Man Utd set to appoint Director of Football (when hell freezes over)

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“The DOF is coming” saga at United reminds me of the South Park parody of game of thrones where George Martin keeps talking about “The dragons are coming, just wait on it, it’s gonna be great”

Any other South Park fans seeing the parallels? :lol:
 
Mcking said:
With Marotta available, I'd like us to appoint him and go with the Juve model but with Marotta under Woodward since he will be the one making the appointment anyway.
Marotta's experience will be vital and we can then bring in a younger guy to do the recruiting job as a DOF cum head of recruitment.
Mou's replacement can then be full head coach rather than a manager.
Basically for the sporting side:
Glazers > Woodward > Marotta > DOF/HOR > head coach.
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Sounds like a job for Ron Jeremy.
 
#07 said:
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:lol: so the club have decided to blame Mourinho for their failure (read reluctance) to appoint a DoF.

Reminds of the briefings at the end of last season, in which the club said that the redevelopment of Old Trafford was being put on indefinite hold in order to ensure we had lots of money to spend in the summer transfer window...

It's just all PR BS.
 
Think it's a way of the club saying they will make an appointment when he goes without actually saying it .
It sure doesn't seem like we are appointing one while he's around.
 
Im red2 said:
United are a very big club, but we have very average players in many positions, our problem seems to be in the identifcation of players who can actually play the game. We do tend to try and sign players who already have made a name for themselves elsewhere. .
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Two reasons for the bolded part:

1. We're trying to get that quick fix after years of failing to replicate Fergie's success.
2. We're trying to come across as Jimmie Big Balls but flexing our financial muscle to make it look like we're still the biggest club.

The reality of both the above points is you get landed with several players you either overpaid for, don't fit your typical system, past it or just not good enough.

We have signed 2 CBs, 2 midfielders, RW and a Striker in Jose's time here. I don't think either of them are good enough for a title challenging XI.
 
Appointing one that Mourinho doesnt want to work with would be silly. The club is backing Mourinho and recently gave him a new contract. Glad to see the club is discussing the appointment with Mourinho. Could be a crucial turning point for the club. Mourinho is in it for the long haul and aint going anywhere. Wether you like it or not.
 
We definitely need someone. Our scouting of top talent has been poor for quite a while now. Not only that, but we seem to just buy players for the sake of buying them, instead of thinking about if they'll compliment the players currently at the club and whether the players will suit our system/style of play.
 
Sporting director is a more proper term for the role I believe, he is supposed to work with the manager in identifying targets and scout better and manage the window better with proactive planning in the market.

Dof could dilute a managers power at the club.
 
I said when we hired Mourinho that he would probably be our last attempt at having a manager being the main man in all aspects. If he didn't work out we'd then move onto the more common style of having a DoF or something similar. It's our preference, but ultimately if it's not working we'd try something different.

Most managers these days are used to working with a DoF and probably prefer it.
 
Don’t expect Mourinho to be involved or anyone to be appointed whilst he is in the job. It would be another person for Mourinho to fall out with or blame and would only cause more problems.

The club needs to be looking beyond Mourinho now in terms of a manager, DOF and structure so that when he does go they are prepared and can get everything set up quickly.
 
It will be Evra because Woodward is an egotistical prat. He wont give up power. I dont get what goes through his head. He waits around with his d*** in his hands and dithers every season. Evra will be another scapegoat. We need someone experienced like Mitchell. But they wont come to be a 'sporting director'. No point in hiring anyone if you dont give them the power in buying and they just report to woodward.
 
Remember when there were briefings that we're not going to spend on ageing defenders but we'll get a DOF so that we can have a clear vision where to go and blablabla?

Good times.
 
sam147 said:
It will be Evra because Woodward is an egotistical prat. He wont give up power. I dont get what goes through his head. He waits around with his d*** in his hands and dithers every season. Evra will be another scapegoat. We need someone experienced like Mitchell. But they wont come to be a 'sporting director'. No point in hiring anyone if you dont give them the power in buying and they just report to woodward.
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Well said. I've been fearing for a while that Woodward doesn't want to give up power. If he brings Evra in as is scapegoat that is terrible but it seems like that is what Wooward has been trying to do all along bring someone else in to pass the buck to if things go to plan but still trying to protect his image, while stealthily still controlling everything from the shadows.
 
