My guess: The Glazers want to keep Murtough but Sir Jim somehow has dip up shxt on him in order to force him out.
Club Sale | It’s done!
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Murtough is like the back room staff equivalent of Martial as far as Joel is concerned. Irreplaceable.
One of the most interesting articles The Athletic have ever put out.
I don't see how anyone reads that and doesn't remove Murtough from the club. Appears to be Littlefinger-esque "chaos is a ladder" etc. who has seemingly only been proficient at one thing in his time at Utd and that is protecting and improving his own position. You can't leave someone like that lying around or they'll seep into your new foundations.
I don't see how anyone reads that and doesn't remove Murtough from the club. Appears to be Littlefinger-esque "chaos is a ladder" etc. who has seemingly only been proficient at one thing in his time at Utd and that is protecting and improving his own position. You can't leave someone like that lying around or they'll seep into your new foundations.
- Amad anecdote is hilarious but a symptom of poor communication, management and planning across the footballing staff.
- I find it hard to believe the 'shadow squad' bit. Like c'mon even youth sides have a depth chart and future planning.
- Also illuminates what many of us have been saying, Ten Hag has received too much authority and as a result has not only crippled the squad but our budget going forward for several seasons. Stunned how a £25m valuation of Antony leads to signing off an £80m fee. As for picking Martinez over Gvardiol, that is incompetence and a clear deficit of footballing judgement.
- New found respect for Jim Lawlor who was sacked for not being a yes man.
Hit pieces on Murtough increasing. Good times, guess people want him out.
Actually it does reflect the same tone.
Athletic tone is that Murtough may not be a great DoF but is generally adaptable and has his assets.
Here is what they say specifically on Murtough:
"Murtough is seen by those who have worked with him as a great survivor, more amenable and less egotistic than other executives in his position who would reject operating under a new regime. One leading agent, not known for handing out easy praise, says Murtough is courteous and good to deal with. That range of views helps explain Murtough’s presence this month at Old Trafford alongside Stewart for meetings with Brailsford and INEOS sporting director Jean-Claude Blanc. The feeling was those meetings went well."
He's been a very naughty boy indeed.
We are deep enough into Murtough's tenure to be highly critical of his job but the article raised a question. Why the anonymous sources since 2013 seem to always target one person within the club, with similar points regardless of that person position.
Do these people actually exist? If they do are we supposed to understand that they are the actual common denominator and if they are, shouldn't we question their influence?
Do these people actually exist? If they do are we supposed to understand that they are the actual common denominator and if they are, shouldn't we question their influence?
The article is not at all a good reflection on him. I don’t know what you read or if you read it selectively.
Summary of the Athletic article
True. Even on points that should raise questions about ETH's mindset and requests, Murtough is deemed culpable without mitigation. Basically whenever the ideal target happens to be unavailable the article tells us that ETH isn't interested in looking for options that may be better longterm or that may require in-depth search, he prefers ready made or quick options. The question I have about this is if Murtough goes his own way and ETH fails who would be criticized in a similar article, I suspect that it would still be the DOF?
A cnut of an agent to work with thinks its great to work with Murtough? Yeah, just means Murtough is a pushover and hasn't got the gumption to push back - just what's needed in the cut throat world of football.
He may be the nicest guy in the world, but that's really not what's needed when you're swimming with sharks.
Murtough has been a disaster and hopefully this is spelling the end of his time at the club. He’s ridden the gravy train for long enough, the end of Woodward 2.0 with Arnold and Murtough gone can’t come soon enough.
Incompetence and lack of ambition at the club allows someone like Murtough to work his way up to a role he shouldn’t have even been a candidate for let alone somehow appointed.
Incompetence and lack of ambition at the club allows someone like Murtough to work his way up to a role he shouldn’t have even been a candidate for let alone somehow appointed.
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I read it all. Your missing the point though.
Athletic criticise his work as a DoF but say that he has Value to the club and that isn't in the capacity he's in now (which is consistent with the good work he did prior DoF and what Luckhurst said).
So you really think Athletic have the view on Murtough from one agent? Ok.
The fact that he's allegedly fallen out with Fergie surely might encourage Ratcliffe to shift Murtough out rather than keep him on
Read that in the context of the whole article and the message is clear, he is there because he is a successful political operator and not because of his ability to deliver. If INEOS have anything about them they will be reassuring him so they can pull the rug while he least expects it so as not to give him time to get in anyone's ear.
You can’t start with a summer budget of 100m then double it towards the end of the window and expect competent results. Nobody is going to reach optimum performance under that environment. If we’d have had 220m at the start the window could have been planned. It totally impacts who you decide to go for and it is impossible to strategise. Murtough may be unsuitable for his role but the bigger issue is still Joel Glazer and a total disconnect between the setting of the budget and the authority of spending that budget not lying with the football department.
The only positive things to come out of the club in recent years are the likes of Mainoo and Garnacho. And their development through the youth system was overseen by Murtough so you could see why he has a value.
That coupled with the fact he and Arnold spent a summer chasing around a player who said multiple times he didn't want to come.
Paying over the odds for shoddy players.
Throwing big money at players who had a long contract anyway.
So I can form an opinion based on two years of his work in this role.
It's also funny that the supporters were more than happy to lap the posts of people on here when singing the praises of both Murtough and Arnold, but when a journalist publishes an article that don't tickle their balls, I'm the one acting odd? OK.
You're struggling. No one is advocating for him being a DoF. The point is he did a lot of good in his role for 6 years prior. He can be an asset to the club, just not thrust into this role. That's broadly the point that's been made by various journalists and is appearing to be the impression on INEOS.
I have a different view, though the owners end up being the main culprit. First I don't believe the 100m to 220m budget for a particular summer, I don't believe that the budgets are set in that manner. But there is a big issue when it comes to following a mid to long term plan and not altering it because the head coach may be unhappy, the head coach can kick rocks.
Murtough is the stinking turd that Moyes laid out in the ventilation system at Carrington on his last day.
Murtough might well be useless but whoever leaked that to the Athletic is definitely trying to throw him under the bus, be curious to know who it was.
Like Caesar, he is surrounded by enemies, and something's underway, but it has no face, yet everybody in the loop knows
Murtough is liked by all the staff at Carrington bar the first team, what does that tell you!
Erm...
Please refrain from sharing troll news
Nothing since the anonymous sources if they exist are quite obviously not first team members and they seemingly have a lot of bad things to say about Murtough.
Well that was quick
Didn't he do that once earlier this year? How many times will he buy?
Did they do a survey?
He's clearly got an army of enemies at Carrington, including anyone who likes SAF and Butt.
'Popular among the staff at Carrington' is verbatim what Murtough will have told Luckhurst to write. He's peddled that line in dozens of articles.
Yeah it is probably just a minority share.
And Jassim has won it! Football, bloody 'ell.
Jesus wept. How can people rise to the top of such a big organisation and be so inept!https://theathletic.com/5151315/2023/12/22/manchester-united-fotball-news-transfers
Pretty infuriating read. Hopefully a big change is coming, because it's needed. Arnold and Murtough were acting like headless chickens, to no one's surprise. The worst part of the article for me is that we ditched the plans for both Kane and Rice because of Casemiro.
My takeaway - this is all Moyes' fault.
Christmas miracle
The article also makes it clear why sacking ETH is utterly pointless at the moment.
Those bloody glazers
We are all living in a simulation. In the real world, outside of The Matrix, Sheikh Jassim closed his purchase in October and is gearing up to swap Sancho for Mbappe in the January transfer window.
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