Man United have made ‘£10m mistake’ after confirmed news – Stefan Borson
Manchester United have made a “£10million mistake” after it’s emerged Dan Ashworth will leave the club just months after joining from Newcastle United.
That is the view of former Man City financial adviser Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider Man United will likely pay Ashworth around £5million in compensation following his departure.
United released a two-sentence statement on 8 December confirming Ashworth will be leaving his role as sporting director by mutual agreement.
He only officially started his role at Old Trafford on 1 July after a lengthy period of gardening leave at Newcastle while the two clubs settled compensation, which is believed to have been around £5million.
Sky Sports reported on 9 December United executives felt Ashworth “wasn’t as involved as a sporting director should be” and he was “a lot more passive than the other INEOS hires”.
Dan Ashworth agreed Man United compensation package
Borson insisted Ashworth wouldn’t have left Newcastle without agreeing a compensation package in case things didn’t work out at Old Trafford.
He told Football Insider: “People talked for years and years about they wanted United to sign a director of football.
“They then finally get one and within five months he’s gone.
“You have asked him to walk out of a very lucrative and secure job at Newcastle. He’s sat in the garden for several months and then you sack him within five months. It’s an extremely expensive process.
“If you look in The Athletic, they seem to think it’s between £2-3million and The Times say it’s £5million. Clearly a lot of the Newcastle media had it at over £10million. We spoke before about it always being below £10million.
“Let’s say it’s £5million in terms of what they paid to get him over the line in terms of compensation to Newcastle.
“He’s probably been paid £1million or a bit more over the five months and then I would think that he will have had a big chunk of his contract paid off.
“There is no way he’s going to have walked out of Newcastle and not be secure in terms of the compensation he gets if United changed their mind.
“I suspect he got the best part of £5million on the way out as well, so you’re talking about a £10million mistake.
“In the context of everything that’s gone on at United in terms of the redundancies, the reduction of the Christmas bonus from £100 to £40 and the disabled supporters’ club losing £20,000, £10million to rectify the Ashworth mistake is clearly very material.”
In other news, Man United make Dusan Vlahovic move.
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