Dan Ashworth explains Man Utd exit of ‘fifth-choice’ Sancho as five Ten Hag signings are defended

Manchester United sporting director Dan Ashworth claims the loan exit of Jadon Sancho to Chelsea was a move the Red Devils simply had to explore, while five pieces of transfer business signed off by the club have also received a staunch defence.

A new era at Old Trafford officially got underway this summer when minority shareholder, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, was able to bring in a number of key appointments behind the scenes and embark on a ruthless transfer rebuilding programme that he hoped would transform the club’s fortunes. And with Jason Wilcox (technical director) joined by both new CEO, Omar Berrada, and Ashworth as sporting director, the British billionare has assembled some of the very best in the business at Manchester United.

The major changes, however, came on the playing side of things, with a ruthless Ratcliffe parting company with a number of high-earning stars and with the both Raphael Varane and Anthony Martial shown the door immediately after the previous season came to an end.

However, Ratcliffe was not yet done and with the likes of Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Scott McTominay also departing, arguably the most high-profile exit of all was to come late in the day, with confirmation not actually arriving until the next day, of Sancho’s move to Chelsea.

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The exit of the £73m comes as no surprise given he had spent the second half of last season on loan with Borussia Dortmund following a very high-profile bust-up with manager Erik ten Hag.

And while the two men were eventually able to set aside their difference, the fact that the 23-times capped England man was unable to make their matchday squad for their opening two games told its own story.

Jadon Sancho: Ashworth explains Chelsea loan exit

Ultimately, though, and while United would have preferred a permanent sale of the winger, Sancho was eventually allowed to sign for Chelsea, joining the Blues on a season-long loan deal, with the player making a salary sacrifice and with the move understood to be as good as guaranteed to become a permanent arrangement next summer.

TEAMtalk understands that Chelsea have avoided the need to pay a loan fee for Sancho, but will cover the majority of his wages and have an agreement to sign the 24-year-old in a deal worth up to £25m (€29.7m / US$32.8m) next summer.

Earning an estimated £300,000 a week at Old Trafford, Sancho had slipped down the pecking order at the club, meaning from a financial point of view, the exit made a great deal of sense.

Nonetheless, United have come under fire amid the likelihood that they will have lost an eye-watering £48m off their initial investment back in 2021.

Explaining the sale, Ashworth told Sky Sports: “We felt we had enough depth in that particular position to be able to cover it, we’ve got four really good wide players, Jadon was a fifth, and it just enabled us to make that decision.

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“If it was good for him and good for us it was something we were willing to consider.”

Asked is Sancho has any sort of future at Old Trafford, Ashworth added: “Nothing to do with that. It was a decision that we made – if it’s right for Jadon and it’s right for us to move on.

“He wanted to explore the opportunity at Chelsea, like Scott wanted to explore the opportunity at Napoli, like Aaron wanted to explore the opportunity at West Ham.

“We’re not in a position where we’re kicking players out of the club.”

Man Utd transfers: Sporting director defends five Ten Hag signings

United made a total of five first-team signings over the summer with Joshua Zirkzee, Leny Yoro, Noussair Mazraoui, Matthijs de Ligt and, on deadline day itself, Manuel Ugarte, all signing on the dotted line.

The double capture of Mazraoui and De Ligt from Bayern Munich reunites Ten Hag with two of his former Ajax players. They are not the first of Ten Hag’s former players to rekindle their connection with the Dutch coach at Old Trafford, with the likes of Lisandro Martinez and Antony also making the move from Amsterdam in summer 2022.

However, not all have proved a success and criticism has been fired in Ten Hag’s direction as a result.

Ashworth, though, is adamant he is happy with all five of United’s summer deals.

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“It’s human nature to work with somebody you’ve worked with previously in all contexts, in all business contexts,” Ashworth added.

“That is a natural sway, because you know that person, because you know that player.

“But we’ve also signed a number of players this summer who haven’t worked with Erik previously – Leny Yoro, Manuel Ugarte, he’d never worked with Joshua Zirkzee – and you can’t say ‘just because he’s Dutch’ that he knows him.

“You would put the whole of the English market to me [if that were the case]. He’s not worked with him before. He’s worked with Matthijs and Nous [Mazraoui] previously, but as I’ve said before, they were both on our radar and it’s a joined-up decision on who comes in and out of this football club.”