Manchester United’s new part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has had a “poor start” at Old Trafford, according to Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher.
Ratcliffe’s arrival was welcomed after he bought a minority stake in United in February, taking over football operations from the Glazer family, who are largely unpopular among supporters, but fan opinion is already beginning to sour over big decisions made by the billionaire’s new regime.
Sporting director Dan Ashworth was let go over the weekend just five months into the job – the same length of time he spent on gardening leave after Man Utd paid Newcastle £2-£3m for him following a drawn out pursuit.
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Erik ten Hag was also sacked and replaced by Ruben Amorim as boss mere months after seeing his contract extended by a year and around £200m was spent improving his squad.
These costly decisions have occurred amid wide-ranging staff redundancies and increasing ticket prices, with the team currently sat 13th in the Premier League table after 15 games.
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Dan Ashworth has left his role as sporting director at Manchester United after only five months at the club
“The optics are awful,” Carragher told Sky Sports News. “Who knows, in the future we might look back and think [getting rid of Ashworth] was the right decision, but when you look at it from the outside, it doesn’t look good.
“Since INEOS came in, I’m not sure it could have gone much worse. They won the FA Cup, but they kept the manager, who they didn’t really want and spent £200m in the transfer market.
“Right now they find themselves in the lowest position they’ve been at this stage of the season.
“They’ve had to sack a manager early in the season, and the sporting director [Ashworth] who they chased from another Premier League club, and obviously paid big money for him in sporting director terms now he’s gone a few months later.
“If you’re a Manchester United fan, that initial joy of someone else being in charge and it not being the Glazers, it was almost anyone but the Glazers, I don’t think it’s been a great start at all.
“It’s been really poor from Jim Ratcliffe and the INEOS team, and it needs to change really quickly.”
Neville hits out at ‘weak’ Man Utd statement
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Gary Neville believes the manner of Ashworth’s exit is ‘not a good look’ for Man Utd
Gary Neville hit out at Man Utd’s “weak” statement announcing Ashworth’s departure from Old Trafford, claiming it will only fuel speculation about the reason for his sudden exit only five months after joining the club.
Neville said the speed of Ashworth’s exit was “not a good look” for the club, and would need “a lot of explaining” to reassure fans about the direction of travel under new co-owners INEOS.
The Sky Sports pundit told NBC: “Something like that can’t be mutual. When INEOS came in, everyone knew there were going to be huge changes.
“There have been – mass redundancies within the club, a complete overhaul of the executive of the club in terms of the CEO, CFO, sporting director, technical director and now manager recently.
“You would’ve expected large changes, but not for this position. Ashworth was headhunted for many months, he was chased for about 10 months.
“He was on gardening leave for four or five months, they paid millions of pounds to get him.
“I worked with Dan at the FA for two years, and he’s been very successful everywhere he has been. I’m most shocked this has happened, it’s not a great look at all. It’s something that’s going to need a lot of explaining.
“The statement the club have put out is really poor. Man Utd haven’t had a voice for 10 years. They’ve lost their authority and their boldness. They’ve been getting it back a little bit in the last 12 months, but it’s really clear there’s a fracture here.
“You can’t bring someone in like Dan Ashworth, lose him after five months and think something hasn’t gone wrong.
“Fans are going to be asking what’s gone wrong. They’re going to speculate, there’s going to be huge voids.
“You’re better off punching us in the face with the truth sometimes when it’s so obvious something has gone wrong, between the personalities of Dan Ashworth and Omar Berrada, Dave Brailsford, whoever it is who hasn’t got on with each other.
“Just tell us, because it’s obvious something has happened. That statement is weak.”
