Omar Berrada and Dan Ashworth have discussed the need to make “good decisions” to secure Manchester United’s future footballing success. In explaining the club’s actions in the summer transfer window, Berrada said the club “don’t want to just win one Premier League and then be satisfied” but intend to “create a team that is capable of competing for the Champions League, for the Premier League and for the domestic cups on a consistent basis”.
And they say Erik ten Hag has their “full backing” to deliver it.
On Saturday, The Athletic published the inside story of United’s transfer window. We detailed how they went about securing the players in the three positions they identified as priorities when the window opened: centre-back, centre-forward and central midfield, the other deals they explored and who were most in favour of each deal.
On Sunday, speaking three hours before kick-off against Liverpool, Berrada, the club’s chief executive, and Ashworth, the sporting director, discussed with reporters the club’s approach to player trading during the summer transfer window, the decision to retain Ten Hag and the challenges ahead.
That game ended in a humbling 3-0 defeat — but looking at the bigger picture before it, the two men explained the transfer strategy, the departure of Jadon Sancho and other “brave” sales, their view on profit and sustainability (PSR) rules, Ten Hag’s role in signings and how far they are behind Manchester City.
Here is what they said, with an analysis of the key topics from The Athletic’s Manchester United reporters.
On Erik Ten Hag – ‘He has our full backing’
Berrada: “In terms of the contract, that was a decision that was taken prior to both of our arrivals. But as I said before, we’re very happy with that decision. Erik has our full backing and we have worked very closely together — as Dan said before — in this transfer window. We’re going to continue working very closely with him to help him get the best results out of the team.
Is he still backed if there’s a bad run of results?
Berrada: “Do we still believe in Erik? Absolutely. We think Erik is the right coach for us and we’re fully backing him.”
Is it not odd that you find yourself inheriting a coach?
Ashworth: “Well, it happened at Newcastle with Eddie Howe, it happened at West Brom, Tony Mowbray was in place. Very rarely do you go into a job as a sporting director and there’s no manager in place.”
So you had no say in keeping him?
Ashworth: “I didn’t start until July 1, so none whatsoever. All I can do is reiterate what I remember saying, I’ve really enjoyed working with Erik for the last eight weeks. I see my job is to support him in every way I possibly can — and whether that’s operationally, whether that’s with recruitment, whether that’s with medical, whether that’s with psychology, whether that’s training ground flow, it’s just to take as much of that off him to allow him to fully focus on the training pitch and the match tactical plan to deliver success for Manchester United.”
(James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)
On the most important decision that United’s new leadership have made and arguably still the defining question of the coming season, Berrada and Ashworth were on message and echoed the sentiments coming out of Old Trafford earlier this summer: that Ten Hag is the best manager to lead the club forward.
In fact, Berrada stating that Ten Hag has their “full backing” and they “absolutely” believe in his abilities is the most full-throated endorsement that the United manager has received from his new bosses yet. But is it convincing?
Can it be when, as The Athletic has previously reported, following the 4-0 defeat at Crystal Palace back in May, United’s executives reached a consensus that a change of manager was necessary?
Can Ten Hag’s job be absolutely secure given United interviewed several potential successors, even after the FA Cup final victory at Wembley, and advanced as far as discussing potential financial packages with Thomas Tuchel and Roberto de Zerbi?
But United’s executives have backed Ten Hag since that decision was made, triggering a one-year extension in his contract, allowing him to reshape his backroom staff and by signing some of his preferred targets.
Both Berrada and Ashworth only officially started work after Ten Hag’s future was settled: Ashworth once a compensation package was agreed with Newcastle United in early July, then Berrada a few weeks later. Notably, both made it clear in their answers that it was not their personal decision to stand by Ten Hag.
But as they were about to be appointed to two of the most influential roles at Old Trafford, both were kept in the loop during the review process. And now they are in place, they will have far more input should any decision on the manager need to be made in future. It seems that, for the moment, Ten Hag has their backing.
