Is there anything to suggest we are really going to promote a director of football anytime soon?
Man Utd set to appoint Director of Football (when hell freezes over)
- Thread starter RedMachine03
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Other than Solskjaer mentioning it you mean?
I am not sure why we have not announced a director of football if Ole was appointed. After all they wouldn't appoint a new manager just weeks before a director of football was appointed who will have ideas of his own about the direction of the club - surely there must have been some discussions?
The alternative is that it was a load of PR guff to mask the fact we appointed the cheapest possible option as coach who would be so deliriously happy to get the role that he wouldn't kick up a stink regarding quality.
I really hope I am wrong there and this summer sees major changes at all levels at Old Trafford.
The alternative is that it was a load of PR guff to mask the fact we appointed the cheapest possible option as coach who would be so deliriously happy to get the role that he wouldn't kick up a stink regarding quality.
I really hope I am wrong there and this summer sees major changes at all levels at Old Trafford.
The way this is going, Microsoft will burn through three more CEOs before we appoint a fecking director of football.
Chelsea have been without a DOF since November 2017 so maybe there aren't that many suitable candidates to step into roles this size out there.
Utd employed a firm of headhunters to look into this a while back so I’m
Not sure what they want or what’s out there.
It might be that they go without a DOF and all the stuff around Mitchell etc is pure conjecture
That sounds like something a S&P 500 company would do, which is textbook Woodward. Hiring headhunters to scout a DoF because you are clueless about it, feck me they are incompetent.
Agreed. They are nowhere near hiring a DOF or deciding which direction they want to head in.
It’s fine if Utd don’t want one; SAF and Wenger had Gill and Dein respectively to do the job without interfering with the playing side. I just think it would be good PR if they let us know what the strategy is.
The worrying thing about it is that they could possibly have no strategy. Just hire manager after manager hoping for the best. When something doesn't work 3 times in a row you may want to try something different.
That’s what I alluded to, ‘the lack of strategy.’
They have backed mangers in recent years, that’s undeniable but is that the direction they are going to adopt with Ole?
Think it depends on Ole too, is it whst he’d prefer?
They have backed mangers in recent years, that’s undeniable but is that the direction they are going to adopt with Ole?
Think it depends on Ole too, is it whst he’d prefer?
I think most big UK-clubs use Nolan Partners when hiring professionals like this (City, Chelsea, Liverpoop etc). Probably to get help «structuring the process».
The part about Mike Phelan is a bit interesting;
First there is a press brief that he will not sign unless there is a change in stucture in the club. Then the OGS-quote about him being more than just an assistant manager.
It feels like Mike Phelan want some sort of director position. Considering that was his position in Australia it is not that surprising, maybe? I can also imagine that he felt a bit «surpassed» when OGS got the interim manager-job. He was probably higher than OGS in the Man Utd hierarchy in 2010 when Ole left. So maybe his ego would feel better working in a position next to him? Not for him, next to McKenna and Carrick?
Just speculations of course.
Not sure it’s an ego thing. He felt aggrieved being pushed out when Moyes came in and now that he’s been re hired I think he wants assurances the set up and role are clearly defined
And the director of football... is... Gareth of Ed the Woodward
Maybe Mitchell is the prime candidate but he has said he won't decide until the end of the season. Not that odd really.
Good point. He wasn’t sacked “by Moyes”, he was sacked by the club at Moyes’ request, so while I’m sure he’s loving being back it’s hardly surprising that he’s being cautious. And if he refuses to sign up because he thinks doing without a DOF is bound to lead to disaster, I will admire him for it.
Woodward destroying the club day by day.
We are turning exactly into arsenal, albeit spending a lot more than them.
Woodward is our DoF. 
Throw money and get VDS.
Certainly think there’s an obsession with this role, and the detail behind it seems a bit vague to me. I’m not against it at all, for the record. But I do think the absence of one is providing some sort of perfect excuse for people. Personally, I hold the football managers far more responsible for the lack of success of our football team, which I guess all this frustration ultimately comes down to. On the football side of things, that remains the most important role by far, to me.
