Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Dan Ashworth – This is stunning from Mark Goldbridge (no, honestly) | OneFootball

Mark Goldbridge has been talking about Dan Ashworth and Sir Jim Ratcliffe, a big topic of conversation amongst both Newcastle United and Manchester United fans.

Sunday morning having seen it announced that Dan Ashworth had been sacked by Manchester United (Sir Jim Ratcliffe).

This followed the latest setback, Manchester United losing at home to Nottingham Forest on Sunday night.

Now, I can’t say I have had any great interest or appreciation from what I have seen from Mark Goldbridge in the past. YouTube stuff, for all clubs, isn’t usually for me, summed up by the absolutely vomit-inducing Arsenal fans TV stuff.

Something that includes the vast majority of NUFC YouTubers as well, the common theme across football fan YouTube is the willingness to say pretty much anything, if they think it will grab attention.

The small numbers of clips I have watched from Mark Goldbridge in the past, have appeared precisely that, massive exaggeration and fake extreme reactions to stuff.

However, I have to say that in this instance, fair play to Mark Goldbridge, who in the aftermath of the latest Manchester United shambles has called it perfectly on Dan Ashworth and Sir Jim Ratcliffe…

Mark Goldbridge talking about Dan Ashworth and Sir Jim Ratcliffe on his YouTube channel – 9 December 2024:

“I wake up this morning and I’m like, Sir Jim Ratcliffe is really angry with Dan Ashworth because he said that it wasn’t his decision to keep Ten Hag. Him (Ashworth) and (Man U CEO) Berrada, it wasn’t their decision.

“Then you start hearing that they are not happy with the recruitment and that’s Dan Ashworth’s fault.

“And I’m sort of like… are Man United going to admit what they did was illegal then?

“Because Dan Ashworth didn’t start his (Man U) job until July the first.

“They decided to keep Ten Hag on June the first.

“So how does that work?

“How does Dan Ashworth, who hadn’t worked with Ten Hag and wasn’t allowed anywhere near Carrington, how could Dan Ashworth be the guy going ‘Let’s keep Ten Hag’?

“And this is the thing, in life, people love to make stuff up.

“We heard that it was Ralph Rangnick who got sacked by Ten Hag, yet Rangnick had been sacked by Man United in late March, when Ten Hag didn’t even have the job.

“We heard that Gareth Southgate wasn’t a real contender for Man United when he was.

“And now we are hearing that Ashworth sacked Ten Hag, even though he publicly said he didn’t and wasn’t even at the club when they decided to keep him.

“We are also hearing that they are blaming Ashworth for Zirkzee.

“We pivoted to Zirkzee the first week in June, Ashworth didn’t start until July.

“Now of course Ashworth might have been saying stuff that he shouldn’t have been saying, when he wasn’t officially there.

“But how could you take the word of Dan Ashworth on Erik ten Hag, when he had never bloody worked with him?

“So I think that this whole pile on, on Dan Ashworth…

“I’m sorry, whether it is true or not, INEOS can’t not take any blame for it, because technically, Ashworth didn’t start until July the first.

“So if you are going to try and blame him for stuff that happened before, you’re breaking the law.

“So you take responsibility.

“And also, Sir Jim Ratcliffe saying ‘Man United must have the best recruitment.’

“You went and took a Director of Football from Newcastle, (that) you didn’t need to take.

“You didn’t need to go and take him out of Newcastle, you did it.

“So I don’t think that there is a winner in this.”

I was stunned to see so many Manchester United fans so willing to believe that Sir Jim Ratcliffe was their saviour, when in reality he was just jumping into bed with his mates the Glazers to make life even worse for them and their club. Another snout in the trough.

The power of wanting to believe something can be overwhelming, we all do it as football fans, wanting to believe managers and players are going to be the cure for all issues, the same with new owners etc etc.

Man U fans desperate to believe that Ratcliffe was the one who would come in and help their club to be run in a less chaotic and disastrous way. The massive financial advantage they have over almost all other clubs has been continually wasted by the Glazers, cynically so AND through incompetence.

Of course, as neutrals it very swiftly became apparent what a clueless (in terms of football) and horrific person Ratcliffe is.

Man U fans may have enjoyed Sir Jim Ratcliffe trying to bully Newcastle United and others, in the arrogant belief that everybody should just do as they are told, when he and Manchester United come calling, whether that is when it comes to players, managers, business side personnel etc etc.

As a Newcastle United fan, to me it is quite clear what has happened in this Dan Ashworth and Sir Jim Ratcliffe situation. Mark Goldbridge summing it up quite brilliantly. A shame that the media are so desperate to please Manchester United and stay in with Ratcliffe, when it is transparent who is really the one massively to blame for the shambles at Man U.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe making Dan Ashworth the scapegoat to try and deflect the blame away from himself is another level.

The sheer audacity of Ratcliffe to try and make out that it is others, especially Dan Ashworth to blame for the state Manchester United are in, rather than accepting it is he (Ratcliffe) who has been a total embarrassing clown since getting into bed with the Glazers and is the architect of an even worse shambles. It is beyond laughable.

As Newcastle United fans, we may not have a great opinion of Dan Ashworth these days, however, surely none of us are looking at this from afar and thinking he is to blame for what has gone on at Old Trafford, rather than the very obvious Sir Jim Ratcliffe.