I am an active member of the oldest Manutd Supporters in the world, a club who hails fantastic links with the mother base. This summer alone I met Stam, Johnsen, Evra Macari and Buchan + Andy Mitten. I also have a friend who was pretty close with the late Mino Raiola. The guy was an open book about how transfers work
From what I can gather this is what I learnt
a- only very few people at United know who United targets are and far less have a say on transfers.
b- a player transfer is a hugely complex thing. First of all we're talking of a 40m-60m operation, secondly it involves feedback from a horde of people (most are on a need to know basis), then there are negotiations with the club, the agents and of course the player. Everything can change in an instant. Back when life was simpler. SAF (not Mitten, Romano or the flavor of the month) told us that Gazza was done and dusted and will sign the week after. Turned out he was not.
c- leaks aren't leaks but BRIEFS. Even back in the day when we leaked like a sieve that was by design. United actively planted false stories because the marketing team was tracking the clicks generated during the silly season as proof as of how popular United were.
d- Briefs usually come from two parties ie either the agent or the club.
e- United had activated ETH's 1 year extension rather then properly renewed. That suggest that not everything is great in paradise. There had been persistent rumors (thus briefs) that INEOS aren't happy with ETH's VETO and that he refuse to let that particular bone go
Now let's take all that information into context.
a- most of the heavy lifting in terms of transfers was done early in the window. I am referring to personal terms for Jarrad, Ugarte, De Ligt and Mazraoui. Not only that, two out of those players refuse to deal with anyone else which suggest a high level of trust which can only come by advanced negotiations.
b- Most of our football people joined the club late. Berrada and Ashworth joined in July, Wilcox joined earlier but a technical director usually has little say on transfers.
c- As said briefs tend to come from two sides. The agent wouldn't know who wanted the player and quite frankly doesn't give a feck. All they care about is that the club is interested in their player and that personal terms had been agreed. Thus when you hear that De Ligt was wanted by INEOS then that information comes from inside the club ie people INEOS/ETH trust and who probably rely on them for a job. Do you really believe that its within their interest to make INEOS look bad? You know the answer
So I repeat what I said and TBF its what I expected to happen
a- Ashworth, Berrada and co came too late to have an influence on the transfer window. Thus this summer we probably stuck to the same structure we had last season. We might have involved the scouts more and we might ask Ashworth and Wilcox what they thought about the signings but ETH retained a huge say on what's going on including of course the VETO
b- Next year expect huge changes of United's modus operandi.
I was disappointed that B didn't happen this summer as I don't trust ETH's eye for transfers. Unfortunately I feel that we ran out of time.
