‘Drastic waste’ – Dan Ashworth hints at how Manchester United’s recruitment will change

It’s all been a bit of a double dutch for Manchester United so far this summer. Ruud van Nistelrooy and Rene Hake are lined up to join the coaching staff, with Matthijs de Ligt and Joshua Zirkzee prime targets to strengthen the two priority areas in Erik ten Hag’s first-team squad.

If De Ligt were to join from Bayern Munich and Zirkzee from Bologna, it would take the number of players of Dutch origin or who have played in the Eredivisie to nine, although that also includes Donny van de Beek, who is peripheral to this team at Cel better. It wouldn’t exactly give the impression that United are moving away from a transfer strategy dictated by the manager.

This is the situation Sir Jim Ratcliffe wanted to avoid when Ineos was given the keys to Old Trafford. Speaking in February, he explained his desire to overhaul the club’s footballing structure and get rid of a model that gives so much power to the manager.

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“What you need are the foundations to be in a good place for Manchester United to be successful, which means, from our point of view anyway, you need the right organizational structure,” Ratcliffe said.

“Which means you don’t have a coach reporting to the chief executive, for example, which he has at the moment. You need the right organizational structure and that won’t be too complicated.”

That structure is almost in place now. Dan Ashworth runs it as sporting director, reporting to a chief executive, who is currently Jean-Claude Blanc but will be Omar Berrada from July 13. Under Ashworth is technical director Jason Wilcox, while Christopher Vivell is also set to take on a more limited recruiting role.

With Ashworth set to work following the conclusion of four months of negotiations with Newcastle, United can begin to reshape their structure when it comes to transfer decisions. The idea will be to give Ten Hag less power than he had in the first two summer windows.

Under the Glazer regime, with a chief executive focused on commercial success in Richard Arnold and director of football John Murtough, Ten Hag guided decision-making and took a bigger role in terms of transfers as United restructured their scouting operations and recruitment.

There have been hits and misses for the Ten Hag in the market, but Ashworh has a reputation as a shrewd recruiter and will take on a major role, although as sporting director his job is much wider than just transfers. At Brighton, he was technical director and let head of recruitment Paul Winstanley generally lead the way on deals.

However, Ashworth has had his say, and in a December 2020 interview with Training Ground Guru, he explained how a collaborative approach was needed to still give Ten Hag a say now, even though his power is very slightly reduced when he signs a new contract.

“If I sign a player that Graham (Potter) doesn’t like or doesn’t want, it’s a drastic waste of resources. Ultimately, Graham has to pick 11 players that he thinks will give him the best chance to win,” Ashworth said.

“If he doesn’t rate the attributes of a player that I do, then we will invest a transfer fee, a salary and an agent fee on a player that Graham doesn’t rate or want and is unlikely to play .

“So how do we work here? Well, we agree with the areas of the field that Graham wants to improve. Our first port of call is “what do we already have in the system?” There were times when Graham said: “I’d rather work with what we’ve got and make it better than sign a player for the sake of it.”

“But if we don’t have that position in the U23s or on loan, then we have to get into the market.”

Ashworth took Potter’s cue and wanted a more physical striker and decided to pursue Danny Welbeck for the role. This summer, Ten Hag want a centre-back and a striker as a priority, and in De Ligt’s case, there is an obvious link to use there. He is someone the United manager wants and has a good relationship with.

However, Ashworth will use his own instincts and contacts. He did just that when he used his time with England and got to know Tariq Lamptey through the age groups. With Reece James blocking his path at Chelsea, he saw the young defender as a realistic target for Brighton and he excelled at the Amex.