Man Utd set to appoint Director of Football (when hell freezes over)
- Thread starter RedMachine03
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I would find it hard to disagree. He may not be the top pure scout in the field, but the DOF role will include doing many of Fergie's old roles which a mere mortal manager doesn't have time to do.
This job is about a lot more than going on scouting trips all week. I think VDS would be extremely well suited to the role.
Rashford holds all the cards...
Yeah, what other top 6 club is he gonna move to and be first choice CF...? Genuine question.
Reading through this self promoting interview, he sounded like he didn't understand PL at all.
We know very well when the stake is high even St. Pep couldn't guarantee playing time for Sancho. That's not accounting for attitude issue here and there between the coach and players. That's for a team dominating the league as City last season, let alone team fighting for points for European football qualification. The gap between relegation battlers are small too. Again money between a PL and Championship team is heaven and earth. Less chance to give to youth.
Monchi in his interview showed his knowledge even when he didn't consider a move to an English club.
Sound like underqualified, learning on job candidate.
Would love van der sar, he has a cool head too, and he might be able to get us some good young Dutch players.
He's 21 with bags of potential. Stick him in that City side and he'd tear teams to shreds.
He didn't need to have a genuine destination. Just hire a big mouth agent to run his mouth on the papers. If Martial could get that kind of wage raise, Rashford with the local grown status can also achieve by manipulating the opinions of the crowd.
Edit: got big contract then, his position in the team also would be guaranteed. Manager would have to the answer when Woodward shift the blame.
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This isn’t happening. Not til after the summer anyway. It’s all on Ole which is farcical, but I’m made my peace with it.
No point in hoping against hope.
Ole has it all to do this summer.
No point in hoping against hope.
Ole has it all to do this summer.
VDS is the one we should be going for. Yes he's the CEO at Ajax but I'm sure he wouldn't be shitting himself getting the director of football role at United. He's played with Ole so I'm sure they can talk about the type of personal that the club needs
Tell Ed Woodward to feck off, and sell the club instead if it doesn't happen
Tell Ed Woodward to feck off, and sell the club instead if it doesn't happen
VDS' project at Ajax has been wildly successful, but with most of their star players leaving this summer, this could be the best time to start another rebuilding project albeit with more resources backing him.
We don't need Edwin to be the DoF...he just needs to be the equivalent of Ed on football sides of things. They both report into the Glazers but ultimately Edwin would hold all the power in football side and Ed on commercial.
Except City wouldn't buy him. Chelsea maybe? They're the only big team I could imagine being interested.
Ed has done a magnificent job on the commercial front so there is no need to take away that part of his responsibly or replace him.
Like someone suggested a VDS kind of figure on the footballing side would be really good for us.
Like someone suggested a VDS kind of figure on the footballing side would be really good for us.
Any director of football would report to Woodward not directly to the Glazers.
It will be 2024 and you guys will still be here "MAN UTD SET TO APPOINT DIRECTOR OF FOOTBALL | ARTICLE FROM 2018 | IT MAY BE HAPPENING THIS YEAR".
This to me sounds like a really daft misrepresentation of the issues by the media. Ed would have to leave his own role and more than likely leave the club. Or find some weird role to make for himself and sidestep. Anyone who knows how Woodward operates knows he won't be doing that any time soon.
He is what Ed Woodward is for Ajax. Isn't he CEO? (edit: Yes was promoted to CEO, I remember reading about that a couple of years ago thinking how great an achievement for him in life after football, also with his personal issues with his wifes health.) Why would Ed make this appointment as a step down 'Football operations'. It would take a hell of a compromise for VDS to take a role like this, considering how highly regarded he is at Ajax whilst operating both platforms.
This to me sounds like a really daft misrepresentation of the issues by the media. Ed would have to leave his own role and more than likely leave the club. Or find some weird role to make for himself and sidestep. Anyone who knows how Woodward operates knows he won't be doing that any time soon.
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that was completely his own doing by buying Mahrez. I don't see how you read that interview the way you did. He has an extremely good track record of promoting good youth players and actually has a philosophy behind his methods. Also his comments on transfer deadline day is encouraging too.You guys are getting it twisted, Overmars is the DOF at Ajax not VDS.
Hence why I said, we don't need Edwin to be a DoF. Ideally, we need Ed eff off somewhere else and Wdwin be ceo.
We can hope mate. He makes the Glazers too much money though.
Can we change the freakin title?
When will we appoint a new Dof woodward?
Woodward :“When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves. When we waste another 300 million due to shit recruitment. Then he will sign, and not before" .
Woodward :“When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves. When we waste another 300 million due to shit recruitment. Then he will sign, and not before" .
We don’t need a DOF. Just football people behind the scenes. I don’t care what role they want to give VDS. But get him and Evra.
I dont see itias an either or more The Two Eds.
Whatever their titles are, still plenty to do for two people... Ed can focus on the club as a business .... sponsors, infrastructure, cashflow, etc (what he's good at tbf) and Edwin on football.... players, fees, wages. They'd meet naturally as some overlap and Edwin work within an Ed budget. No way Glazers allow Ed to release overall control.
I'm not going to pretend I know exactly how well Edwin has done recently (just what I've read) but by all accounts, a decent job and his United links can't hurt. Still comes across as one of the ex-players who 'got' United and his Ajax/Dutch football links can't hurt.
I believe that @red thru&thru point is that VDS was a marketing director for Ajax and he is now the CEO. Anything else than CEO with CEO power would be a demotion and his experience in a football front office totally overlap with Woodward's and Arnold's experiences.
Personally if I was a billionaire owning United, I would have gone with VDS or Marotta as CEO and try everything to bring JC Blanc as COO, from that point I let them create the structure that they want, they have enough experience in doing exactly that and they are all well versed in marketing and making money.
