If you accept the briefings that Mourinho wouldn't work with one, the time line makes sense.
Man Utd set to appoint Director of Football (when hell freezes over)
- Thread starter RedMachine03
- Start date
- Status
Now that Jose is finally gone. I hope we have been working hard behind the scenes the right DoF and am hoping that they announce the appointment soon.
It’s a more important appointment than a managerial appointment. The discussion of who to get for this role should be a very extensive one.
Seems to be that way. Imagine how many discussions have taken place in 9 months. A woman could have got pregnant and had a baby in the same time that our club have recruited
Why do you think this about Ed?
I don't think Woodie wants absolute control. I think a stop was put on Jose and rightly so, but I don't think those decisions were shot down by Woodie alone. I think there was input from others at the club and Woodie was the face of the decision if you like. The fact they got rid of Jose when they did shows they weren't happy with the way things are going. Easiest thing would have been to let him go to the end of the season. I think he'd prefer the football decisions to be made by people they can work with and share the same football outlook.I feel much more thought will go into the next appt.
From everything we heard, the most likely scenario is that Woodward didn't say "no". He tried to sign the players that Jose wanted, but each of them ended up being absolutely stupidly overpriced. Hence why the transfer sagas around those players continued on until the very last hour of the transfer window as we had 'sensible' bids on the table that we hoped their clubs would eventually accept. If Woodward simply refused them straight up I'm sure we would have heard a lot more about it. No club in the world is going to be happy to over-spend massively.
The only thing that Woodward seemed to completely refuse was to include Martial in those deals, something which I'm sure we're all happy for.
I always think it was around that time that we were connected with Perisic that things started to go sour. Inter wanted an extra 10 million, I'm sure we could have met them somewhere in the middle of that or thereabouts. I don't think the fee they wanted for him was outrageous in the current climate and an extra 10 mill wasn't going to break the bank. They wouldn't pay it, yet then went and bought Lindelof, who I am convinced was never a Jose buy, so the funds were there, and that probably compounded Jose's frustration. I think the club was right to stop foolishly backing Jose in the transfer market, but they should have then started to think about replacing him then and certainly not offering him an extension. You're right also in the club's refusal to let Martial go, as I believe Jose would gladly have let him leave
Not to derail too much from what you're saying but Lindelof was signed relatively early on in the window, the Perisic stuff didn't come about till July/August time.
Lindelof signed in June. I recall us nearly signing Lindelof in a previous window as well. The press reporting of the Perisic deal started gathering heat in July, so I'm sure the 2 clubs had been in contact prior to that or at the very least Jose had made the club aware of who he wanted. My point was the money was there for a player Jose didn't want and not for one he did want in the same window.
Apparently Bayern don't want Sven Mislintat. The guy who's decided to leave his role as Head of Recruitment at Arsenal in February. A possible addition to our new structure perhaps or does he have some other role lined up...
Pretty sure that was just before transfer fees for ordinary players started going bonkers. Now 50m wouldn’t seem out of place for a 28/29 year old winger of his abilities. Then again, what is Perisic up to these days? he’s hardly tearing the world up.
Considering he wanted to dump martial for him, I’m very happy he didn’t.
im glad we didnt get him. He was a typical jose type. He probably would have suited lukaku as he would have put in crosses for him. he was a bit overpriced at the time but we always pay a premium.
Any updates here?
Seeing our rivals all in for top players, whilst, we renew contracts and reward deadwood players just highlights how urgently we need to have this position filled.
I hope Woodie isn't using this whole DoF thing as a decoy to paper over cracks.
Seeing our rivals all in for top players, whilst, we renew contracts and reward deadwood players just highlights how urgently we need to have this position filled.
I hope Woodie isn't using this whole DoF thing as a decoy to paper over cracks.
Wouldn't really have suited Lukaku at all. He's not a target man, he needs players who can slide passes between defenders, not lob crosses into the box.
Still being linked to him, so either it's all been a load of crap put out there by his agent and soaked up by the fans or someone at the club other than Jose rates him...
So if Ole came out tomorrow and said "we're in for MBappe" even though its horseshit, you'd be thrilled because "were in for top players".
Seriously..
You really did fail to grasp my point. And then went on to reply in condescending tone.
Seriously..
Lukaku is decent with crosses. Perhaps not as good as we'd like him to be, but he'll still get on the end of a decent amount.
It's long balls up from the back that he simply can't judge at all.
I dont get your point either, what top players are our rivals in for?
Higuain.
Is one player, and arguably not even a top one at that. Who else?
I don't get this point. So because the rivals aren't signing players in this window is a good excuse for us not to be in top players this window as well ? Do you even get that clubs sign players based on what they need ? That maybe a club needs an urgent signing while others might not be in any urgency to get players as they don't need much so they're not in the window. This excuse is pretty lame.
We need a player in a key position, we don't sign anyone and decide to continue the season as it is, then it's our problem. Doesn't matter whatever the othe clubs aren't in the marker or not. They don't need the same players we do.
His original point is about other clubs signing key players (they're not) and us only renewing contracts.
Yours is about strengthening what we need regardless of what other clubs are doing.
