PLZEN, Czechia — Ruben Amorim has admitted that Dan Ashworth’s shock departure from Manchester United is “not the best situation,” but insisted Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s vision for the future of the club remains on track.
Ashworth was heralded by Ratcliffe as a key addition when he was appointed as sporting director in July.
But he left his role on Sunday just five months after arriving from Newcastle in a deal which cost the club more than £3 million ($3.8m). Technical director Jason Wilcox is set to step up and lead recruitment ahead of the January transfer window.
Speaking for the first time since Ashworth’s surprise exit, Amorim said: “The first thing I want to say since the first day I felt great support from the ownership, from [CEO] Omar [Berrada], from Jason, and Dan was part of that.
“But this is football and sometimes this happens. It happens with players and with coaches. I know it’s not the best situation, but the important thing is we continue in our way. The path is really clear for everybody and I think this can happen in football.
“I felt since day one the support from everybody, one person leaving doesn’t change anything. The most important thing is the vision is really clear and that doesn’t change if one person leaves.”
With Wilcox now heading up United’s recruitment team, sources have told ESPN that United are open to offers for a number of first-team players in January as they look to raise funds to reinvest in the squad.
Amorim is only a month into his job at Old Trafford after succeeding Erik ten Hag.
The 39-year-old has rotated his team in his five games in charge to have a closer look at his players, but has warned his stars that if they don’t perform they’ll have to leave.
“We have to focus on what we have, we have to focus on the academy and to have a clear profile of the players,” Amorim said.
“You can see at set pieces, sometimes you look at our team, we are a small team compared to others, every detail counts and we have to be very clear in the profiles, arrange all the process and go to that phase of buying and selling players.
“We have international players, good players. We need time to teach them our ideas and then we will see because this is a massive club. If we don’t win, the coach goes, the player goes, so you have to know that.
“We have to improve as a team, we have to arrange a lot of things in our club before thinking just in buying or selling players.”
Amorim and his players have arrived in Czechia ahead of their Europa League game against Viktoria Plzen on Thursday.
United are looking to win away in Europe for the first time since beating Real Betis in April 2023. A positive result would also boost their chances of qualifying for the round of 16 and avoid a two-legged playoff in February.
Viktoria Plzen haven’t lost a home game since March and beat Real Sociedad 2-1 in their last Europa League game at Doosan Arena.
“It’s really important to go to the next stage,” Amorim said.
“If you pass to the next stage without a playoff we take two games off our schedule. For us it’s massive. It’s really important to win the game and to play well. Tomorrow will be really, really tough.”
