Director of Football set to be appointed

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They’d be mad to appoint him I mean what qualifies him for the job has he ever done a football administrator role at a club.

His behaviour towards Utd when he went to City celebrating goals in front of us in derbies tainted him in my eyes.

While I don’t think it should be an ex player who gets the job would be great if some of the ex players were in his team learning from him. To me the obvious one is Gary Neville but it seems like the class of 92 boys are not that popular with the owners
 
Translation: Andrea Berta, athletic director of Atlético, raises whether to sign for Manchester United once Mourinho has left the English club. has a renewal offer at the club Rojiblanco 2 years but does not know if you face the English project "

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Based on their recent signings is he really one to go for?

Atletico have had a lot of expensive flops recently.
 
I wonder if in fact we will get one, judging by Jose's interview last week, all that was coming for him. We defo should get one though.
 
Three things stop it from happening.

Woodward's ego won't allow someone to take control.
Glazer's don't care enough to spot that Woodward isn't up to that job.
Money appointing a director of football and the other people that come with that model costs money these people aren't cheap but in theory if you have good structure you don't need a stupidly expensive coach and they should generate value by being smarter in the transfer market.
 
Three things stop it from happening.

Woodward's ego won't allow someone to take control.
Glazer's don't care enough to spot that Woodward isn't up to that job.
Money appointing a director of football and the other people that come with that model costs money these people aren't cheap but in theory if you have good structure you don't need a stupidly expensive coach and they should generate value by being smarter in the transfer market.

If the club decide not to appoint a director of football, I don’t think it will be for any of those reasons.
 
If the club decide not to appoint a director of football, I don’t think it will be for any of those reasons.

How can it not be down to those 3 things?

The only other reason I'd venture is the they want to cash in and sell it so they'd rather someone else sort out this problem.

I'd probably narrow it down to 2 it's either cost or power. There is absolutely no reason for Utd to continue with a business model that isn't used by any of our major rivals either European or domestic. It made sense when you had Fergie who was everything wrapped into one but that will never happen again. Utd need to shape up or we'll end up being the Blockbuster Video or the Netflix generation.

The owners/board are either prepared to change the structure to try to achieve better value from the spending and in the long run better control cost and therefore make more money which is their long term goal or they go for the it ain't broke don't fix it and carry on as they currently do which is waste fortunes on players who don't perform and managers who don't succeed.

Introducing another level of management will be expensive that's the way business works but you'd hope that bringing in more expertise will reduce the number of mistakes and reduce your inefficiencies in certain areas. I would imagine it Glazer businesses management is kept lean and mean they're cost cutters and management is expensive especially during tough times.

No decision the current regime make will be with the aim of putting Utd back on top of the table it's all about making sure the share price stays nice and high and that there's enough left every year for a nice dividend pay out.
 
I agree with Bob

I can't believe Woodward would risk his job if all he had to do was employ someone else.

I can't believe successful businessmen like the Glazers don't show an interest.

And's definitely no money.


If they don't don't appoint one, I imagine they have done their due diligence and don't believe that model works. Those 3 options you listed just don't sound feasible ideas from very successful businessmen.
 
The Glazers don't need the club to win to make money. Utd's share price and profits have shown to be pretty resilient to performance on the pitch winning/losing games doesn't really make them any richer or poorer. They are known as cost cutters they won't spend a penny that doesn't need to be spent so if they don't see the point in bringing in all these expensive resources they won't. These guys from day one have made it very clear it's all about the money to them both short term (dividend payouts) and long terms (share price) at no point do they show any intention of pushing Utd to be the best club on the pitch in the world.

Also, a director of football creates a role where pressure can be applied to the owners publicly they seem to want to retain as much power as possible within their little inner circle hence why Woodward replaced Gill and Ferguson only has an honoury director role, he doesn't actually make decisions. I think they want to retain control rather than give someone else the power to make decisions and Woodward might as well have the last name Glazer as he's very much part of that inner circle.

