“Untrue…” Shock report reveals major twist in Manchester United’s Dan Ashworth sack drama

A new report has revealed a shocking twist in the drama that surrounds Manchester United’s sacking of former sporting director Dan Ashworth.

Earlier this month, Dan Ashworth departed Manchester United just five months after being appointed as sporting director following his move from Newcastle United.

Ashworth joined United in the summer as part of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s overhaul of the club’s management structure.

His arrival came after an extended process, during which he served six months of gardening leave, with United paying £3 million in compensation to Newcastle to facilitate his early release.

Despite the effort and investment involved in his recruitment, Ashworth’s time at Old Trafford ended prematurely. His departure cane in the wake of Manchester United’s 3-2 Premier League loss to Nottingham Forest.

According to reports, CEO Omar Berrada conducted the talks leading to Ashworth’s dismissal, but the decision was heavily driven by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who had been a major advocate for bringing Ashworth to the club just months earlier.

A shock twist in United’s sacking of Ashworth

At the time United announced the sacking of Ashworth, many reports came out and said a significant reason for the decision was that Ashworth’s vision for United was not aligned with the rest of the leadership team.

It was reported that the 53-year-old was apprehensive about appointing new head coach Rúben Amorim after the club sacked Erik ten Hag in October, with the former sporting director wanting to bring in ex-England boss Gareth Southgate instead.

However, a shock report from The Telegraph has now revealed that these claims are “untrue”, and that Ashworth never put forward Southgate as an option to replace Ten Hag.

Prominent United correspondent James Ducker for The Telegraph wrote: “claims that Ashworth was not fully on board with the decision are untrue and that the 53-year-old – who left United on December 8 after just 159 days in the job – did not recommend the likes of former England manager Gareth Southgate, who did not feature on United’s shortlist.”

Further, the report states that United began working on a replacement for Ten Hag almost as soon as he signed a contract extension in the summer, with United only choosing to keep the Dutchman because United’s true footballing structure was not in place until later in the year.

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It is said that the club always thought that Amorim was their preferential choice, but that due to limitations, they thought it would be unable to appoint him.

However, they bit the bullet later in the year, spending around £20 million on termination fees for the old coaching set-up and paying release clauses to Sporting CP for Amorim and his staff.

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