Manchester United name John Murtough as Football Director and Darren Fletcher as Technical Director

Correct, ETH's responsibility should be coaching and tactics.

Unfortunately, he's not very good at that either.
 
If Murtoughs at fault for the failure of this season, he must also be responsible for last season's success?
 
Skills said:
If Murtoughs at fault for the failure of this season, he must also be responsible for last season's success?
Click to expand...

Not really no. DOFs are judged on the mid-long term success. For example Casemiro was brilliant last season but does 1 season justify spending so much money on a 30 year old DM?
 
The squad we have assembled is honestly horrible. Utterly disjointed and at odds with itself regarding strengths and weaknesses. It's a mess.
 
devilish said:
Not really no. DOFs are judged on the mid-long term success. For example Casemiro was brilliant last season but does 1 season justify spending so much money on a 30 year old DM?
Click to expand...

This. Because if it reaches the point that ETH needs to go, then we would be left with ETH's signings that may not be good for new managers, while we still have issue with offloading older deadwood, and lack of fund to strengthen the team. Right off the bad, this situation again would harmstring the new manager. Always can't trust this type of DOF to pick new manager if it's required.
 
Skills said:
If Murtoughs at fault for the failure of this season, he must also be responsible for last season's success?
Click to expand...
Signings tend to be short sighted and desperate. The likes of Eriksen, Casemiro, Varane etc, are ticking time bombs. Short term sticking plasters everywhere. Many a result of poor windows and bad opening days that force the club to act. Every transfer is short sighted and it inevitably blows up at some point.

last season was a poor window, salvaged by last second desperation signings, that will now hinder us in the long term.

long term direction should be the main priority of the board. Eth must take a massive part of the blame for his shortsightedness too.
 
100 said:
Signings tend to be short sighted and desperate. The likes of Eriksen, Casemiro, Varane etc, are ticking time bombs. Short term sticking plasters everywhere. Many a result of poor windows and bad opening days that force the club to act. Every transfer is short sighted and it inevitably blows up at some point.

last season was a poor window, salvaged by last second desperation signings, that will now hinder us in the long term.

long term direction should be the main priority of the board. Eth must take a massive part of the blame for his shortsightedness too.
Click to expand...
The issue is for a manger to shoulder the blame, it may mean him getting the sack. And with manager change, guess what, DOF is asked to find new manager! Is our DOF actively now searching for possible manager replacement even if it's end of season change? Is he planning for next year recruitment, players sale regardless of manager. or he again sits on his ass, hopes and prays for miracle to delegate his duty to (the next)manager again,
 
It's absolutely unbelievable and quite a feat that after spending so much money every season, we somehow manage to look worse on the pitch. Struggling to score a single goal against any opposition. Diabolical transfer policy which doesn't make any sense. The midfield siginings irk me the most because after years of splurging, all we had to show for it today wass a decent squad player who is an academy product in McTominay and a loan sigining in Amrabat that we couldn't even afford until we sold Henderson.

Casemiro - Who greenlit this signing? 60M + exorbitant wages on an aging player that Real Madrid were happy to let go. Did anyone at United wonder why? Surely, we could've punted that money at younger, hungrier players who have more to prove.
Mount - Nothing against him as a player. But why? And why 55M? Surely buying Amrabat for 25M and spending the remaining on 30M on another young midfielder would be a more prudent option? All so that Eriksen would start ahead of him in the derby.
Antony - Nothing against Antony either but again, surely our "new and improved" scouting system should be able to identify a more cost effective option if we just needed a work horse with no tangible end product. 90M is just madness.
 
Murtough has been a disaster and would be sacked at any other club but not this club. He is a Glazer man so he is safe as houses as long as he keeps his mouth shut and gets on with it.
 
Last edited:
ti vu said:
This. Because if it reaches the point that ETH needs to go, then we would be left with ETH's signings that may not be good for new managers, while we still have issue with offloading older deadwood, and lack of fund to strengthen the team. Right off the bad, this situation again would harmstring the new manager. Always can't trust this type of DOF to pick new manager if it's required.
Click to expand...

