Manchester United sporting director Dan Ashworth has left the club after just five months, the Premier League side have announced.
Ashworth joined United on July 1, having been described by part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe as “one of the top sporting directors in the world”.
But it appears that his transition has not gone smoothly and his departure was announced a day after Saturday’s 3-2 Premier League defeat to Nottingham Forest left United 13th in the table.
A club statement said: “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.”
Although United have said the decision was mutual, the manner and timing of Ashworth’s departure will raise more questions for Ratcliffe’s Ineos group.
Ashworth had, along with the rest of the United hierarchy, been part of the decision to hand former manager Erik ten Hag a new contract in the summer, having been quoted in the official announcement in June.
However, Ten Hag was sacked in October, with that contract extension adding to a sizable compensation bill of £10.4million, before the appointment of Ruben Amorim, who took charge last month after United paid around £11m to get him from Sporting Lisbon.
Ashworth was also involved in an expensive summer of recruitment, with the combined fees for Leny Yoro, Manuel Ugarte, Matthijs De Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui and Joshua Zirkzee costing around £200m.
United spent around five months trying to prise Ashworth out of his previous role at Newcastle, with the 53-year-old going on gardening leave, but Ineos must now try again to fill one of the most important roles at the club or alter the structure once again.
Ashworth reportedly met with chief executive Omar Berrada after the final whistle on Saturday. He was seen quickly passing through the press conference room to another part of the stadium with chief operating officer Collette Roche.
Sunday’s announcement comes one day after the publication of an interview with Ratcliffe in the United We Stand fanzine, in which the 72-year-old admitted he had made “one or two errors” in terms of getting the right people in place at United.
Referring to French club Nice and Swiss side Lausanne, also part of the Ineos sporting empire, Ratcliffe said: “If I hadn’t done Nice and Lausanne then we wouldn’t have come into United knowing that it’s quite a journey to get to the point where your antenna is working.
“Our antenna wasn’t perfect at United and we’ve made one or two errors, but they’re a lot better than they would have been than if we’d not done Nice and Lausanne.”