Exactly one year ago, Manchester United made headlines by dismissing Dan Ashworth from his role as sporting director, sparking significant skepticism about Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s transformative efforts at Old Trafford.

While shaking up the establishment was expected, the decision to let go of a key executive just 159 days into his tenure signified that Ineos, the club’s new partial owners, recognized a critical oversight. Ashworth had been envisioned as a pivotal player in overhauling United’s football strategy, especially within the vital domain of player recruitment.

Upon examining the inner workings of United, Ratcliffe identified recruitment as one of his primary concerns. He critiqued the inherited squad, labeling some players as either not meeting the club’s standards or being overpaid. High-profile names like Casemiro, Rasmus Hojlund, Antony, Andre Onana, and Jadon Sancho were specifically mentioned, with ongoing transfer payments still impacting the club’s finances.

Ratcliffe further remarked that United lagged in modern data analysis and highlighted the decline of their once-renowned academy. His observations were not unfounded; since Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure in 2013, nearly £2 billion has been invested in new talent, including £450 million during Ineos’ tenure. Despite this hefty expenditure, United’s trophy cabinet has only added two FA Cups, two League Cups, and a Europa League over the past 12 years.

Ratcliffe also said that United were ‘still in the last century on data analysis’ and the club’s famed academy ‘had really slipped’. He had a point. Since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013, close to £2billion has been spent on new signings (including £450million under Ineos, it has to be said). Over those 12 years, United have two FA Cups, two League Cups and a Europa League to show for their mammoth investment.

Director of football Jason Wilcox (left) has become a key piece of the Manchester United jigsaw under co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe

Ratcliffe has highlighted the club’s freespending transfer policy in the past, citing players bought under the previous regime like goalkeeper Andre Onana

Dan Ashworth was meant to help reshape United’s recruitment policy but was dismissed after just 159 days in the role

They were in danger of being overtaken by Manchester City and Chelsea at academy level, and falling behind clubs like Brighton and Bournemouth in the use of data to identify transfer targets.

Ratcliffe has been ruthless in his determination to close the gap. ‘We must have the best recruitment in the world,’ he told fanzine United We Stand in an interview published on the day Ashworth was sacked on December 7 last year. ‘Until we are as good as anyone in the world, then it’s not good enough for Manchester United.’

The decline had begun from the moment Ferguson handed over the keys to his kingdom, having relied for so long on his own intuition and the recommendations of his brother Martin and chief scout Jim Lawlor. There was no blueprint.

Former Old Trafford chief Ed Woodward admitted afterwards that he didn’t realise just how much knowledge Ferguson took with him in what Woodward described as ‘the black box’.

Meanwhile, academy recruitment was run out of what was little more than a broom cupboard at Carrington by Derek Langley and Geoff Watson, and based largely on their handwritten notes. United modernised significantly in the years afterwards, developing the TrackerMan system put together by football director John Murtough and director of scouting Steve Brown, increasing the number of analysts and building up a wider scouting network.

However, Ratcliffe wasn’t impressed by what he discovered and there has been a brutal overhaul of the recruitment department since his minority takeover was announced on Christmas Eve 2023.

Murtough, the club’s first director of football, was replaced all too briefly by Ashworth. Jason Wilcox, initially appointed as technical director to work with Omar Berrada, United’s new chief executive and his old Manchester City colleague, was promoted to the more senior role in June.

Christopher Vivell was confirmed as United’s director of recruitment in February, having done the job on an interim basis since last summer, and Mike Sansoni was brought in from the Mercedes Formula One team as director of data. 

Christopher Vivell was confirmed as United’s director of recruitment in February, having done the job on an interim basis since last summer 

The moves for Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha in the summer demonstrated Ineos’ preference to sign proven Premier League talent of the right age

United overhauled their rather bloated scouting department, making a number of redundancies including emerging talent lead scout David Harrison, who was a key figure in the signing of Alejandro Garnacho from Atletico Madrid.

The result of the changes overseen by Wilcox is a leaner, more efficient recruitment team and scouting network that combines information gathered in the field with data driven analytics and, increasingly, artificial intelligence. 

Sansoni is said to have taken the data operation to a new level. The aim is to create a better alignment between the senior and emerging talent scouting departments. Kyle Macaulay has been appointed head of senior scouting and will start on January 5, having worked with Vivell at Chelsea.

The emerging talent department will have three regional leads focusing on the UK, Europe and the Americas. It has been responsible for the signings of Chido Obi, Ayden Heaven, Diego Leon and Cristian Orozco, who was given a tour of the club last weekend ahead of his £1m move from Colombian club Fortaleza in June.

Ratcliffe has made no secret of his ambition to sign ‘the next Mbappe’ rather than pay out millions in transfer fees for star players, and the Americas in particular represents an exciting, more untapped market.

The primary aim is still to provide a pathway to the first team, but a greater emphasis has been placed on monetising the academy – a policy that paid off in the summer as United banked £40m from Chelsea for Garnacho and a further £13.6m from sell-on clauses relating to Alvaro Carreras and Anthony Elanga.

As part of the £50m upgrade at Carrington, a bespoke emerging talent dressing room has been built in the first-team building with a handful of lockers and showers for the young newcomers and fringe squad members such as Tyler Fredricson and Shea Lacey, so they can change, eat and receive treatment alongside the seniors.    

The Carrington revamp was also designed to create a better flow between the different departments at the training ground, an open-plan layout upstairs meaning that Amorim and his staff can work more closely with data analysis and recruitment.

Manchester United’s Ayden Heaven in action against West Ham on Thursday night. United’s emerging talent department was responsible for signing the youngster from Arsenal 

The recent £50million upgrade to United’s Carrington HQ means boss Ruben Amorim can work more closely with the recruitment team

United have learned from the expensive mistakes of the past when they overpaid on transfer fees and wages for big-name players like Paul Pogba, Alexis Sanchez and Angel Di Maria. 

The club now try to move more quickly on targets to get ahead of their rivals and prevent costs from spiralling. Director of football negotiations Matt Hargreaves is one of the few existing executives to survive the Ratcliffe cull.

United’s approach to recruitment includes what Ineos insiders have described as a ‘no d***heads policy’. 

The moves for Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha in the summer demonstrated a preference to sign proven Premier League talent of the right age, while Senne Lammens was brought in to replace the erratic Onana. It feels like a more sensible, measured approach to what has gone before.

If United do go into the transfer market again in January, it will be to accelerate a deal they had planned for the summer rather than make any panic buys.

As Wilcox emerged from Selhurst Park after Sunday’s win over Crystal Palace, he chatted to journalists on his way out and urged them to ‘trust the process’. 

The 54-year-old, who has also played a part in United bringing in his former City associates Sam Erith as head of performance and Steve Torpey as academy chief, outlined his vision in an interview with MUTV in October.

‘We have got a clear plan,’ said Wilcox. ‘We know what we have got to do, we know the areas of the team that we have got to improve. 

United have learned from the expensive mistakes of the past when they overpaid on transfer fees and wages for big-name players such as Angel Di Maria 

‘For us to get in the top four and consistently challenge for Champions League places, win Champions Leagues, win Premier Leagues, we have got to invest in the squad.

‘We have got to buy the right players who are talented but also who can deal with the pressure, who can take the squad forward. It is not always about just signing elite talent. 

‘We are always looking to improve. Anybody who works at Manchester United should be thinking the same and they do, with the standards we are driving every day.’

Wilcox has been around the game long enough to know there aren’t any guarantees in football, as United proved once again when they failed to beat West Ham on Thursday night. But a year on from Ashworth’s rather messy departure, the club seem to be getting their house in order.