Rio Ferdinand urges Manchester United to 'get s**t players out' as he reveals possible reason for Dan Ashworth exit

Rio Ferdinand has urged the Manchester United hierarchy to be “brutal” in axing any “s**t players” at the club, insisting they must “get them the f**k out quick”.

United made more headlines over the weekend after mutually agreeing sporting director Dan Ashworth’s exit after just five months at Old Trafford, despite having pursued the former Brighton and Newcastle chief for some time and then waited for him to serve a period of gardening leave.

It is the latest divisive move made by the club during the eventful short reign of Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS so far that shows their part-owners are not afraid of making ruthless decisions.

Plenty of other changes at United have caused controversy over recent months, with Ferdinand urging Ratcliffe and INEOS to be just as uncompromising when it comes to ridding the playing squad of its remaining deadwood.

“Dan Ashworth, his departure from Manchester United - confusion is the first thing that comes to mind,” the United legend said on the latest episode of his podcast, Rio Ferdinand Presents. “Like, I just hope they’re as this brutal as they have been with the staff that have been there for years and they’re culling, right.

“I hope they’re this brutal with the s**t players that are there, if there’s any s**t players there. They and ones that have either been there too long or the ones that just ain’t good enough gotta go bro, be brutal as they’ve been. Get them the f**k out quick, ASAP.

“And I hope they’re like that. For better or worse, at least they’ve made a bloody decision. That’s the way I think about it. But you look at the things that are going on, I think there’s a lot of noise around the club - ticket prices now going up, there’s been laying off of 250-plus staff.

“Again, it’s like they’re very definitive and they’re: ‘Right, we’re doing this and we don’t care about the noise’.”

Theorising on why Ashworth might have struggled to adapt to life at United despite arriving with such a strong reputation, Ferdinand said: “You have to remember that the jobs where he’s been before, and he’s been hugely successful, whether it be at Brighton, West Brom, Newcastle or with England with the FA, he’s kind of been a lone ranger, on his own, the main guy dictating and having final say on a lot of things that goes on.

“That was a very different situation at United where you’ve got [technical director Jason] Wilcox and [CEO Omar] Berrada there, who are heading up the football operations together as a three.

“And then overriding that, [INEOS director of sport] Sir David Brailsford and Sir Jim Ratcliffe. So it’s a committee approach rather than one man making the decisions. Maybe Dan Ashworth couldn’t get to grips with that and wanted autonomy over everything, he wanted his fingerprints over everything.

“If I’m looking in, my honest opinion is that it’s a different way of working for him and he hasn’t been able to maybe adjust to it.”