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

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Ferguson said:
In American professional sports the days of one person being both coach and general manager are long gone. And the few recent throwbacks, such as Stan Van Gundy or Tom Thibodeau in the NBA, have proved disastrous.

If the coach is allowed to control transfers and planning, then he tends to go for short term thinking and the club lacks continuity when coaches change.

Also, the job is simply too big these days for one person as the sports have gone global in their recruitment.

In the case of Sir Alex, you had a long term manager capable of thinking long term and United’s league position and market was simpler to understand back then.

But in the period before and after Sir Alex’s retirement, there was no director of football to manage the transition. Not only that, but David Gill retired at the very moment he was needed most.

Ever since, we have had lost transfer windows as managers were indecisive (David Moyes) or living in the past (Van Gaal) or falling out with their players (Mourinho).

Living without a Director of Football was a luxury afforded for a while by SAF and by continued club success, but this time around they will have realized that the hiring of a Director of Football must precede the hiring of a new manager.

Woodward was not enough of a football man to naturally fill that need, nor was it clear that it was even in his job description to take over the kind of decision-making that had always belonged to Sir Alex. This time they need to start with clearly defined roles and a clear division of labor.
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Wonderful post.
 
Bilbo said:
Are people fully aware that appointing a DoF carries just as much risk (if not more so) than our next manager? Majority of the talk seems to be based around this being a situation that can't fail and would automatically improve the club. I'm not convinced.
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acnumber9 said:
It’s become this big thing that will save our club. It will mean nothing if Woodward still decides he knows better. Like he did to the manager in the summer. It can cause as many problems as it solves.
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The rationale is that having someone/anyone with a reasonable knowledge (and ideally a track record) of what it takes to build a successful team taking over from Woodward the oversight of our transfer strategy could only improve us as a football club.

Hard to disagree with that logic tbh.
 
Ferguson said:
In American professional sports the days of one person being both coach and general manager are long gone. And the few recent throwbacks, such as Stan Van Gundy or Tom Thibodeau in the NBA, have proved disastrous.

If the coach is allowed to control transfers and planning, then he tends to go for short term thinking and the club lacks continuity when coaches change.

Also, the job is simply too big these days for one person as the sports have gone global in their recruitment.

In the case of Sir Alex, you had a long term manager capable of thinking long term and United’s league position and market was simpler to understand back then.

But in the period before and after Sir Alex’s retirement, there was no director of football to manage the transition. Not only that, but David Gill retired at the very moment he was needed most.

Ever since, we have had lost transfer windows as managers were indecisive (David Moyes) or living in the past (Van Gaal) or falling out with their players (Mourinho).

Living without a Director of Football was a luxury afforded for a while by SAF and by continued club success, but this time around they will have realized that the hiring of a Director of Football must precede the hiring of a new manager.

Woodward was not enough of a football man to naturally fill that need, nor was it clear that it was even in his job description to take over the kind of decision-making that had always belonged to Sir Alex. This time they need to start with clearly defined roles and a clear division of labor.
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Ferguson couldn't have said it better himself.
 
Whoever the DoF is, I hope it's done quickly and get the preparation done for the summer. Most important thing is Ed willing to give up control and let the DoF have most of the say on the football side.
 
Can someone please add to this list of pre-requisites so that I can work out who ticks the boxes?

The role of the Director of football

Must be a proper football man

Track record of recruiting players who immediately improve the starting XI

Working relationship with manager, nothing more (no input on tactics)

Doesnt take shite from Agents....
 
AgentP said:
If Jose had his way, we would have bought Willian, Perisic and Alderweireld for 70m each and sold Martial.
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People forget that a director of football is a single man too, so he is not supposed to make mistakes himself. I don't like to see a Chelsea style Dof, hence manager also should have a say in it.

It would not have helped if Pep was forced to play with Joe hart. That's the point I am making when I say manager should also have a say in it when he is managing a team.
 
Think we will see couple of people brought in, someone like Paul Mitchell as head of scouting/recruitment and the a sporting director or equivalent.
 