For all the talk about perfect ‘structure’, ‘continuity’, ‘revamping the academy’ and ‘succession planning’ - the most successful PL team post-Fergie seem to have had a very simple approach to it all. Chelsea have just got managers in, who have bought a few players, coached a style and won the fecking league. I don’t see any moronic act from Edward Woodward that has prevented us from having a season like one of Chelsea’s successful ones. It just hasn’t worked. Chelsea have hired new managers who have gone out, bought new players and won. Their academy has not produced one first-team player in the time we’ve got Rashford, Pereira and McTominay in the squad. There is nothing there to suggest that on the football side, they are operating on some different level to us, bar the fact that they have won the league a few times. I put that down to the managers. Their coaches have made quick impacts and signed players who have also made immediate impacts in their side. Costa and Fabregas both made a huge instant impact for Jose, Kante likewise for Conte.
Leicester of course was a one-off, but the principle behind their success was again a well-coached team that all knew what they were doing. Not some generational philosophy handed down. This is a manager’s job. Just go out and build a cohesive fecking team. We often look a bunch of strangers. Yet I see managers join struggling teams halfway through a season like Marco Silva or Hassenhutl and quickly establish an identity that we have been able to do for years. This DoF thing is a red herring for me, and a modern buzzword in football. I’m not saying they don’t have their uses and merits, but to me it just smacks of desperation to return to winning ways so we all want to hope trying this new thing would be the answer.
For all the talk about perfect ‘structure’, ‘continuity’, ‘revamping the academy’ and ‘succession planning’ - the most successful PL team post-Fergie seem to have had a very simple approach to it all. Chelsea have just got managers in, who have bought a few players, coached a style and won the fecking league. I don’t see any moronic act from Edward Woodward that has prevented us from having a season like one of Chelsea’s successful ones. It just hasn’t worked. Chelsea have hired new managers who have gone out, bought new players and won. Their academy has not produced one first-team player in the time we’ve got Rashford, Pereira and McTominay in the squad. There is nothing there to suggest that on the football side, they are operating on some different level to us, bar the fact that they have won the league a few times. I put that down to the managers. Their coaches have made quick impacts and signed players who have also made immediate impacts in their side. Costa and Fabregas both made a huge instant impact for Jose, Kante likewise for Conte.
Leicester of course was a one-off, but the principle behind their success was again a well-coached team that all knew what they were doing. Not some generational philosophy handed down. This is a manager’s job. Just go out and build a cohesive fecking team. We often look a bunch of strangers. Yet I see managers join struggling teams halfway through a season like Marco Silva or Hassenhutl and quickly establish an identity that we have been able to do for years. This DoF thing is a red herring for me, and a modern buzzword in football. I’m not saying they don’t have their uses and merits, but to me it just smacks of desperation to return to winning ways so we all want to hope trying this new thing would be the answer.
So we are still 'set to appoint a DoF'. Funny that as we are also preparing a bid for our summer transfer targets. We're pretty good at this transfer malarkey.
Right about now.
Why have we still not done this?
This should have been put in place the moment SAF retired, that way we would’ve had consistency in our signings for the last 5 years.
Instead we hand the keys to the managers, which leads to us signing a big lump like Fellaini one moment then a small technical player like Mata the next.
LVG brings in technical players to play a possession based style then Mourinho comes in, gets rid of most of LVG’s players and signs strong 6 footers to play pragmatically.
We need consistency, we’re wasting so much money.
It’s depressing looking at other big teams progressing then see how we’re run in comparison.
This should have been put in place the moment SAF retired, that way we would’ve had consistency in our signings for the last 5 years.
Instead we hand the keys to the managers, which leads to us signing a big lump like Fellaini one moment then a small technical player like Mata the next.
LVG brings in technical players to play a possession based style then Mourinho comes in, gets rid of most of LVG’s players and signs strong 6 footers to play pragmatically.
We need consistency, we’re wasting so much money.
It’s depressing looking at other big teams progressing then see how we’re run in comparison.
If we bring VDS, it should be as the CEO not as a DOF since he has never been a DOF. I doubt anyone would be against it.
