s no.10 responded to these rumours by revealing that he is open to a ‘new challenge’ away from Old Trafford.

However, Ruben Amorim has explained that he wants the attacking talent to remain at the club and fight for his place in the team.

The situation appears complicated and one particular comment from Ashworth rings true more than ever in light of the speculation.

Dan Ashworth’s comments on youth sales

Speaking to journalists back in September, the former United sporting director was speaking about player exits following the sale of Scott McTominay to Napoli.

He suggested that there will be fewer ‘one club men’ due to the ‘unintended consequence’ of the rules providing more financial benefits from home grown sales.

“I think we talked about that before, is that you have to churn, you have to. You have to generate some money in to be able to spend that money back out as well, from a player trading point of view, as well as from a commercial perspective,” he explained.

“So what I think you have changed, and I’ve seen this written before, I’m not saying anything new, is the number of players that will be one club players there for a long, long period of time.

“I think it’s probably changing within the game and that’s an unintended consequence of the rules and regulations.

“I don’t want to sit here and say no player is going to be a one-club person again. But the rules have, as an unintended consequence, made it slightly more attractive to sell players with a zero-book value, which is consequently either players you sign on a free or players that come through your system.”

Rashford and McTominay are big examples

No one could have predicted a few years ago that both Rashford and McTominay could be out of the club come 2025, but Ashworth’s comments ring true for the reasoning.

While both players had underperformed during spells of their Old Trafford careers, it certainly seems like the main desire is to build a stronger financial situation.

In order to do that, United have seen clubs like Chelsea and Aston Villa take advantage of selling their own Academy talent and it looks like they are planning to do the same.

With United’s history, it is somewhat sad to see that players who have spent their entire lives at the club are leaving, but United are simply suffering the consequences of ill-planned lavish spending over the last decade.

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