I also don't see how the model can be ignored I don't think we need someone to be director of football but I do think we need more people with experience of football administration at the very top level involved in the football decision making. The new manager needs to buy into that structure and accept that which most will because your manager should not be dictating your clubs style you should be picking your style and picking managers who fit into that.
 
They don't need the club to win to make money for sure, but winning increases the revenues. If a DoF means winning more long term, costing less in transfers long term then they will do it.

It's a business to them, if they think it will improve results and transfers they'll get one in my opinion.

It did sound like Jose was pushing for it, rather than the club, so we'll have to see.
 
Winning comes at a cost though especially if you want to take on Man City.

The key is making every penny count like Liverpool have generally done over the last few years they've been getting the majority right for a few years now we've been getting the big ones wrong. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and all that but they've identified the players they need much better than we have. If you can't out spend them then you've got to out think them somehow and spot things they haven't like Liverpool picked up Robertson for £10m whereas City spent £50m on Mendy.

In theory a bit of a better structure allows us to have the best of both worlds if Utd had a clear strategy from the very top they wouldn't have spent £70m on Lukaku and they probably wouldn't have done that deal for Sanchez either. That lack of structure I think has seen the club waste 100's of millions in the transfer market over the last 5 years and it can't really continue.

Pretty sure someone tried to crunch the numbers on this and the cost of winning a league titles compared to the extra reward that comes with it didn't stack up. Utd can attract huge sponsors without winning, the extra prize money for winning compared to coming 4th isn't massive and neither is the additional TV money.

The only place it really pays to go far is in CL especially if the other teams from your country go out early because you get massive shares of the TV pot.
 
head of youth development John Murtagh and assistant academy director Tony Whelan have emerged as candidates to become the club's new technical director
 
So this mornings rumours are that Mike Phelan will become the clubs first director of football the club will look to appoint a specialist recruitment role to work along side him and do the deals and a number of ex players are expected to return to the club in new roles. The names being linked are Fletcher, Scholes and Evra these roles are unclear they could just be ambassador type roles that other players have or they could actually be given roles that may influence things.

I think it's good that the club have started looking at this type of model but Phelan as the figure head I'm not to sure I do wonder if we'll continue on this Liverpool road of looking to the past "the boot room" vs "the gaffer" and harking back to a time or will we look to a new way.

There's a business phrase that goes "what go you here, might not necessarily get you there" and the crux of it is the method that turned a small business into a medium size business won't necessarily help turn it from a medium to a large business. The point is as the world evolves you need to evolve with it Utd have got themselves stuck in the 00's the world has moved on the rise of clubs like City, Chelsea, PSG means the markets have moved Barca have a totally different business model to the one they had 10-15 years ago.

My point is all this structure is coming from within sometimes you need someone to come from outside to really shake things up Utd did introduce that guy from Juventus for a while but he left quickly I honestly think if we want to catch up we need to be taking some of this knowledge from other clubs. I'm not saying it's all got to be outsiders but I think if the club are putting a team together it needs to have voices from outside of Utd who've been at these other clubs that are currently dominating things.
 
I saw Van de Sar interviewed the other day. He seems an ideal DoF
 
i guess you could say the same when Ajax hired van de sar. But yeah, I agree
 
i guess you could say the same wen Ajax hired van de sar. But yeah, I agree

With all due respect to Ajax. They aren’t one of the biggest 5 clubs in the world in this day and age.
 
true, but he seems to have done well, CL semi final.

I agree we need someone with experience. But just becasue he has none doesn't mean he will be awful.
 
I think we need to be careful to not become a cosy club of former players. I am sure Rio has a lot to offer and yes I think former players certainly have a place in the new regime we want but I feel that we need some outside influence to shake things up and bang a few heads together. That’s why I think someone like Paul Mitchell as our sporting director would be ideal.