DoFs are not managers, they are supposed to be with their team on the long haul rather than someone who jumps ship the moment a big ship calls for them. No DoF worthy of respect will step down from his job mid season willingly. Any DoF appointment was always going to be an off season appointment rather than one mid season.
Ideally should have been done a couple of years before he retired, with the last say four transfer windows under his watch being used to ensure a balanced, quality squad with a settled identity ready and waiting for the new manager (who should not have been Moyes).
This might become fact soon.
Out of curiosity, how are people proposing this works with regards to recruitment? Paul Mitchell or Van Der Saar chooses who we sign, and not Ole Solskjær (and our scouts)?
You find a compromise between the club's philosophy and mid to long term needs (DoF) and the short term wishes of the coach.
Woodward doesnt even know the jobs a DoF does, he thinks running a club is getting noodle sponsorships and hiring a manager do everything else. The situation with so many contracts running down is a direct result of not having a director. Any director worth their salt would have used the EL trophy and the improvement at the beginning of last season to organise the team (extend those who you want to keep, sell those you don't). Instead, we ended up extending Rojo who we didn't even want and let contracts run down.
Generally what happens is that the DOF chooses the head coach based on compatibility with a certain style/tactical approach. From that point it's relatively straightforward, they work on profiles more than anything, the scouts scout everything in their area, the DOF and his team sort the players based on roles, availability, qualities, flaws and other relevant criteria. Then the DOF will talk with the head coach and they will determine together where the needs are and the DOF will propose players from his own homemade database, generally the head coach is given several options for a given profile and price range.
Thank you. By the sounds of things, a good partnership between manager and DoF would be beneficial, although with managers changing you can never guarantee that. But I mean like how a coach has his trusted assistants and fitness staff. Would be good for them to be on the same page like that.
Apologies for the length of this post but please take a few minutes to read it.
I see many parallels between United and the England football team.
Both once winners of the biggest competitions.
Both once the team to beat.
Both going through a lengthy period of decline.
Both thinking that changing the manager would stop the rot.
Both getting to a stage where the players no longer performed to their potential.
However, those in charge of the England team eventually realised that the only way to effect a transformation was through innovation.
They transformed the structure from the bottom up.
They transformed the coaching structure.
They invested in St Georges coaching and training centre.
They innovated the way that the age groups were structured.
And they stopped spending millions on random managers and brought in someone with transformational ideas and new ways of working - Gareth Southgate.
For any business to succeed, it has to continually change, continually invest, continually innovate and continually improve the way it operates.
Compare and contrast that with Manchester United.
No real change, no real investment, zero innovation and zero improvement.
Manchester United remind me of once flourishing high street stores like Woolworths, BHS and M&S either dead or in terminal decline.
Overtaken by the new boys like Primark, Aldi and Lidl.
Am I being dramatic or realistic.
I see many parallels between United and the England football team.
Both once winners of the biggest competitions.
Both once the team to beat.
Both going through a lengthy period of decline.
Both thinking that changing the manager would stop the rot.
Both getting to a stage where the players no longer performed to their potential.
However, those in charge of the England team eventually realised that the only way to effect a transformation was through innovation.
They transformed the structure from the bottom up.
They transformed the coaching structure.
They invested in St Georges coaching and training centre.
They innovated the way that the age groups were structured.
And they stopped spending millions on random managers and brought in someone with transformational ideas and new ways of working - Gareth Southgate.
For any business to succeed, it has to continually change, continually invest, continually innovate and continually improve the way it operates.
Compare and contrast that with Manchester United.
No real change, no real investment, zero innovation and zero improvement.
Manchester United remind me of once flourishing high street stores like Woolworths, BHS and M&S either dead or in terminal decline.
Overtaken by the new boys like Primark, Aldi and Lidl.
Am I being dramatic or realistic.
Its been a year since this thread started and still no director of football! The people running this club are clowns.
Before a DoF, we need someone like Edwin to come in and get the club back on track.
He's not Ajax's DoF, he's their CEO. If Glazers want VDS to replace Woodward, then sure
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