Shock as Man United sporting director Ashworth leaves after five months

Manchester, England,

Dec 8 (Reuters) - Dan Ashworth has left his role as sporting director at Manchester United after five months in the job by mutual agreement, the Premier League club said on Sunday.

The 53-year-old was recruited from Newcastle United and arrived in July to much fanfare, but the decision was made to part ways after a meeting between Ashworth and Chief Executive Omar Berrada after Saturday's 3-2 home loss to Nottingham Forest, the Athletic reported.

"We would like to thank Dan for his work and support during a transitional period for the club and wish him well in the future," United said in a statement.

Ashworth had played a key part in reshaping the club following Jim Ratcliffe's purchase of a minority share and has overseen major decisions such as retaining manager Erik ten Hag last summer, and the spending of close to 200 million pounds ($255 million) on new players.

His shock departure comes after United lured him away from Newcastle following lengthy talks in which Ashworth was put on gardening leave, with United paying Newcastle around 10 million pounds to secure his services, British media reported.

While Ratcliffe once described Ashworth as "one of the top sporting directors in the world," the decision on his departure was engineered by the INEOS boss, according to reports, and comes less than a month after the hiring of Ruben Amorim as head coach.

Ashworth had been central to the decision to give Ten Hag a year's contract extension, which was initially greeted positively by fans after United upset Manchester City to win the FA Cup final.

Ten Hag was sacked on Oct. 28, however, with the team languishing 14th in the Premier League and winless in Europe.

Ashworth also oversaw United's major summer player signings including Matthijs de Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui, Manuel Ugarte, Leny Yoro and Joshua Zirkzee.

None of them have consistently impressed, although French defender Yoro only made his debut last week following a lengthy injury.

United's first loss to Forest at Old Trafford in more than 30 years left them 13th in the table on 19 points, their lowest after 15 games since 1986.

Portuguese Amorim, recruited from Sporting Lisbon, has led United one win in his four league games in charge.

"We already knew (it would be tough)," Amorim said after the Forest defeat. "It will be a long journey but we want to win because this is a massive club."

United travel to face Czech team Viktoria Plzen in the Europa League on Thursday and before travelling to champions Manchester City on Sunday.