Man United spent £14.5m on sackings including Erik ten Hag and Dan Ashworth

Manchester United paid a total of £14.5 million (€17.5 million) to sack manager Erik ten Hag, sporting director Dan Ashworth and other members of football staff, the club’s latest accounts show.

This has been a painful season for the Premier League club, with the 20-time league champions languishing a lowly 15th in the standings following Sunday’s 1-0 loss at Tottenham.

Ruben Amorim has failed to spark an upturn as successor to Ten Hag, who was sacked in October and just 116 days after United triggered a clause to extend his contract until 2026.

That costly decision by Ineos was compounded by the swift exit of Ashworth, who arrived from Newcastle on July 1st after prolonged negotiations only to leave on December 8th.

The financial impact of those decisions was confirmed in United’s results for the quarter ending December 31st under ‘exceptional items’.

“Exceptional items for the quarter were a cost of £14.5 million,” the corporate release from the club said.

“This relates to costs associated with the departure of former men’s first team manager Erik ten Hag and various members of football staff.”

United confirmed in their first quarter results that the pay off to Ten Hag and his staff was £10.4m, indicating Ashworth’s exit cost £4.1m.

Dan Ashworth will be leaving his role as Sporting Director of Manchester United by mutual agreement.#MUFC

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) December 8, 2024

Those decisions are among the most glaring errors made under Ineos as Sir Jim Ratcliffe prepares to bring up a year as co-owner on Thursday.

There have been some controversial, wide-ranging decisions during that time, with more redundancies on the way despite the club having already shed around 250 roles over the summer.

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