Man United made ‘£5m mistake’ after new paperwork filed – Stefan Borson
Manchester United cut ties with former sporting director Dan Ashworth in December after just five months in the role.
The 53-year-old officially made the move to Old Trafford on 1 July, having spent five months on gardening leave at Newcastle United.
Man United claimed the decision for Ashworth to move on was a “mutual agreement” after reports suggested his transition had not been smooth.
The Premier League side revealed in their accounts for the second quarter of the 2024-25 financial year the Ashworth situation had cost them £4.1million.
Former Man City financial adviser Stefan Borson exclusively told Football Insider it was a “very expensive mistake” by United that likely set them back around £5million in total.
The accounts also revealed the Manchester giants’ revenue dropped from £225.8million in the final three months of 2023 to £198.7million in 2024.
However, the club are still expecting their overall revenue to be between £650-670million for 2024-25 after posting a record turnover of £661.8million last year.
Dan Ashworth to Man United fee revealed after Newcastle rumours
Borson insisted United are unlikely to have paid Newcastle more than £4million for Ashworth despite rumours suggesting it was a “very big” payment.
He told Football Insider: “It’s a decent set of results on the face of it, notwithstanding the fact that they’re not performing very well on the pitch.
“They have confirmed that they will be in line with the guidance they have given. But clearly, there are some good little highlights in there about the cost of Amorim, the cost of getting rid of Ten Hag and the cost of Dan Ashworth.
“It was quite interesting we do see quite a lot of detail about the Ashworth situation. There had been quite a lot of rumour that it was a very big payment that was made to Newcastle.
“I think we now know because of the way that it’s structured in the United accounts that the payment to Newcastle will have been unlikely to have been more than £4million, so the total cost of Ashworth excluding the wages that they paid him was £4.1million.
“What the £4.1million will break down into will be the right off of the money that they paid to Newcastle, but about 90 per cent of that probably, plus his termination payment from United.
“The rumours are that it’s kind of £3million to Newcastle and £1million to Ashworth, so £3million would be 90 per cent of it, so they may have paid about £3.5million to Newcastle.
“The total cost to United over that period would probably be somewhere in the order of £4.5million plus the wages, so around about £5million in total for Ashworth at United.
“It’s obviously a very expensive mistake, but it’s quite interesting for people that have been speculating about that over time.”
| Financial Year | Man United Revenue |
| 2023-24 | £661.8m |
| 2022-23 | £648.4m |
| 2021-22 | £583.2m |
| 2020-21 | £494.1m |
| 2019-20 | £509m |
Man United chiefs are ‘gaslighting’ after controversial move
Sir Jim Ratcliffe has come under fire following his cost-cutting measures at Old Trafford since taking over the footballing operations.
The club are set to make up to 200 more redundancies after letting about 250 members of staff go last year.
However, Borson previously told Football Insider United chiefs are “gaslighting” following Ratcliffe’s controversial move to cut costs.
The INEOS chief increased his stake at Old Trafford to 28.9 per cent after injecting £238million into the club following his £1.25billion deal with the Glazers last February.
For more Man United news, follow us on Facebook or join our brand new WhatsApp Channel for instant updates to be sent straight to your phone.