Gary Neville criticised Manchester United’s statement confirming Dan Ashworth’s shock exit from the club.
The Manchester club announced the sporting director, who only moved to Old Trafford from Newcastle in July following a lengthy period spent on gardening leave, will be leaving his role after just five months.
Reports from The Athletic suggest part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe was pivotal to the decision to part ways, despite an official statement from the club claiming it was mutual.
Ratcliffe’s INEOS group have endured a frustrating time of things since taking charge of football operations in February.
They sacked Erik ten Hag only months after handing the Dutchman a new contract and backing him with significant spending in the transfer market, before appointing Ruben Amorim.
The part-owners have also been criticised for making redundancies and a rise in ticket prices.
Sunday’s statement read: “Dan Ashworth will be leaving his role as Sporting Director of Manchester United by mutual agreement.
“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.”
United legend Neville believes it’s clear there was a “fracture” behind the scenes while slamming United’s official explanation as “really poor”.
“I'm really shocked that this has happened,” he told NBC Sports.
“It's not a great look at all and it's something that will need explaining. I think the statement that the club has put out is really poor.
“Manchester United haven't had a voice for 10 years - they've lost their authority, their boldness. I think they've been getting it back a bit in the last 12 months but what's really clear is that there is a fracture here, something has happened.
“You can't bring someone in at the level of Dan Ashworth and then lose him after five months and think something hasn't gone wrong. The fans are now going to ask the question: what's gone wrong? They're going to speculate, it's going to leave huge voids.
Following news of sporting director Dan Ashworth's surprising departure from Man United, Gary Neville and Tim Howard weigh in on what could be going on behind the scenes at Old Trafford. 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/JHxerItvpe
— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) December 8, 2024
“I think you're better off punching us in the face with the truth sometimes when it's so obvious that there's been something that has gone wrong between the personalities of Dan Ashworth, Omar Berrada, Dave Brailsford, whoever it is in the 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 something has happened. I think that statement is weak.
“Something like that can't be mutual. I think when Ineos came into Manchester United everyone knew there were going to be huge changes. There have been massive redundancies in the club with 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 10 months, on gardening leave for four or five months, he was paid millions of pounds for.
“I worked with Dan Ashworth at the FA for two years and he's been very successful wherever he's been - Brighton, West Brom, the FA, at Newcastle.”
United lost 3-2 to Nottingham Forest on Saturday, keeping them marooned in 13th in the Premier League table.
