'There were an awful lot of cooks at Old Trafford'

BBC Sport's chief football writer Phil McNulty has been answering your questions.

Jez asked: What's your take on Dan Ashworth leaving Manchester United? There are several different reasons given in the media, but what do you think?

Phil answered: A serious embarrassment for Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Manchester United, after putting so much time, effort and money into getting Dan Ashworth.

He spent as long on gardening leave, after he left Newcastle United, as he did at Old Trafford.

Ratcliffe described Ashworth as "one of the best around" in February - clearly not any more.

United's counter-argument will be that if you realise you have made a mistake, which they clearly feel they have, then it is better to rectify it swiftly.

It did seem that there were an awful lot of cooks at Old Trafford, when you factor in people like chief executive Omar Berrada, technical director Jason Wilcox and Ratcliffe's long-time side-kick Sir Dave Brailsford.

Ashworth seems to have been the odd man out.

There are suggestions that he would have preferred English managers like Gareth Southgate and Graham Potter, both men he has worked with and knows well, to succeed Erik ten Hag. Berrada was very much the driver behind Ruben Amorim's appointment.

It is the continuation of a very inauspicious start by the Ratcliffe regime, not helped by poor results on the pitch.

He and his team need to start showing that they can actually get some big decisions right very soon. Otherwise, what feels like a soap opera will continue.