Mark Critchley
On United going Dutch – ‘It is natural’
You said signings aren’t down to one man. Did you not consider drawing a line with recruitment this summer as Ten Hag had some sway under the previous regime and there is a continuation of that thread with Joshua Zirkzee, Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui?
Ashworth: “Again, I can’t comment on what’s happened previously, I don’t know how they’ve made the decisions on players coming in, and as I’ve already alluded to, it’s a joined-up process. We looked at objective, subjective opinions and came up with the best possible solution we can to fill the positions we have identified.
“It is natural in human nature to work with somebody you’ve worked with previously in all contexts, in all business contexts. I’m sure you guys have all done it as well. That is a natural sway because you know that person, because you know that player, but also we’ve signed a number of players this summer that haven’t worked with Erik previously: Yoro, Ugarte, he’d never worked with Zirkzee — and you can’t say just because he’s Dutch he knows him! You would put the whole of the English market to me! He’s not worked with him before.
“He’s worked with Matthijs and Nous previously and, 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.”
(Michael Regan/Getty Images)
Ten Hag has often bristled at the suggestion that he has an overbearing influence on United’s transfer policy and, as Ashworth rightly pointed out, some of the supposed links between the manager and United signings can be overstated.
Although Zirkzee is Dutch, he had never played under Ten Hag until now, nor has he even made an appearance in the Eredivisie. Last season, United had only two Dutch players on their books and they played a grand total of three Premier League minutes.
Ten Hag has undeniably sought to reunite with players that he trusts, though. He championed De Ligt in particular, arguing for his signing as far back as January. He and Mazraoui were the fifth and sixth players to join after previously working with Ten Hag.
As Ten Hag’s existing contract terms were extended, his transfer veto remains in place and it is still the case that either he or the recruitment department can block a prospective signing. That is not an unusual approach for top clubs but it requires compromise between a manager and the wider structure when opinions differ.
Ten Hag was initially cool on the signing of Ugarte, for example, and would have preferred not to lose Scott McTominay to Napoli, but was ultimately won around. That sort of give and take is necessary if United are to put their patchy record in the transfer market right.
Mark Critchley
On Jadon Sancho – ‘We’re not kicking players out of the club’
Ashworth: “I think with any player, whether it’s Jadon (Sancho), whether it’s Scott (McTominay) or whether it’s Aaron (Wan Bissaka), if there’s a preference that they would like to move and go to a new club and it’s right for them and it’s right for us, then you have to explore it. 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 that if it was good for him and good for us it was something we were willing to consider.”
So there was no future for him?
Ashworth: “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.”
Sancho’s United career has largely underwhelmed, given the weight of expectations placed after the club’s initial failed pursuit in summer 2020. The 24-year-old struggled to adjust to Ten Hag’s tactical setup. Following a public disagreement after United’s 3-1 defeat to Arsenal in September last season, he found himself frozen out from the first-team picture and even exiled from the canteen, before being loaned back to Borussia Dortmund in January.
The forward was brought in from the cold in July, and Ten Hag said a line had been drawn under the previous disagreement. Yet Sancho would play only seven more minutes in a United shirt in 2024-25, missing a penalty in the Community Shield, before being left out of matchday squads against Fulham and Brighton. The summer truce between player and manager then felt like an uneasy solution borne to protect value in the transfer market. In late August The Athletic reported interest from Juventus as well as Chelsea in the forward, who reiterated his desire to eventually leave United.
Sancho’s lack of elite-level athleticism made him an awkward fit for Ten Hag, who prefers explosive wingers who can best opposition full-backs through displays of raw pace or agile trickery. While the forward is an intelligent combination player and can be skilled at progressing the ball into the final third, he was also unlikely to dislodge Bruno Fernandes in the No 10 position or play substantial minutes as a false nine for the club.
Sancho’s move away from United and Ten Hag was a sensible decision for all involved. He may face competition to break into Chelsea’s starting line-up, given their number of playing options, but his link-up play should suit Enzo Maresca’s preferred tactical style. Chelsea’s agreement to pay £20million-25m will further help United navigate FFP and PSR considerations. Sancho will go down as another costly misfire in the post-Alex Ferguson era of United.