If Woodward didn't trust Jose with transfers, why would he trust a DoF?
 
JK-27 said:
If Woodward didn't trust Jose with transfers, why would he trust a DoF?
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He did trust Jose when he appointed him, he just failed to perform to the tune of £400m If a DOF performs badly he should also get the chop.

Saying the Woodward should get the chop if he keeps appointing people who fail.
 
JK-27 said:
If Woodward didn't trust Jose with transfers, why would he trust a DoF?
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I’m pretty sure we getting a transfer committee in.

This position is the key. It doesn’t matter if the caretaker does well, I hope we don’t rush to appointing him. Usually what happens with caretaker managers they have a good start and then they don’t do well once they take over full time.
 
Patrick08 said:
If toby costed 75 m, Woodward was absolutely right to overrule any of Willian, perisic, maguire, Boateng and toby as well signings for the money they were supposed to cost. Add aurountovic to the list.
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What if our director of football wants those players?
 
Pogue Mahone said:
The rationale is that having someone/anyone with a reasonable knowledge (and ideally a track record) of what it takes to build a successful team taking over from Woodward the oversight of our transfer strategy could only improve us as a football club.

Hard to disagree with that logic tbh.
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We’ve had managers with track records of winning league titles and European Cups. Woodward still decided to tell everyone that he knows better. It should improve anyway because let’s face it, it can’t get worse.
 
acnumber9 said:
What if our director of football wants those players?
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At any cost? The DOF has to work within the budget constraints and should be hired with that in mind plus the understanding that more value is placed on younger players.
 
acnumber9 said:
We’ve had managers with track records of winning league titles and European Cups. Woodward still decided to tell everyone that he knows better. It should improve anyway because let’s face it, it can’t get worse.
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You assume he was acting alone and speaking for himself there...
 
Literally every other club that's doing well at the moment has a DoF\transfer structure and yet we have dinosaurs on here who think they know better. Hilarious.
 
acnumber9 said:
What if our director of football wants those players?
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Then we sign them. Assuming the manager is on board too. Whatever, at least we have two people with the requisite skills/experience involved in the discussion. Which is a big improvement on every transfer window since Fergie retired.

I do agree that DoF’s aren’t infallible but it’s hard to find any examples of modern, successful clubs that don’t have this model. So makes sense we get on board too. All the more so when our current structure is so blatantly unfit for purpose.
 
acnumber9 said:
We’ve had managers with track records of winning league titles and European Cups. Woodward still decided to tell everyone that he knows better. It should improve anyway because let’s face it, it can’t get worse.
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He didn’t decide he knew better he just didn’t want to spend fortunes on short term solutions and sacrifice players like Martial to do so.

His mistake was giving Mourinho a new contract and not ensuring the manager and the club were on the same page.
 
BluesJr said:
Literally every other club that's doing well at the moment has a DoF\transfer structure and yet we have dinosaurs on here who think they know better. Hilarious.
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think most people are just making the point that it holds the same risk as the managers position. liverpools transfer committee didn't work out for a lot of years before this recent run of form. spurs have had disastrous flirts with dof. the chelsea guy seems to fall out with managers all the time. when it works it makes sense and when it doesn't it has the same potential to bring down a club as a bad manager
 
I’m sure people are oppose to a DoF just to try and be relevant. There’s mo suggestion in modern day football that you can do without one!
 
It’s receiving extra banter today but beyond the jokes it’s horrible to remember that this club ever gave Moyes a six-year contract.
 
Crashoutcassius said:
think most people are just making the point that it holds the same risk as the managers position. liverpools transfer committee didn't work out for a lot of years before this recent run of form. spurs have had disastrous flirts with dof. the chelsea guy seems to fall out with managers all the time. when it works it makes sense and when it doesn't it has the same potential to bring down a club as a bad manager
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True. That's the reason power concentrated at one person rarely works now. The team together has to make sensible decisions overall.
 
Hmmm. Was Paul Mitchell working with Poch at both Southampton and Spuds?

