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GARY NEVILLE has slammed Manchester United’s statement over Dan Ashworth.
The Red Devils axed Ashworth from his sporting director role at the club just five months after his arrival from Newcastle.
PA
AFPNeville, 49, was left stunned by the decision and gave a brutal assessment of the club’s accompanying statement.
Manchester United announced the exit of Ashworth with a 53-word statement that gave no indication of the reason behind it.
Neville has insisted that the whole situation is “not a great look” and that the statement is “weak”.
He told NBC Sports: “I’m really shocked that this has happened. 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 ten 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.
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“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.
Man Utd's statement on Ashworth
Here is what Man United said about the exit of Dan Ashworth..
The club released a blunt 53-word statement over the sporting director.
It 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.”
“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 most recently.”
Reports have claimed that Ashworth cost the club £5million during his stint.
SunSport exclusively revealed last month that United’s new hierarchy were locked in a blame game over their summer business.
It is understood there were growing tensions between Ashworth and his colleagues in the weeks leading up to his departure.
Technical director Jason Wilcox will take on his duties in the short term while a replacement is found.
Inside Man Utd chaos amid Ashworth departure
THE blame game has another victim as things go from bad to worse at Old Trafford.
Manchester United’s first sporting director, Dan Ashworth, arrived in the summer and is gone before Christmas.
SunSport exclusively revealed last month that there was trouble at mill.
That the new senior management team were already blaming each other for the mess the club were in.
Chief executive Omar Berrada and Ashworth were trying to wash their hands of it all, claiming they had arrived too late after serving their gardening leave.
New part owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe said making decisions was all down to them. Meanwhile, Jason Wilcox thought it was all a mess under previous boss Erik ten Hag but was part of the team that encouraged him to stay after every other candidate ran for cover.
There is word Ashworth did not favour appointing his successor and new head coach Ruben Amorim, preferring an English manager with more experience in our game. Perhaps that was why ex-England gaffer Gareth Southgate’s name was always mentioned after they worked together at the FA.
Either way, Saturday’s showing against Nottingham Forest, after their second-half capitulation at Arsenal a few days previously, proved too much.
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