John Murtough Sack Watch

Atheist said:
Is Fletcher leaving too? Why is he still a technical director at the club?
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Word is the INEOS people are very happy with him and want to keep him. But his title will surely change to better match his responsibilities.
 
Atheist said:
Is Fletcher leaving too? Why is he still a technical director at the club?
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As a former academy graduate (who rose through the ranks to emerge as a First Team player), Fletcher is well suited to his department (it allows him to lean on his own experiences and tribulations, from back in the early to mid 2000s).
"Probably the key part of the role is taking a holistic view of the path for players from our academy to our first team. That pipeline of academy talent is a massive part of who we are as a club.”
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Under Ralf Rangnick in early 2022, Garnacho was back and forward between the first team and the youth team. Darren Fletcher was excellent in supporting him during this stage and continued to champion him on the Asia and Australia pre-season tour after Erik ten Hag joined the club. The youth coaches expected him back after that tour, but he never came.

As well as putting his arm around the player, Fletcher was involved in another way. When Garnacho was called up to Argentina’s senior squad — he qualified through his mother — even before he’d made his United debut, United’s staff held a video call with the Argentinian FA. He was about to be put into the main national squad alongside Lionel Messi, a big deal, and United felt they had to be on the same page.
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Though within the new structure, his role might be rebranded to something more appropriate, to distinguish him from both Jason Wilcox (Technical Director) and Nick Cox (Academy Manager), with secondary responsibilities as a coach. There's so much specialization and delegation in contemporary football that he does not need to go anywhere.

To add, the next 3-4 years could be an exceptionally busy period for him, with the possible emergance of the likes of Amass, Lacey, Mantato, his own son(s), Thwaites, Ibragimov et cetera as First Team options who might benefit from his guidance and coordination (in addition to Garnacho, Mainoo and Kambwala, of course).
 
Still maintain any and all involved in the Antony deal should be fired by the end of the season. It's hard to see how he can possibly defend himself outside of signing the likes of Garnacho before the Brexit ruling came in.
 
Good news he’s finally gone and last of Woodward’s buddies is finally out the door. It was completely untenable for him to be kept on earning a huge salary in a dramatically reduced role.

There was no way he could be allowed to be involved in another transfer window and never should have been given the Football Director job but I’m sure he’ll get a more appropriate job elsewhere.
 
Invictus said:
As a former academy graduate (who rose through the ranks to emerge as a First Team player), Fletcher is well suited to his department (it allows him to lean on his own experiences and tribulations, from back in the early to mid 2000s).


Though within the new structure, his role might be rebranded to something more appropriate, to distinguish him from both Jason Wilcox (Technical Director) and Nick Cox (Academy Manager), with secondary responsibilities as a coach. There's so much specialization and delegation in contemporary football that he does not need to go anywhere.

To add, the next 3-4 years could be an exceptionally busy period for him, with the possible emergance of the likes of Amass, Lacey, Mantato, his own son(s), Thwaites, Ibragimov et cetera as First Team options who might benefit from his guidance and coordination (in addition to Garnacho, Mainoo and Kambwala, of course).
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Yes there is no reason for Fletcher to go anywhere. Murtough had to because he abdicated his duties to ETH and subsequently saw us waste 400m on utter tripe. Him stepping down in a huff like this suggests that we are very close with Wilcox and Berrada seems to want him and looks like, from a distance, he wouldn't mind working with just him.
 
Stobzilla said:
For all his failings at senior level, he can look back at this current group of U18’s and the ones coming up behind them with a sense of pride, a lot of his work went into it and he’s made some good appointments at that level.

If he goes into a development role in a league like MLS then they will be getting a very good operator for that specific function.
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Yep appointing Nick Cox as the head of academy was one of his best decisions.
 
horsechoker said:
It will be interesting to see where he goes next, surely no club will take him on in his current role but will be a choice selection for youth recruitment and development at a big/semi-big club
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cafe costa are hiring
 
L1nk said:
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balenciagaval-cristiano.gif
ffs cant believe some people wanted him to stay on in some capacity.
 
Doesn't deserve the stick he is getting . Our academy made some good progress under him. If I am not wrong, he was also responsible for revamping of our scouting network. But since we were a total failure in the last 10 years the collective responsibility falls on him too
 
horsechoker said:
It will be interesting to see where he goes next, surely no club will take him on in his current role but will be a choice selection for youth recruitment and development at a big/semi-big club
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As a DoF probably only at a smaller or lower league club, he'll likely still be able to get roles in management of youth teams.
 
Finally feel satisfied after complaining on and on about the execs over the past 10 years. My take for about the past 3-4 years was that before we fire a single manager, we need to gut the entire leadership team at United. We're finally closing that chapter.

The Glazers have stopped taking dividends. (another pet peeve)

Only remaining item on the wishlist is to see the board trimmed a bit. If you're not getting rid of the CEO after such a shambolic performance, why do you even exist? The current list is:

Joel Glazer, Patrick Stewart, Cliff Baty, Kevin Glazer, Bryan Glazer, Darcie Glazer, Edward Glazer, John Reece, Rob Nevin, Robert Leitao, Man Utd Sawhney, John Hooks.

It's fine for Joel to be on there but the rest of the Glazers are clearly just getting a pay check. Clean up house.
 