I think the issue is far more complex then a DOF and CEO that are simply incompetent or better still a competent owner would not allow incompetent people to fill those important roles. There are also rumours of the Glazers taking a month to give their blessing for a given signing. 1 month is an eternity in football. Having said that a competent owner would expect the DOF and the CEO to know better rather then simply nod at the manager at every single turn
 
Mainoldo said:
Tbf except for Kane all the other strikers have been rubbish.
Click to expand...
There weren't many strikers available last summer, but the issue is the lack of any forward planning over many previous summers.

We've had Ronaldo, Cavani, Martial, Weghorst, Lukaku and Ighalo in the last few years, yet the only significant transfer in that department has been Hojlund. Am not counting Luka.

It's the same issue in other areas of the field; The average age of the squad must be among the oldest of the teams aspiring for top 6.

Ultimately, the issue isn't just Arnold and co. but the Glazers who allowed for such incompetency.
 
Roboc7 said:
Murtough has been a disaster and would be sacked at any other club but not this club. He is a Glazer man so he is safe as houses as long as he keeps
his mouth shut and gets on with it.
Click to expand...

Even since ten Hag arrived, the money spent on Antony and Mount is inexcusable.
 
Post Van Gaal a big deal was made out of the damage he did to the squad and balance with his signings. Never again will the club just sign a load of players for one manager without considering whether they can all fit in long term - that was the message. If ETH went tomorrow would we be in the same situation? Answer is yes I think so that tells you how effective Murtough and Co are.

No wonder it’s all so disjointed, there’s literally one guy who seems to be in charge of everything. If Ineos bring in at least a semblance of challenge to managers then I would be happier. ETH has had considerable budget and wasted it on a few players now so if he doesn’t like it he can jog on as far as I’m concerned. I want him to stay but he will need to get used to the idea of being challenged within the club.
 
Week by week, it becomes more and more clear that the vision, strategy, plan, and execution for the first team are not right. This DF needs to be let go or demoted to only look after the youth side. He is not the right person no matter how much you feel he has been doing great to our youth setup.
 
Sir Matt said:
I'm honestly impressed Murtough has proven he can be just as incompetent as Woodward. Our transfer business has been shambolic for a decade, and it's left us with a group of random players rather than a coherent squad.
Click to expand...

not sure what we could expect really, neither of them have any experience in that role.
I wanted a Qatari takeover just so we can see a clean sweep of these plodders that are dragging the club down constantly, but tbh I’m relatively enthused by the rumours of Ratcliffe calling on Mitchell and Blanc.. it literally can’t be any worse than what we’ve seen for the last decade, and they have pedigree at least.
 
Sir Matt said:
I'm honestly impressed Murtough has proven he can be just as incompetent as Woodward. Our transfer business has been shambolic for a decade, and it's left us with a group of random players rather than a coherent squad.
Click to expand...

He's probably even worse all things considered
 
alexanderplatz said:
Post Van Gaal a big deal was made out of the damage he did to the squad and balance with his signings. Never again will the club just sign a load of players for one manager without considering whether they can all fit in long term - that was the message. If ETH went tomorrow would we be in the same situation? Answer is yes I think so that tells you how effective Murtough and Co are.

No wonder it’s all so disjointed, there’s literally one guy who seems to be in charge of everything. If Ineos bring in at least a semblance of challenge to managers then I would be happier. ETH has had considerable budget and wasted it on a few players now so if he doesn’t like it he can jog on as far as I’m concerned. I want him to stay but he will need to get used to the idea of being challenged within the club.
Click to expand...
The LVG transfers weren’t that expensive compared to what followed. The stupid thing about them was Woodward chose to bring in recently sacked Mourinho who wanted essentially none of the players who had come in under LVG. At least with Ole the style of football didn’t really change that much, then they just let Ragnick pretend to be coach for a bit and then ETH last season kind of kept us playing the original MouBall from his second season. This season ETH tried to move us to the more modern inverted triangle midfield with a single DM, had an injury crisis and the current situation is what we get. We just don’t have the players and the balance is all wrong. Bedlam.
 