The DOF role should be given to someone with a proven track record. I personally hope Patriaci, Monchi and Mitchell are considered for the role and we get one of them in.
 
sam147 said:
It will be Evra because Woodward is an egotistical prat. He wont give up power. I dont get what goes through his head. He waits around with his d*** in his hands and dithers every season. Evra will be another scapegoat. We need someone experienced like Mitchell. But they wont come to be a 'sporting director'. No point in hiring anyone if you dont give them the power in buying and they just report to woodward.
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Eric's Seagull said:
Well said. I've been fearing for a while that Woodward doesn't want to give up power. If he brings Evra in as is scapegoat that is terrible but it seems like that is what Wooward has been trying to do all along bring someone else in to pass the buck to if things go to plan but still trying to protect his image, while stealthily still controlling everything from the shadows.
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In what scenario do you imagine someone coming in would have authority to overrule Woodward? That's only possible if there's a new owner. Regardless of the name or reputation, Woodward will be that person's boss. A complete unknown or Wenger, Woodward won't be giving up any power. He'll just have less direct influence.
 
roseguy64 said:
In what scenario do you imagine someone coming in would have authority to overrule Woodward? That's only possible if there's a new owner. Regardless of the name or reputation, Woodward will be that person's boss. A complete unknown or Wenger, Woodward won't be giving up any power. He'll just have less direct influence.
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It's an incredible suggestion. It's like if Ed hired a landscape designer to do up his garden at home. "The landscape designer needs to be able to make all of the decisions. Woodward wants to have input into the design because he won't give up power. The egotistical prick won't even let the gardener feck his wife".
 
I imagine we'll get a DOF once Mourinho's time is up, whether thats end of his contract or sooner is yet to be seen. Also considering the style of football and "the united way" do not match up at all, and also factoring in the huge disconnect with the fans i suspect we'll see the DOF coming in to support a Giggsy/Carrick combo or something to that effect.
 
POF said:
It's an incredible suggestion. It's like if Ed hired a landscape designer to do up his garden at home. "The landscape designer needs to be able to make all of the decisions. Woodward wants to have input into the design because he won't give up power. The egotistical prick won't even let the gardener feck his wife".
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Even in that scenario of hiring a landscape gardener they would still be working to budgets no?

As long as that's all that Woodward does I'm not arsed. Set an amount each season we can spend and don't get involved on who we spend that money on.
 
Trizy said:
Two reasons for the bolded part:

1. We're trying to get that quick fix after years of failing to replicate Fergie's success.
2. We're trying to come across as Jimmie Big Balls but flexing our financial muscle to make it look like we're still the biggest club.

The reality of both the above points is you get landed with several players you either overpaid for, don't fit your typical system, past it or just not good enough.

We have signed 2 CBs, 2 midfielders, RW and a Striker in Jose's time here. I don't think either of them are good enough for a title challenging XI.
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Bolded part?
 
roseguy64 said:
In what scenario do you imagine someone coming in would have authority to overrule Woodward? That's only possible if there's a new owner. Regardless of the name or reputation, Woodward will be that person's boss. A complete unknown or Wenger, Woodward won't be giving up any power. He'll just have less direct influence.
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The scenario that I would hope to happen is that when the new guy comes in that Ed give them control over the football side and I hope when this happens Ed just lets the Director of Football know how much they have to spend and sticks to the commercial side.

It seems as if Ed is trying to feed his ego.
 
roseguy64 said:
It's so silly people seeing people saying Woodward would give up power. Regardless of us bringing in a DoF he would still have the authority over them.
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That's how you see it.
But what if you have a man who has all the control, power and ego that comes with it. Now tell that man to hire another man who will take away some of Woodward's duties.
Now do you understand why Woodward is not pulling the trigger on the DoF hiring?
 
sunama said:
That's how you see it.
But what if you have a man who has all the control, power and ego that comes with it. Now tell that man to hire another man who will take away some of Woodward's duties.
Now do you understand why Woodward is not pulling the trigger on the DoF hiring?
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It's actually very common. A CEO can have a COO, CFO or SVP under him. I think it has more to do with giving the DoF a clean start and a chance to appoint his own manager. Woodward will obviously have a say in it but ultimately the choices will probably come from the DoF.
 