They're different points.
If there's an opportunity available to strengthen the team, we should go for it. Don't forget we captured 50% of arguably our best defence in the space of one January window.
However the managerial situation is probably muddying the waters a fair bit so probably not fair to compare.
However the managerial situation is probably muddying the waters a fair bit so probably not fair to compare.
Director of Football makes a big difference.
My local club Rangers signed one. Before they had one, they had lower English Championship level managers. And were signing players on big contracts who weren't contributing much like Alexis. Even wasting millions of a small transfer budget on foreign imports that don't work and are on too big a wage to sell.
Then they signed Mark Allen as DoF. Suddenly we start signing lower level EPL players that hit the ground running at the club and fit into the club ethos. Then suddenly we sign Steven Gerrard and an even higher level of EPL players that are local start signing for us and hit the ground running.
Clubs usually need to replace half a squad minimum once the manager changes if there isn't a Director of Football. Whereas when you have a DoF, the signings are usually good and any manager can use them.
My local club Rangers signed one. Before they had one, they had lower English Championship level managers. And were signing players on big contracts who weren't contributing much like Alexis. Even wasting millions of a small transfer budget on foreign imports that don't work and are on too big a wage to sell.
Then they signed Mark Allen as DoF. Suddenly we start signing lower level EPL players that hit the ground running at the club and fit into the club ethos. Then suddenly we sign Steven Gerrard and an even higher level of EPL players that are local start signing for us and hit the ground running.
Clubs usually need to replace half a squad minimum once the manager changes if there isn't a Director of Football. Whereas when you have a DoF, the signings are usually good and any manager can use them.
Bertas recent signings haven't pulled up any trees.
Costa
Martins
Lemar among a few others.
Costa
Martins
Lemar among a few others.
You'd swear Jose was the first manager in the history of the game to ever be told no you can't have x or y player. Christ, Ferguson opted for retirement over dealing with Edwards at one point due to the latter continually interfering and over ruling Ferguson on team matters. He done a u-turn due to the impending investment from Magnier and McManus.
The Center halves available in the summer were not sensible investments, not a chance they were. Maguire for 70-75m? Not a chance! Where's all the hype about him now since the World Cup? He's smack, bang average at best. Toby for 70m? Nope!
There really was no one worth while investing in at CB during the summer. Remember, it was Jose who tried his absolute best to move Shaw and Martial on to other clubs.
When you've an accountant / Chief exec making better footballing decisions than your manager its a serious issue.
Didn’t know he was a former banker with no footballing past, him and Woody will be best of pals then
I think the Atletico scouts had a big say in those signings.
Previously we already brought someone in who I’m convinced was a move to him being the DOF in Javier Ribalata, for whatever reason this stalled possibly due to Jose and now he is at Zenit which I think was a big loss for us. There has been talk of massive restructuring going on behind closed doors at United for over 4 years now and Berta has been linked with us since Jose took over but I think that had more to do with him being a Mendes client.
Zorc would be the dream but it is pretty much a non starter and Mitchel seems quite intresting and VDS would another intresting one but Itnink we should have a crack at Ribalta again and hope the reason he left was due to Jose.
Zorc would be the dream but it is pretty much a non starter and Mitchel seems quite intresting and VDS would another intresting one but Itnink we should have a crack at Ribalta again and hope the reason he left was due to Jose.
https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...-news/man-utd-football-director-news-15734145
Of the three I think Fabio Paratici would be best based on the success he’s overseen at Juve, has Mitchell actually been a Director Of Football before ? Atletico always seem to make great under the radar signings that don’t cost the earth yet become amazing so Berta must be very good.
Of the three I think Fabio Paratici would be best based on the success he’s overseen at Juve, has Mitchell actually been a Director Of Football before ? Atletico always seem to make great under the radar signings that don’t cost the earth yet become amazing so Berta must be very good.
Michael Emenalo has just left Monaco.
You'd ideally want a situation where your DoF would have a longer contract than your manager because the planning there is long-term and that person always has to balance the right now vs the 5-years down the line. I doubt that's possible at United, so what they are looking for could really be a technical director who'd make recommendations and possibly negotiate on who to buy, who to extend and who to hire for the staff etc.
I’m not sure how we can make an informed decision about who is the right man for the job. Its difficult enough for us to actually know what is wrong at Man Utd (and has been for the past few years). But each sporting director might operate differently and have different tasks. It is basically impossible for us to know who is the right man for the job.
Ideally it should be someone who know the club and have some years of experience with similar work. I would love Edwin van der Sar, but I doubt he would take it. He is CEO at Ajax currently. It would make sense to make him Chairman of Football Operation at Man Utd (and split Woodwards responsibilty in two).
Ajax is quite similar to us.
let’s hope he goes back to ChelseaIf I recall directly there was tension between him and Chelsea managers and Jardim only agreed to go back to Monaco as long as he was fired.
Hopefully he joins Arsenal.....
A lot of DOF’s are former bankers or accountants without a footballing past who learned the job.
Shock horror you don’t need to have been a footballer to be good at a job related to football. Our very own David Gill who so many pine for was a fecking accountant.
Last edited:
- Status