Not at all saying Rio shouldn’t take up a position here but I think we need an experienced guy to be the main man. Certainly would like him involved again at the club because I think he has a good footballing brain and obviously knows the club.
 
just read

Phelan Technical director
Rio Sporting director

this is a worry, but i wouldn't write it off just because of no experience.

I guess the most important part is they all work together.

In Rio's favour, he's well liked, loves the club and could probably sell it quite well to potential players.
 
just read

Phelan Technical director
Rio Sporting director

this is a worry, but i wouldn't write it off just because of no experience.

I guess the most important part is they all work together.

In Rio's favour, he's well liked, loves the club and could probably sell it quite well to potential players.
I think selling the club to potential players is one of the easiest things Rio or any sporting director would have to face. We are still the biggest club in the world even though our performances have dropped off. Obviously from the outside you could say ‘oh wouldn’t they prefer to go to City’ but for me I think we are still very much a draw for top bracket players.

Personally I think Mitchell in as the main man and guys like Ferdinand and Fletcher part of the set up also would be ideal.
 
Rio has apparently been interviewed for a role in the club like a lot of ex players and it seems that Utd are no longer looking for a director of football they want a technical director who will report to Woodward. It seems they want a go between who sits between the manager and the chief exec and will manager the key football departments so they are functioning towards a common goal.

We don't know what the scope of this new role will be what power and responsibility will they have by the sound of it they want someone who will co-ordinate things internally ie how the different departments interact not particularly deal with external things like negotiate with other clubs.

Personally I think an ex player who's not done this before is a stupid appointment at this time with it being a new structure Utd need people who've experienced the role in other clubs to set it up. City wanted this structure so they got in the guys from Barcelona to implement it.

Van Der Sar for example has learned within an existing structure at Ajax Utd need someone who knows how these things should work to come in and put the structure in place. They should be trying to get someone senior out of Bayern, Barca, Juventus etc clubs who are running this structure alongside a commercial side and sustaining success without the backing of a billionaire. This guy possibly supported by a few ex players who want to go into this side of things would be perfect as they could learn from them and take on his knowledge.

It seems blatant to me that Utd don't really know what they want which is why they've taken forever to sort it out and why according to some journalists they've turned down approaches from some of the most experienced directors of football in Europe to come into the club.

The club don't need salesman Utd will get players because they pay more that is clear and that will be how we compete when it comes to footballers. 99% of them take the best offer you get the odd one who might take less money because of a desire to go to a certain club under a certain manager.
 

So the club have said that this role won't be filled this summer why it's taking so long who knows my best guess is they don't actually want anyone to come in as Woodward/Glazers want to retain full control of everything.

As for Walsh he obviously built a great reputation at Leicester but buying players at Leicester in the Championship is totally different to buying at Utd can he transfer those skills to a different model as what worked there won't work here basically see David Moyes.

His spell at Everton was a strange one because they clearly had problems following the takeover and changes in management the whole thing became very disjointed and it was impossible to tell who was picking the players. He was around in that summer where they signed 3 number 10's Rooney, Sigurdsson and Klaasen but didn't sign a striker to replace Lukaku.
 

Such a joke that this position still hasn’t been filled should have been sorted by January to allow the club months to plan ahead for this summer.

Madrid getting all those deals in the bag early shows you they’ve been working on those deals for months.
 
Manchester United 'travelled to Germany for meeting with Ralf Rangnick' over vacant director of football role... with ex-RB Leipzig boss now out of the running for manager's job at Bayern Munich
 
I read something about Red Bull might be scaling down their football investment maybe even selling up the smaller clubs and just keeping Leipzig which means the role Rangnick plays in their business isn't necessarily required.

This guy would be perfect exactly what we need someone who can come in and set the structure up properly get the right people in the right places doing the right jobs.

Hopefully teach some of the ex players who want to go into admin type roles after retirement the ropes as well.

I don't see it happening though as I don't think the club are serious about appointing a director of football/technical director if they were they'd have done in 12 months ago.
 
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