INEOS’ new footballing structure will be keen not to repeat similar mistakes in transfer windows to come.
Carl Anka
On United’s squad – and how they compare to City
Are you confident with the 2024-25 squad?
Ashworth: “I like the squad, I have to say. I probably would say that after the business we’ve done in the summer. I’ve probably done 25 windows now and have been doing this for a fair period. I don’t think there’s ever been a window where we’ve gone, ‘Oh God, it’s gone absolutely perfectly, we’ve done every single in, we’ve done every single out we wanted to do’. There are always bits where you go, ‘If only I could have done that, or if only I could have got that over the line’. But, in the main, the target positions we wanted to strengthen, the players we’ve brought in, the depth and options when everybody is fully fit that Erik has, and we have as a club, I’m pleased with that, yeah.”
How long will it take until United are in a place where they use transfer windows to make minor tweaks to a squad, similar to Manchester City?
Berrada: “I think anybody who has worked in football for a long time could tell you that it’s almost impossible to put a timescale to answer that question. What I can say is it has been demonstrated when you look at the teams who have been successful consistently for many years: it’s because they have the right coach, they have signed the right players, they have the right structure around the coach and the players and you need to take good decisions consistently for many years to get into a position where you are a financially sustainable club that is competing to win every single competition. Which is where we want to be.
“As Dan referenced earlier, we don’t want to just win one Premier League and then be satisfied. We want to create a team that is capable of competing for the Champions League, for the Premier League and for the domestic cups on a consistent basis. So, to build that, we need to be doing more of what we have done in this window.”
The Athletic attempted to analyse the 2024-25 squad in the final hours of the summer window and concluded the window had seen them address nearly every problem position with a fresh face.
However, there are still questions over the left-back situation, given the injuries suffered in recent times by Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia. The final weeks of the window also brought questions from United supporters as to whether the club would make a bid for an additional striker, in order to share the goalscoring load with the likes of Zirkzee and Rasmus Hojlund.
Berrada touched upon the need to make “good decisions consistently” in more than one answer during Sunday’s briefing. The INEOS-led footballing setup appears focused on creating a dynasty at United rather than spurts of success experienced by other clubs, such as Leicester City.
The most charitable reading of the summer window is to see it as the start of the first full season of INEOS and the new footballing structure, rather than the third season of Ten Hag’s tenure. New signings such as Ugarte, Yoro, De Ligt and others are at the club to be built around in the coming seasons. Berrada would later go on to compliment Ashworth and the sporting team for their work in the negotiations process, saying “If you make a mistake and if you overspend or get a player who can cost you too much, it can set you back.”
United’s new leadership will be mindful of the “one step forward, two steps back” conundrum that has plagued the club since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement. Champions League qualification is a consistent ambition, but United will also need to make more correct decisions in a row if they hope to win the trophy once again.
“There will be some mistakes that we made; it’s normal there are certain factors we can’t control,” said the chief executive. “But out of all of the controllables, we are going to put our best foot forward to get it right.”
On United’s ‘quite brave’ sales
Ashworth: “From my point of view, sometimes you have to be quite brave and make decisions that maybe you don’t want to make, and you’re also dealing with players that ultimately want to play football. So you want to make sure that the squad is lean, but you have enough depth. The schedule, especially with the new Europa League format, et cetera, is pretty punishing. So we want to make sure we’ve got enough depth that we don’t carry a bloated squad and we’re able to keep the players with the motivation and thought that they’ve got a chance of playing.
“If you run with too big a squad, it can cause problems. So you have to sometimes make some brave decisions on that.”