Atheist said:
Is Fletcher leaving too? Why is he still a technical director at the club?
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What exactly has he done wrong? He is tasked with helping young players step up to the first team squad and seems to be doing a very good job at it
 
Teja said:
Joel Glazer, Patrick Stewart, Cliff Baty, Kevin Glazer, Bryan Glazer, Darcie Glazer, Edward Glazer, John Reece, Rob Nevin, Robert Leitao, Man Utd Sawhney, John Hooks.
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Can't get rid of him. Top red.
 
bond19821982 said:
Doesn't deserve the stick he is getting . Our academy made some good progress under him. If I am not wrong, he was also responsible for revamping of our scouting network. But since we were a total failure in the last 10 years the collective responsibility falls on him too
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I said before he deserves some credit for signing players such as Garnacho but any good credit he built was destroyed in the space of 18 months due to his ineptitude in the transfer market.
 
mu4c_20le said:
Can't get rid of him. Top red.
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Hah interesting autocorrect. It was Man Utd and somehow my phone decided it's Man Utd.

Edit: Damn, it's not my phone - it's the Caf! It won't let you write Man*.
 
bond19821982 said:
Doesn't deserve the stick he is getting . Our academy made some good progress under him. If I am not wrong, he was also responsible for revamping of our scouting network. But since we were a total failure in the last 10 years the collective responsibility falls on him too
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Was that before or after finding Wan Bissaka from 300 rightbacks?
 
A clean break is the best thing glad that has been recognised.
 
Only good thing is the acadamy coming through in the next 5 years
 


  • Sir Jim Ratcliffe, co-owner of Manchester United, said: "We want to thank John for his loyal service over many years, and for his support and integrity during this period of transition.
  • "He leaves with our best wishes for the future."
  • Joel Glazer, co-chairman of Manchester United, said: "After 11 years of tireless work for the club, John has mutually agreed with us that now is the right time to step aside and allow the new football leadership structure to be put in place.
  • "He will always be welcome back at Manchester United as a friend of the club."
 
Overall he did good job, as a DoF he was very bad.
 
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Licha-Vidic said:


  • Sir Jim Ratcliffe, co-owner of Manchester United, said: "We want to thank John for his loyal service over many years, and for his support and integrity during this period of transition.
  • "He leaves with our best wishes for the future."
  • Joel Glazer, co-chairman of Manchester United, said: "After 11 years of tireless work for the club, John has mutually agreed with us that now is the right time to step aside and allow the new football leadership structure to be put in place.
  • "He will always be welcome back at Manchester United as a friend of the club."
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I love the idea of mutual agreement.

"We think you need to feck off"
"I agree"
 
horsechoker said:
It will be interesting to see where he goes next, surely no club will take him on in his current role but will be a choice selection for youth recruitment and development at a big/semi-big club
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Yeah he'll either go to a smaller club or if it's a big club, back to a role similar to what he had before this one. Or might work for the FA or Premier League.
 
Reading through some of the old athletic articles

First hired because Moyes wanted someone to do admin

That is when Murtough entered the club in December 2013, a hire by the then-United manager because he wanted administrative support.
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Got the big promotion by being friends with Woodward and Joel Glazer.

Then when he got power:

At other times, things would happen quickly. Amad Diallo, an 18-year-old with 24 minutes of senior football, joined from Atalanta for a fee potentially rising to £37m in the summer of 2020. Murtough worked on the deal, flying out to Bergamo and then spending two weeks in a makeshift office in his garage as a quarantine for Covid-19 regulations. Solskjaer had given his blessing to the signing 48 hours before the announcement, having watched some video footage, but he was unaware of the significant fee, which rose dramatically from when prospective buyers enquired at Atalanta earlier that year.

Solskjaer initially believed Amad, an exciting talent, was an academy player but realised after the move was finalised that the money involved meant he was expected to soon feature in the first team.
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Imagine being sacked after all those years at the club because you think your unqualified boss scouts shite players

When Arnold took charge as chief executive in February 2022 he conducted a root-and-branch review of club protocols. Internally, he asked hard questions of recruitment, wanting to know how United had got so little to show for a £1billion spend on new players. The result was Jim Lawlor and Marcel Bout, two long-standing chief scouts, being ushered out. Lawlor, a Ferguson ally, was judged to be dismissing too many targets as not good enough. Murtough and Brown, the main architects of the system, stayed on.
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But hey... he took minutes so that's great

Murtough noticed Woodward struggling to get to grips with the transition, so he kept minutes of meetings and collated the information into easy-to-read documents. Murtough was an expert at regulations, having been central to the implementation of the Elite Player Performance Plan when working at the Premier League, and he assisted Woodward’s knowledge of granular details around the game.
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Despite all this, it seemed the club were still going to keep him on until he made the decision to quit

On the brightside...
Arnold also consulted Ferguson and Gill for their opinions. Ferguson advised Arnold to scrutinise Murtough and recommended an approach for Dan Ashworth due to his work building a club structure at Brighton, following on from success at West Bromwich Albion and the English Football Association.

Arnold contacted Ashworth to sound him out before he joined Newcastle United. But when it became clear the role would have been working under Murtough rather than as his superior, Ashworth declined to enter proper talks.
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Bye bye. 10 years at the club....10 years of madness
He did okay with our academy thou.
 
Another one bites the dust...:devil:
 
He was probably decent at his original job, someone just made a terrible mistake in promoting him.

Edit: just read it was Joel and Woody's decision. What a surprise! Thank feck Ineos are running the club now.
 
Blood Mage said:
He was probably decent at his original job, someone just made a terrible mistake in promoting him.

Edit: just read it was Joel and Woody's decision. What a surprise! Thank feck Ineos are running the club now.
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Who else's decision would it have been?
 
Ed, Arnold and Murtough are down. Now we need to go for the main culprits the Glazers! Hope SJR take over in full soon so that we can have more real change!

I am still sceptical with the Glazers still the major share holder.
 
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