DDG out, VDS in please! Loved the man since his Ajax years, he was great for United. He did an excellent job at his former club with Overmars. I think he's a kind of person who could get it right at the club.
Loved the man since his Ajax years, he was great for United. He did an excellent job at his former club with Overmars. I think he's a kind of person who could get it right at the club.
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He wouldn't get a look in
Papers just doing guesswork at this point
The issue with a DOF for me is I don't really know our identity at the moment. Simply taking Edwin (or their actual DOF Overmars) wouldn't guarantee success. Difference is more subtle but important:
With Ajax, the philosophy is ingrained in the club and so former players coming through from various eras will have similar ideas of how the game should be played (a generalisation of course but I think overall very true) so if Overmars quit and another former player came in, the type of player they recruit and general way the club operate wouldn't necessarily change. That's not to dismiss Overmars' work in any way but Ajax are a collective. Edwin is the CEO so he's more involved in strategies and the commercial side as I understand it, however he comes from the same system and understands the club. They have a clear idea of what they want and how they want to do it.
Another example is Barcelona, since Rijkaard they have brought in a number of former players who continued their success and play (with some differences) a similar style of possession based football. I believe the one manager they who wasn't a former player (Martino) was the least successful. When we watch Barcelona the world expects to see a certain brand of football.
With us, SAF was the identity and in many ways was an embodiment of the club. How many times did people speak about him dragging players across the line, not playing well but winning and also building different teams with different styles. The guy was a genius but the issue now is what do United want to be, how do we want to play and how do we think we can differentiate ourselves. Generally people attribute direct, counter attacking football with wingers with SAF but we never had, at least in my mind, a set philosophy and we seem very uncertain about our future. Since SAF retired we have hired Moyes, LVG, Mou and Solskjaer - you couldn't find a weirder list of managerial appointments and stylistic clashes and that's the reason we have such a random assortment of 'big' players who don't really suit us.
With Ajax, the philosophy is ingrained in the club and so former players coming through from various eras will have similar ideas of how the game should be played (a generalisation of course but I think overall very true) so if Overmars quit and another former player came in, the type of player they recruit and general way the club operate wouldn't necessarily change. That's not to dismiss Overmars' work in any way but Ajax are a collective. Edwin is the CEO so he's more involved in strategies and the commercial side as I understand it, however he comes from the same system and understands the club. They have a clear idea of what they want and how they want to do it.
Another example is Barcelona, since Rijkaard they have brought in a number of former players who continued their success and play (with some differences) a similar style of possession based football. I believe the one manager they who wasn't a former player (Martino) was the least successful. When we watch Barcelona the world expects to see a certain brand of football.
With us, SAF was the identity and in many ways was an embodiment of the club. How many times did people speak about him dragging players across the line, not playing well but winning and also building different teams with different styles. The guy was a genius but the issue now is what do United want to be, how do we want to play and how do we think we can differentiate ourselves. Generally people attribute direct, counter attacking football with wingers with SAF but we never had, at least in my mind, a set philosophy and we seem very uncertain about our future. Since SAF retired we have hired Moyes, LVG, Mou and Solskjaer - you couldn't find a weirder list of managerial appointments and stylistic clashes and that's the reason we have such a random assortment of 'big' players who don't really suit us.
Stick him to City? Is City going to pay him 300K? Or any other club for a striker that is immature but demand a pay package of a senior striker? I say let DDG, Pogba and Rashford go, a a fee of 100m each. Only Utd was the sucker paying Sanchez 500k, not twice.
Ahuh, get that. I just think United is a bigger club (and Ed does bring the money in). Maybe both for now, Edwin takes.over.fuller control when Glazers sell.
Quite a few have old fading strikers. Dont speak so soon. Barca for one are on the hunt for a new young striker
We have a centre back that looks like a rabbit in headlights every time he has the ball.
A player that wouldn't look out of place in a Sunday League defence.
Do we really need a Director of Football to tell us that Chris Smalling isn't good enough to help Man United become world class?
A player that wouldn't look out of place in a Sunday League defence.
Do we really need a Director of Football to tell us that Chris Smalling isn't good enough to help Man United become world class?
You must have forgotten Jones, who looked completely out of his depth. He got torn to shreds by Messi, made an absolute fool of. Messi is fantastic but there are defenders that can look respectable against him. Not to mention Jones gets torn to shreds by any good dribbler, Hazard tore him a new one in the FA cup final.
Personally I wanted both gone this summer to be replaced with two new centre backs. You have to call time on a players career when they've proved season after season that they've reached their limit and they aren't helping us compete at the top level.
I'd rather we hadn't have gave Jones a new deal and called it a day. Giving him and even Young a new deal was criminal and the only worrying thing about Ole's reign so far is that he talks about being ruthless but talk is cheap when you're re-signing shit players.
nice thread title change
Right, lets focus on freezing hell over. Could also try getting pigs to fly too, why not?
A dof does more than that I believe (other smarter folks would be able to explain) but I do get your point. It's not rocket science in theory but it seems to require a unique quality not easily found to do it well as there doesn't seem to be many credible candidates out there. Maybe it's a market inefficiency whereby there just aren't that many people in the industry.
Thank you, you you were clearer than me on what I was trying to say.
I'd love to think that VDS and Ed could work together, however, why should VDS take a demotion...especially after all the great work he's done?!
Our CEO is very different from the Ajax version of CEO though isn't it? VDS is a football man after all, so he would have no problem with the football side of things. Not that it's going to happen.
How much of that is actually down to VDS? I don't know enough about Ajax.
Either way, I want him at United. I don't know if it's because when I look at him I'm reminded of a sure, calming presence because he was our keeper though.
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