United made five signings and saw 13 players leave — which is quite the shredding of numbers. Toby Collyer, Ethan Wheatley, and Harry Amass have also been promoted from the academy to the first-team squad for the season. Of those 13 to depart, only Scott McTominay (27 starts, 16 subs), Aaron Wan-Bissaka (26 starts, four subs), and Raphael Varane (25 starts, seven subs) played a significant part last season. Sancho (three), Anthony Martial (19), Facundo Pellistri (13), Willy Kambwala (10), Hannibal Mejbri (10), and Omari Forson (7) made 62 appearances between them, the majority off the bench. Mason Greenwood, Donny van de Beek, Alvaro Fernandez, and Brandon Williams all spent seasons on loan.
(Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images)
In all, United now have a squad of 22 players who would expect to play a role this campaign when fit, with the supplement of Jonny Evans, who admitted he only anticipated five matches last season, plus a sprinkling of youth graduates. In the past, notably under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, that number has pushed to 30, and the mood at Carrington suffered with several of those training knowing they would not feature. Executives at the time experienced issues selling, and Solskjaer had an inclination to keep hold of some players given doubts over the club’s ability to sign targets he wanted.
Ashworth here makes clear he is attuned to the risks of such a scenario. It is why Pep Guardiola likes to keep a tight squad at Manchester City: to create competitive tension where nobody feels discarded. Chelsea are taking the opposite approach, of course.
There is a balance in keeping enough players to rotate where necessary given the number of games, especially with an expanded Europa League. For that reason, Christian Eriksen has stayed at United, with his agent Martin Schoots telling Voetbal International that, despite being linked to Ajax, plus offers from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the MLS, Eriksen “is confident that he will get enough playing minutes”.
“Manchester United will play every three days in the coming months, so he will still be important,” Schoots said. “With a new defensive midfielder (Ugarte) instead of a box-to-box player, there are probably more possibilities in a creative-offensive role, his more natural role.”
Laurie Whitwell
On PSR rules favouring academy sales
Ashworth: “The reason you have to make brave decisions is because of the changes in the rules and regulations. You have to generate some money in to be able to spend that money back out as well — from a player trading point of view as well as from a commercial perspective. So what I think you have changed is the number of players that will be one-club players, there for a long, long period of time. That’s an unintended consequence of the rules and regulations.”
Do you want the PSR rules changed?
Ashworth: “One thing we’re forgetting is the player’s wishes as well. Scott’s been fairly open that maybe he needed a change. He’s been in Manchester United for 21 years. He’s been a brilliant servant. But sometimes in life you fancy something different. So we have to respect what those human beings want for their career and their life. And if all three are right, it’s right for us, it’s right for them, it’s right for the club they’re going to, then you have to look at it.
“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.”
Berrada: “Just to add to that, the fundamental principle of the rules we are in favour of: which is that we need to operate sustainably. And in order to do that, it’s obviously taking good football decisions ins and outs, developing academy players that can contribute to the first team. It’s also managing a good business. Growing your revenues, managing your costs properly. So all of that plays into it. And we’re all fundamentally in favour of that.”
Ashworth tapped into an emerging theme, which is clubs seeing academy players as a means of raising greater flexibility within the rules because of their value in the accounts. That Ashworth chose to go there is notable in that it suggests he wants to make clear to United fans why a player such as McTominay was allowed to go over, say, the club pushing an exit for Casemiro, who arrived for an initial £60million two years ago.
McTominay undoubtedly had more interest in any case, but it might have been an interesting debate if United had got an offer for Casemiro that did not help their PSR calculations as much as seeing an academy player leave. The cost of a transfer can be spread out over the course of a contract for terms of accounting, so in Casemiro’s circumstance, £15million per season, leaving his book value at £30m in 2024-25.
So to make the same £25m profit gained from selling McTominay to Napoli, United would have required a £55million sale for Casemiro, which was implausible. Albeit that does not include the major saving on wages for a departure by Casemiro, who earned nearly three times as much as McTominay at United, and is a significant factor in the calculations.
There is a sense of sadness about Ashworth painting out the prospect of one-club players dwindling even further. Still, Berrada wanted to make the point that the rules are right in principle: for sensible decisions to create as level a playing field as possible and sustainable businesses.
Laurie Whitwell
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