'They were just mistakes' - Sir Jim Ratcliffe lifts lid on Dan Ashworth's Man Utd exit and admits Erik ten Hag contract extension was wrong decision

Ashworth left Old Trafford last December after just five months in his sporting director role. Now, United minority owner Ratcliffe has lifted the lid on his departure and that he made a "mistake" extending former manager Erik ten Hag's contract last summer.

He told The Telegraph: “They were just mistakes. The Erik thing is slightly mitigating. There was quite a lot of debate about that time. He had just won a Cup final. The fans were clearly of the view that we’d like to stick with him and all that sort of stuff. They were both mistakes. I don’t think we can say much more than that. It’s a journey and there’s a lot of decisions that we have to make over the course of the journey and we’re not going to get them all right. I don’t think in the future we’ll get them all right either because we’re not perfect.”

On Ashworth, he added: “We’re talking about our old industry [with Ineos]. I think we just have to say, ‘chemistry’. Really, I don’t want to go down that [road]. It is what it is, and it was our fault.”

United are in a state of turmoil at present, with the club sitting 14th in the Premier League, widespread redundancies have occurred and fans are stepping up protests against the Red Devils' ownership. The fact that United chased Ashworth from Newcastle United for months, only to get rid of him soon and at great expense after is not a good look.

Ruben Amorim's United will hope for some good news when they host Real Sociedad in the last-16 of the Europa League on Thursday. The tie is level at 1-1 after the first leg in Spain.