If we do go for PM, it might be with a view towards landing Poch, a-la Txitlisti and Guardiola.
 
Crashoutcassius said:
think most people are just making the point that it holds the same risk as the managers position. liverpools transfer committee didn't work out for a lot of years before this recent run of form. spurs have had disastrous flirts with dof. the chelsea guy seems to fall out with managers all the time. when it works it makes sense and when it doesn't it has the same potential to bring down a club as a bad manager
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Absolutely. There's a great deal of risk involved with the appointment, just like there is with any significant hire made at a football club. That doesn't mean we shouldn't do it or that we should stick to status quo, which has proven to be untenable without someone of the level of SAF at the helm.
 
liamp said:
Absolutely. There's a great deal of risk involved with the appointment, just like there is with any significant hire made at a football club. That doesn't mean we shouldn't do it or that we should stick to status quo, which has proven to be untenable without someone of the level of SAF at the helm.
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I don't think anyone is suggesting that, just that is needs to be set up well and the chances of woodward making a bollocks of it the first 4 times are pretty high...

a lot of the posts on here suggesting neville and van der saar seem to think anyone can do the job and you just throw them in and we will be wonderful. evra is another one
 
AndyJ1985 said:
I actually think Wenger would be a fantastic sporting director. Very intelligent man and excellent at spotting potential.
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You might be onto something here. I mean... he did almost sign Ronaldo. And Suarez. And Varane...
 
DoF is a must. Manager should be the one who decides what happens on the pitch, the face of the club to media and fans, and responsible for improving players. Manager’s role should be limited to giving potential transfer targets and why.

DoF should handle who we actually buy to fill in a requirement, scouting, young players, contracts, etc.
 
Crashoutcassius said:
I don't think anyone is suggesting that, just that is needs to be set up well and the chances of woodward making a bollocks of it the first 4 times are pretty high...

a lot of the posts on here suggesting neville and van der saar seem to think anyone can do the job and you just throw them in and we will be wonderful. evra is another one
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I don't have a great deal of faith in Ed either, but a key difference between this job and the manager position is that you're primarily evaluating the ability of a person to build an operational group rather than evaluating the ability of a person to coach the team. You would hope Ed would be able to evaluate the former more comfortably than the latter. It could still easily go tits up, but at least this is a bit more in his wheelhouse.

Yeah, those suggestions while well intentioned are the opposite of what we want. The first requirement for the position should be someone with experience rebuilding a clubf's football operations. None of those guys, nor any other former United players, have any applicable experience with that
 
Evra has reappeared recently.could he be the new DOF? I'm not advocating for him just wondering if that's what was happening.
 
Ferguson said:
In American professional sports the days of one person being both coach and general manager are long gone. And the few recent throwbacks, such as Stan Van Gundy or Tom Thibodeau in the NBA, have proved disastrous.

If the coach is allowed to control transfers and planning, then he tends to go for short term thinking and the club lacks continuity when coaches change.

Also, the job is simply too big these days for one person as the sports have gone global in their recruitment.

In the case of Sir Alex, you had a long term manager capable of thinking long term and United’s league position and market was simpler to understand back then.

But in the period before and after Sir Alex’s retirement, there was no director of football to manage the transition. Not only that, but David Gill retired at the very moment he was needed most.

Ever since, we have had lost transfer windows as managers were indecisive (David Moyes) or living in the past (Van Gaal) or falling out with their players (Mourinho).

Living without a Director of Football was a luxury afforded for a while by SAF and by continued club success, but this time around they will have realized that the hiring of a Director of Football must precede the hiring of a new manager.

Woodward was not enough of a football man to naturally fill that need, nor was it clear that it was even in his job description to take over the kind of decision-making that had always belonged to Sir Alex. This time they need to start with clearly defined roles and a clear division of labor.
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Post of the day
 
Some of the names of the potential DOF on the last few pages...Evra, Neville, etc :wenger:

The club aren’t that stupid. The DOF will be proven in his area, it will be someone like Paul Mitchell or Monchi.
 
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