A ‘shocked’ Gary Neville says Manchester United’s brief statement confirming the departure of Dan Ashworth was ‘really poor’ and ‘weak’.
Ashworth began work as United’s sporting director in July after completing a period of gardening leave with previous club Newcastle.
But on Sunday morning, the Red Devils announced that Ashworth had vacated the position by ‘mutual’ consent after just five months, with rumours swirling of a possible rift within the newly established hierarchy at Old Trafford.
The news comes just five games into Ruben Amorim’s reign as head coach and the decision reportedly caught United’s players by complete surprise.
It’s understood United’s technical director will assume Ashworth’s duties, though Sir Jim Ratcliffe could still look to bring in a full-time replacement for the 53-year-old.
‘Dan Ashworth will be leaving his role as sporting director of Manchester United by mutual agreement,’ the statement on United’s official website read.
‘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.’
Speaking on NBC Sports, Neville revealed he was taken aback by Ashworth’s exit and suggested it was ‘not a great look at all’ for his former club.
The legendary ex-United and England defender was also less than impressed by the 41-word statement given to supporters.
‘Something like that can’t be mutual,’ Neville said.
‘I think when INEOS came to Manchester United, everyone knew that there were going to be big changes and there has been massive redundancies within the club, a complete overhaul of the executive of the club in terms of the CEO, CFO, sporting director, technical director, manager, obviously, just recently as well.
‘You would have expected large changes but not changes for this position. Dan Ashworth was headhunted for many, many months. He was chased for about ten months, he was on gardening leave for around four of five months, he was paid millions of pounds.
‘I worked with Dan Ashworth at the FA for probably two years and he’s been very successful wherever he’s been, at Brighton, West Brom, the FA and Newcastle most recently.
‘I’m really shocked that this has happened and it’s not a great look at all. It’s something that’s going to need a lot of explaining and I think the statement that the club have put out is really poor.’
Neville believes Ashworth must have been involved in a ‘fracture’ behind the scenes and would rather United were just honest with the truth in such instances.
‘Manchester United haven’t had a voice for about ten years. They’ve lost their authority, they’ve lost their boldness,’ he added.
‘I think they’ve been getting it back a little bit in the last 12 months but what’s really clear here is that there is a fracture, something has happened.
‘You can’t bring somebody in of the level of Dan Ashworth and then lose him after five months and think that something hasn’t gone wrong.
‘Fans are now going to be asking the question, “What’s gone wrong?”, they’re going to speculate, it’s going to leave huge voids. I think you’re better off just punching us in the face with the truth sometimes.
‘When it’s so obvious that something has gone wrong between the personalities of Dan Ashworth, Omar Berrada, Sir Dave Brailsford, whoever it is in these last few months that have obviously not got on with each other or it’s not been working… just tell us because it’s obvious that something has happened.
‘I think that statement, to be honest with you, was weak.’
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