DAN ASHWORTH was relieved to get out of Manchester United after his sudden exit as sporting director.
The structure has been widely criticised amid the team’s descent into the relegation zone, with supporters calling for chief executive Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox to go.
Berrada and Wilcox are set to oversee the sacking of , who is at the club’s Carrington training complex on Tuesday while United chiefs meet co-owner in Monaco to ratify his dismissal.
Former technical director Wilcox was promoted to director of football in June 2025, six months after Ashworth’s departure.
Multiple sources say Ashworth, back at the Football Association as chief football officer, was “driven round the bend” by the Ineos regime at United.
Ineos chairman Ratcliffe headhunted Ashworth to become the club’s inaugural sporting director and he joined from Newcastle United on July 1 2024.
Ashworth washed his hands of United’s decision to keep Erik ten Hag on as manager before Ten Hag was eventually sacked in October 2024.
Berrada instigated the move for Ruben Amorim whereas Ashworth was in favour of a British choice and recommended Eddie Howe or Gareth Southgate.
Less than a month after Amorim began work as United head coach, Ashworth abruptly left, with a boardroom meeting held in the immediate aftermath of United’s home defeat to Nottingham Forest in December 2024.
Ratcliffe suggested a lack of “chemistry” was behind Ashworth’s departure. United sources denied that Ashworth’s removal was linked to the choice of Amorim yet multiple sources have disputed that.
Wilcox is at United primarily on the recommendation of Berrada as they were colleagues at .
Berrada agreed to take over as United chief executive in January 2024 but had to serve a six-month period of gardening leave. Wilcox arrived from Southampton in the April.
Ashworth has been one of the handful of senior appointments by Ratcliffe who did not previously work for City.
United also brought in a director of communications, performance director and academy head who all used to be employed by City.
With the exception of statements attached to contract or signing announcements, Wilcox has not spoken in more than a year.
The former Blackburn Rovers and Leeds United winger conducted an in-house podcast on November 5 last year, having given a brief training ground interview six days earlier.
Wilcox’s criticism of former head coach Ruben Amorim convinced the Portuguese to effectively engineer his own sacking in January. Wilcox then shortlisted Carrick and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as two temporary options for head coach.
Carrick was promoted to permanent coach on a two-year deal in May but United have since won four games out of 16 and are 18th in the Premier League.
The imminent dismissal of Carrick will mark the first time in United’s 148-year history that two managers have been sacked in the same calendar year.
