When Manchester United sacked Dan Ashworth as sporting director a year ago today, some serious questions were being asked about the Sir Jim Ratcliffe revolution at Old Trafford.
Sweeping out the old guard was one thing, but axing a senior executive who had only been in the job for 159 days was acknowledgement of a misstep by Ineos, the club’s new minority owners.
Ashworth was meant to be a key figure at the heart of reshaping United’s football operation, not least in the critical area of recruitment.
Yet, there he was being unceremoniously ushered out of the door at Old Trafford in the wake of a defeat by Nottingham Forest just a few weeks before the start of the winter transfer window. If this were a Bond film, it was the moment the trapdoor opened and an unsuspecting victim plunged into a pool of sharks.
Of all the problems highlighted by Ratcliffe when he got to look under the bonnet at United, recruitment was one of his biggest concerns. He described some of the squad he inherited as either not good enough or overpaid, citing Casemiro, Rasmus Hojlund, Antony, Andre Onana and Jadon Sancho as examples of players who were still costing the club money in transfer fee instalments.
Ratcliffe also said that United were ‘still in the last century on data analysis’ and the club’s famed academy ‘had really slipped’. He had a point. Since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013, close to £2billion has been spent on new signings (including £450million under Ineos, it has to be said). Over those 12 years, United have two FA Cups, two League Cups and a Europa League to show for their mammoth investment.
Director of football Jason Wilcox (left) has become a key piece of the Manchester United jigsaw under co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe
Ratcliffe has highlighted the club’s freespending transfer policy in the past, citing players bought under the previous regime like goalkeeper Andre Onana
Dan Ashworth was meant to help reshape United’s recruitment policy but was dismissed after just 159 days in the role
They were in danger of being overtaken by Manchester City and Chelsea at academy level, and falling behind clubs like Brighton and Bournemouth in the use of data to identify transfer targets.
Ratcliffe has been ruthless in his determination to close the gap. ‘We must have the best recruitment in the world,’ he told fanzine United We Stand in an interview published on the day Ashworth was sacked on December 7 last year. ‘Until we are as good…