Ashley role is first step of Sports Direct shake-up

It comes as no surprise to see Dave Forsey being unceremoniously hoofed out as chief executive of Sports Direct.

Mike Ashley, the company's mercurial founder, was always going to seek someone to carry the can for the torrent of embarrassments that the retailer has faced in recent months concerning its working practices.

Analysts who muttered that "mark my words, Dave is going to get thrown under the bus for this" were given encouragement to believe this when, two weeks ago, the Sunday Times reported that Peter Cowgill, the highly-regarded chief executive of Sports Direct's rival JD Sports, had been offered Mr Forsey's job.

Sports Direct did not even bother denying the story.

Mr Ashley's statement in the stock exchange announcement confirming Mr Forsey's departure , that he feels "like I have lost my right arm", is sincere.

Mr Forsey has worked with Mr Ashley man and boy and has been a devoted servant to the company where he has worked for 32 years.

You do not work for a company for more than three decades, particularly in such a senior position, if you do not have the support and loyalty of the boss. And Mr Ashley is a man who values loyalty.

He built this company up from a single sports shop in Maidenhead, Berkshire, alongside a closely-knit cohort of executives that included Mr Forsey and Bob Mellors, his long-serving lieutenant, who stepped down as finance director in December 2013 on health grounds after many years of service. Mr Ashley has struggled ever since to replace him. He soldiered on for the next 18 months without a finance director before appointing the long-serving Matt Pearson on an interim basis.

Yet things could not go on as they were. After the investigation by the Business select committee into Sports Direct's working practices and corporate governance, the humiliating vote against the re-election of Keith Hellawell as chairman by Sports Direct's minority shareholders and the chaotic tour around the company's distribution centre at Shirebrook in Derbyshire earlier this month, during which Mr Ashley pulled out a roll of £50 notes during a search being filmed by the TV cameras, something had to change.

The replacement of Mr Forsey - a very likeable man - by Mr Ashley is the first indication that, at long last, this most rumbustious of entrepreneurs has realised that it is high time Sports Direct began to look and function like the public limited company it is. Mr Ashley was chief executive in all but name and now, at last, he has that role.

The next challenge for the business will be to appoint a strong chairman who is sufficiently robust to keep Mr Ashley in line. Mr Hellawell is not that man. The question is whether there is a company chairman out there capable of doing so.