ESPN journalist Mark Ogden explains how Manchester United ended up signing Matthijs de Ligt albeit the club never wanted him.
Although they had already recruited Leny Yoro from RC Lens for £55 million in July, the Red Devils splashed £40 million on the Netherlands international a month later.
With the team playing with three at the back under Ruben Amorim nowadays, there’s definitely space for both players, especially following Lisandro Martinez’s season-ending ACL injury. However, at the time, many felt that this cash would have been more useful in other departments, and apparently, this includes some of the club’s officials.
According to Odgen, the management never truly wanted De Ligt, but he was only signed because the club’s former Sporting Director Dan Ashworth wanted to appease Erik ten Hag who was eager to reunite with his compatriot and old Ajax pupil.
Therefore, the journalist believes INEOS did the right thing by cutting their ties with the former Newcastle director who wasn’t necessarily the right man for the job as he had different expertise than the ones required for the role he assumed at United.
“There are two ways to look at the Ashworth situation, I mean, my view is that they hired the wrong guy for the wrong job,” said Ogden during his appearance on ESPN.
“Dan Ashworth is known for building the structure of a club, building behind the scenes and getting the right people in place. What he isn’t is a sporting director. He’s not a guy who will pick up the phone to people in Spain, Italy, Germany, Turkey to find a player or to offload a player.
“If you want somebody like that, you go for Aston Villa’s Monchi, he’s somebody who has a real track record of doing it over the years. It’s a different role.
“The club didn’t want Matthijs de Ligt. He was a signing that was driven through by Ten Hag, and despite the fact they felt well-stocked with centre-halves, United or Ashworth felt that because they’d just given Ten Hag a new contract they have to show they have faith in him by signing a player he wanted, so you can say that was a weakness on Dan Ashoworth’s part.”
Man Utd management never wanted to sign Matthijs de Ligt
On the other hand, Ogden names Joshua Zirkzee as a player who was chosen by Ashworth and his collaborators.
“The flip side is that Joshua Zirkzee is a player who really struggled this season, he was a signing that was driven by Dan Ashworth and the recruitment team, so his first window wasn’t great.
“So having made the wrong appointment, you have to maybe give INEOS credit to get rid of him.”
United sacked Ten Hag in October after a poor start to the season, while Ashworth’s contract was ‘mutually terminated’ in early December.
