Dan Ashworth returns to FA following Manchester United sacking

 Dan Ashworth will be unveiled as the Football Association’s new director of football operations this week, seven months after he was sacked from his role as sporting director at Manchester United.

Sources have revealed that Ashworth will start his new job with the organisation he left in 2018 “imminently.” The FA is understood to be delighted and are excited about what Ashworth will offer as they wrestle with the challenges of ensuring England thrive at all levels of international football.

Sources at Old Trafford, meanwhile, have indicated they have agreed to release Ashworth to work for the FA under the terms of his severance package drawn up when he left the club.

The 54-year-old will lead the FA’s decision making and effectively be in full control of the football side of the operation alongside chief executive Mark Bullingham.

One of the first challenges will be for Ashworth to oversee the “St George’s Park 2.0 project” which will see a “radical refurbishment” of the facility. But he will also oversee both the men’s and women’s senior and junior teams and will look closely at coach development.

The FA are keen to ensure there are more pathways for domestic coaches, especially in light of the lack of suitable English candidates when they appointed Thomas Tuchel as manager of the national team last year.

John McDermott, the FA technical director, will remain in his current role, but will report into Ashworth, as will Kay Cossington, women’s technical director, in a new management structure.

Although badly burned at Old Trafford, where it is thought he clashed with Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Ashworth’s reputation within the game has remained high.

England won two world titles during Ashworth’s time at the FA – in the under-17 and under-20s categories in 2017 – along with the European Under-19s championship in the same year. In his final year at the FA, England played in the World Cup semi-finals. Sir Gareth Southgate’s side subsequently reached two European Championship finals with the generation of players who had progressed through the revamped England age-group system.

Ashworth joined Brighton and Hove Albion as sporting director following his departure from the FA, before joining Newcastle United where he helped build the team that is on the verge of qualifying for the Champions League for the second time in three years. The team he constructed, alongside manager Eddie Howe, ended their 70-year wait for a domestic trophy with the League Cup in March.

However, Ashworth left St James’ Park under a cloud after negotiating a move to Manchester United. He was placed on gardening leave at the end of 2023 after just 18 months at Newcastle. Ashworth joined United in July 2024 after they agreed a compensation package with Newcastle.

Ashworth has subsequently told people within the game he regrets leaving Newcastle where he enjoyed an excellent relationship with Howe.

The FA declined to comment when asked about Ashworth’s impending return to the organisation.