The question is what the owners’ intentions actually are. If they’re happy with cashing in on a “brand” that must – this is inevitable – fade if nothing much changes football wise, then they could do an Arsenal, so to speak.

If they want to keep boosting the “brand”, however, which is what they’ve been doing so far, they can’t ignore the effects of a) underwhelming results and b) dull, uninspiring football. The current success of the “brand” isn’t entirely unrelated to the football we produced in the not-too-distant past. You can’t go on forever branding yourself as “the biggest club in the world” when it has become apparent to every man and his dog that you’re miles off the best on the pitch.

The “brand” will suffer if the football doesn’t improve. Given that the Glazers aren’t idiots, they’re obviously aware of this. So, if they’re actually penny pinching in the sense implied by certain posters on here, the explanation has to be one of two: 1) they’re happy to let the “brand” gradually fade, i.e. happy with a diminishing number of new sponsors and fans (I don’t see why they should be – it would mean that they consider the – financial - success story so far as some kind of peak, beyond which they’re fine just making a tidy profit), or 2) they don’t see themselves as long-term owners. They’re thinking about selling the club, cashing in on their leveraged takeover.
 
I don't think we will hire anyone.

However, if we do hire someone, thn Ed is going to get someone that will be his pawn, he will still have full control but instead of the blame being distributed between him and manager, it will be distributed between the new technical director and manager.

So in short not putting much hope on any successful rebuilding of the football side of the club. We will still be terribly run and hope that the manager will get it absolutely spot on in market and on the pitch. I think it's better to dream about the upcoming manager than about DOF, as the first one is at least achievable.
 
Ed is very lucky because he has bosses that prioritize financial returns instead of footballing side of the club. If he worked for Real Madrid or Barcelona where football is the priority, he will be long gone.

How can he still be in the job when he employed 3 different managers with different playing styles which requires different types of players in such a short period of time which put the club in such a big mess. The 3 different managers also well known to be playing negative football which contradict the club values and tradition. After spending so much money on players we are actually worse as a squad because the club doesn't have clear objectives and directions. There is also no clear plan on how to bring this club back to the top.
 
Maybe Ed doesnt have the network and/or rapport to pull of the kind of deals needed. That other teams seem to be able to get better deals than us has to be a bit worrying. Real Mmdrid in particular seem to have sold CR7 and Morata for less than they were asking from us, while james and Kovacic seem to have loan on loan for cheap. Even Courtois is meant to have moved for just £31.5m!

Beyond dealing with other big clubs, most bigs clubs seem to have smaller clubs that they use like feeder teams - sending players there on loan and buy up any prospective star they have. We dont seem to have that.

Without oil money, we need to be getting better value for our money in transfer dealings
 
Andycoleno9 said:
What do you think. Does he know now how he fecked up with not signing defender?
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The club wanted to sign a central defender. Hence we tried for Diego Godin (albeit foolishly) towards the end of the window - this was briefed by the club. Which would have been a terrific signing at a respectable cost.

Jerome Boateng for a reported £40 million would have been investigated for fraudulent activity. Yerry Mina for £30 million would have outrageous. Harry Maguire for a reported £75 million would have been scandalous, too.

Our reported targets were either bad business given the quoted fees or incredibly difficult to get over the line. I’m sure the club will still be looking for a centre half. But one that is viable from a financial point of view.

As for Woodward. Well, our three best players today were arguably Pogba, Martial and Shaw. Three players that, if reports and briefings are to be believed, are key to the board’s long term vision of the club.
 
Yeah but for top player you must pay top money. There are only few wc defenders out there. And they cost a lot. But i have a feeling that Ed wants to pay big only for players who are brand. And defenders are not that
 
Kag said:
The club wanted to sign a central defender. Hence we tried for Diego Godin (albeit foolishly) towards the end of the window - this was briefed by the club. Which would have been a terrific signing at a respectable cost.

Jerome Boateng for a reported £40 million would have been investigated for fraudulent activity. Yerry Mina for £30 million would have outrageous. Harry Maguire for a reported £75 million would have been scandalous, too.

Our reported targets were either bad business given the quoted fees or incredibly difficult to get over the line. I’m sure the club will still be looking for a centre half. But one that is viable from a financial point of view.

