‘Sometimes you have to be brave’ – United chiefs lift lid on summer of upheaval

As you walk down the corridors to the boardroom in the East Stand at Old Trafford, you are reminded of the Manchester United legends of yesteryear.
On the wall, there are pictures of Wayne Rooney celebrating his overhead kick against Manchester City, and images of Cristiano Ronaldo and Sir Bobby Charlton too.
The men tasked by Sir Jim Ratcliffe with bringing the glory days back to Old Trafford are Omar Berrada, the new chief executive, and the recently appointed sporting director Dan Ashworth.
Speaking in the boardroom to the media for the first time since they started work in July, the pair talked about their first transfer window at the club.
Here is what they had to say on the following topics:
Ashworth has had a busy summer, signing Leny Yoro, Matthijs de Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui, Manuel Ugarte and Joshua Zirkzee for almost £200million. Eleven of the 21 players signed during Ten Hag’s two-year spell have either worked under him previously, played in the Eredivisie or are Dutch, but Ashworth dismissed the idea that the club only sign players who are familiar to the manager.
Dan Ashworth: “It is human nature to want to work with somebody you’ve worked with previously in all business contexts because you know that person, but we’ve also signed a number of players that haven’t worked with Erik previously: Yoro and Ugarte have never worked with Erik, and Zirkzee, you can’t say just because he’s Dutch, Erik knows him.
“That would mean the whole of the English market [was known] to me! He’s worked with Matthijs and Nous previously, but they were both on our radar as well. It’s a joined-up decision on who comes in and out.
“Overall, I like the squad. I’ve probably done 25 windows now and I don’t think there’s ever been a window where we’ve gone, ‘Oh God, it’s gone absolutely perfectly.’ There are always bits, where you think, ‘If only I could have got that over the line,’ but we have filled the target positions we wanted to strengthen.”
Getting players off the books has historically been very difficult. United players were given high wages and despite their recent struggles, the history of the club and the chance to play in front of 75,000 fans every other week remains a great pull. But this summer, in terms of sales, United have enjoyed their best window in the post-Ferguson era, raising more than £100million from the sales of 11 players, including Mason Greenwood, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Scott McTominay. Jadon Sancho, meanwhile, is set to join Chelsea at the end of his season-long loan. Ashworth denied that Sancho had been told he had no future at the club after his dispute with Ten Hag last season.
DA: “It was nothing to do with that. We decided that if we found a move that was right for Jadon and right for us, he would move on. We felt we had enough depth in that position to be able to cover it, we’ve got four really good wide players, Jadon was a fifth.
“He wanted to explore the opportunity at Chelsea, like Scott with Napoli, and Aaron with West Ham. We’re not in a position where we’re kicking players out of the club. We wanted to make sure we’ve got enough depth but that we don’t carry a bloated squad. If you run with too big a squad, it can cause problems. Players need to be motivated and know they’ve got a chance of playing.”
Omar Berrada: “Dan and his team have done an excellent job executing the ins and outs. I’m very excited and optimistic about what we have in front of us. I think we’re starting to put the right pieces in place and I’m absolutely convinced that we’re going to be successful.
“We have been more open to structuring the contracts in a way that can deliver value for us in the short term, but also in the future, introducing higher sell-on [clauses], more realistic contingents, we have done that with practically all of the players who have gone out.”
Ten Hag criticised the Premier League’s spending rules, claiming that they encouraged clubs to sell their homegrown players as they are regarded as “pure profit” on the balance sheet.
OB: “I think where we stand today you see lots of turnover in the squads, and to be able to stay within the financial regulations and make the investments we want to make, you have to sell.
“The process for selling is very similar to the process for buying. You have a framework, you know what you are trying to achieve, it has to make sense for the club, it has to make sense for the player and if you stay within those parameters and if you are decisive, then generally you get it right.
“The fundamental principle of the rules we are in favour of, which is that we need to operate sustainably. To do that, you have to make good football decisions in terms of ins and outs, and develop academy players that can contribute to the first team. It’s also about managing a good business, growing your revenues, managing your costs properly. All that plays into it. And we’re all fundamentally in favour of that.”
DA: “I don’t want to sit here and say no player is going to be a one-club person again. But the rules have, as an unintended consequence, made it slightly more attractive to sell players with a zero-book value, which is consequently either players you sign on a free or players that come through your system.
“Sometimes you have to make brave decisions. You have to generate some money to be able to spend.”
Many big-name players have joined United and then wilted under pressure. How much homework did Ashworth and his team do on the transfer targets to make sure that they will be able to deal with the added scrutiny on them?
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DA: “You try to get as many references as possible. I’ve always done that. It might be [from] a previous team-mate, a previous coach, a national team coach, a physio, somebody who might know him or her from a previous role.
“You do as much due diligence as you possibly can and that goes into a number of areas, whether that’s medical record, personality, ability to learn, ability to deal with the pressure of a club like Manchester United. But you never truly know what you’ve got, staff or player, until you start to work with them.”