As for Woodward. Well, our three best players today were arguably Pogba, Martial and Shaw. Three players that, if reports and briefings are to be believed, are key to the board’s long term vision of the club.
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Spot on.

I don’t think anyone disputes we need a centre half but the reported targets were not right/overpriced and it should never be “any port in a storm” when signing someone.

Ed was right if the reports are correct, which of course they may not be.
 
Andycoleno9 said:
Yeah but for top player you must pay top money. There are only few wc defenders out there. And they cost a lot. But i have a feeling that Ed wants to pay big only for players who are brand. And defenders are not that
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He’s not scared to spend money, I don’t think that can ever be a criticism of Ed.
 
Andycoleno9 said:
Yeah but for top player you must pay top money. There are only few wc defenders out there. And they cost a lot. But i have a feeling that Ed wants to pay big only for players who are brand. And defenders are not that
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Ed wants the players who offer the best ROI.
 
Kag said:
The club wanted to sign a central defender. Hence we tried for Diego Godin (albeit foolishly) towards the end of the window - this was briefed by the club. Which would have been a terrific signing at a respectable cost.

Jerome Boateng for a reported £40 million would have been investigated for fraudulent activity. Yerry Mina for £30 million would have outrageous. Harry Maguire for a reported £75 million would have been scandalous, too.

Our reported targets were either bad business given the quoted fees or incredibly difficult to get over the line. I’m sure the club will still be looking for a centre half. But one that is viable from a financial point of view.

As for Woodward. Well, our three best players today were arguably Pogba, Martial and Shaw. Three players that, if reports and briefings are to be believed, are key to the board’s long term vision of the club.
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Exactly. Reported targets.

Woodward is dreadful at footballing issues.
 
Andycoleno9 said:
Yeah but for top player you must pay top money. There are only few wc defenders out there. And they cost a lot. But i have a feeling that Ed wants to pay big only for players who are brand. And defenders are not that
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The club is prepared to spend lots of money. We bought Pogba for £90 million in the knowledge that the market would explode within the year, which it did. Liverpool bought Van Dijk (who has really improved after an iffy start) less than a year ago. The club didn’t seem to be interested.

You don’t need to spend £70 million on centre halves anyway. It’s a position that can be addressed with some market savvy and some clever scouting. Bailly looked like a real find when he first arrived. He still might be with the right partner. Lindelof is the sort of deal, in theory, that made a lot of sense. An ‘up and comer’ that we nipped in ahead of our rivals for. He doesn’t look great, granted, but it doesn’t mean we should be splurging on any old halfwit.

If the right deal presents itself then the club with fire away. This has been proven time and time again in recent years.
 
Kag said:
It isn’t Ed Woodward’s job to identify transfer targets. It’s he and Matt Judge who assess the financial viability of them.
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But he’s still in the top job. Presumably he has some say in how well the person who does identify them is doing. Also it depends on whose reports you read. Reports I’m other countries say we had strong interest in romagnoli, skriniar and koulibaky. He failed to sanction a signing that would improve the area that is costing us most this season. Anyway I could go on a long time on Woodward’s monumental failures since he got that job. I find it very hard to give him credit given the extent of his failure.
 
SER19 said:
But he’s still in the top job. Presumably he has some say in how well the person who does identify them is doing. Also it depends on whose reports you read. Reports I’m other countries say we had strong interest in romagnoli, skriniar and koulibaky. He failed to sanction a signing that would improve the area that is costing us most this season. Anyway I could go on a long time on Woodward’s monumental failures since he got that job. I find it very hard to give him credit given the extent of his failure.
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I’d be more inclined to believe the briefs given to the likes of Daniel Taylor at the Guardian, or Sam Wallace and Jason Burt at the Telegraph, than some random Romagnoli link from ESPN. Because that’s the distinction between the two. Taylor, and others, spreaded the board’s party line the night the window closed and, on reflection, it made a great deal of sense.

Perhaps other centre halves were suggested to Mourinho and he had no interest outside of the names suggested at the time. We don’t know because we have nothing to do with the inner workings of the club.

What I do know, however, is that deals for the likes of Boateng, Mina and Maguire at the reported prices would have been ridiculous.
 
A top class centre half would make so much difference to this side.
 
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