Sir Matt said:
I'm honestly impressed Murtough has proven he can be just as incompetent as Woodward. Our transfer business has been shambolic for a decade, and it's left us with a group of random players rather than a coherent squad.
Click to expand...
Murtough was here all along with Woodward. The only he made light of is he is an absolute yes man. Previously some people argued that he was restrained by Woodward influence. Now it is clear he is the type that hide from responsibility to survive on his job.
 
Murtagh failed the club allowing the fees for these transfers. He should go.
 
Our change need to start from here. Murtough need to go.

Rangnick was shocked that a football club as big as this is run without proper football structure. This is embarrassing as every football club should put this a priority.

Murtough, Arnold and Ed are the main culprits for this and we can't expect them to make any meaningful changes.
 
Yep everything needs to go on a footballing structure side including the manager they have appointed. It’s beyond a joke.
 
Many Ajax fans in this forum warned us that ETH is shit in signings.

Lo and behold, our DOF who is being paid millions a year salary let ETH handpicked all the players. We have wasted 2 years and 400M again. The circus continues.
 
No other top club signs Casemiro for the price we paid at that age. No other top club goes anywhere near Ragnick as an interim manager which is the worst appointment I’ve ever seen at this level. No other top club pays 85m for Antony. No other top club signs Weghorst or goes after Arnautovic. No other top club actively keeps players like Maguire and Mctominay despite the manager wanting them out and them not suiting the play style we’re trying to implement. No other top club has the issue we had with Ronaldo and now Sancho which is frankly bizarre. No other top club gives their manager complete control over transfers. Maybe…just maybe…he isn’t cut out for a top club?
 
Sunny Jim said:
ETH is definitively the worst recruiter we had.
Click to expand...

It's been a bit similar to Solskjaer. After Ole's first full year, people were full of praise for his recruitment - Bruno was brilliant, AWB and Maguire did very well and helped the defence settle, James was fine for a low fee. ETH was the same after his first year. OK, the jury was out on Antony, but Martinez and Casemiro were excellent, Eriksen did very well, Malacia was fine for a low fee.

And then it ends.
 
Mickeza said:
You don’t hire managers for their recruitment skills.
Click to expand...

I started a thread on this yesterday but the mods decide to merge it with this thread, which is annoying considering every other post is moaning about Ten Hag's transfer strategy.

The guy isn't meant to fecking be in charge of transfer strategy, and if he is then the DoF isn't doing his job and should fecking step down.
 
sugar_kane said:
I started a thread on this yesterday but the mods decide to merge it with this thread, which is annoying considering every other post is moaning about Ten Hag's transfer strategy.

The guy isn't meant to fecking be in charge of transfer strategy, and if he is then the DoF isn't doing his job and should fecking step down.
Click to expand...
It will be strange if ten Hag is sacked for transfers but Murtough continues.

Murtough is out of his depth and probably scared to tell ten Hag no. ETH has tried to bring his best guys from Ajax because he's comfortable with them but beyond that he isn't a scout and I highly doubt he has enough time to do the due diligence on players.
 
ti vu said:
This. Because if it reaches the point that ETH needs to go, then we would be left with ETH's signings that may not be good for new managers, while we still have issue with offloading older deadwood, and lack of fund to strengthen the team. Right off the bad, this situation again would harmstring the new manager. Always can't trust this type of DOF to pick new manager if it's required.
Click to expand...

I mean it seems ETH has come to the conclusion his own signings aren't good enough for him, let and out any future manager coming in. Yesterday his biggest signing was on the bench for 87 mins, and another midfielder deemed top priority this summer also spent the first half on the bench.
 
Roboc7 said:
Murtough has been a disaster and would be sacked at any other club but not this club. He is a Glazer man so he is safe as houses as long as he keeps his mouth shut and gets on with it.
Click to expand...
He isn't as it's expected that Ratcliffe and INEOS will get control of the football side who were said to be far from impressed with the presentation Murtough gave when they visited OT. They will hire a new director and going by recent reports it's probably going to be Paul Mitchell.
 
Tom Van Persie said:
He isn't as it's expected that Ratcliffe and INEOS will get control of the football side who were said to be far from impressed with the presentation Murtough gave when they visited OT. They will hire a new director and going by recent reports it's probably going to be Paul Mitchell.
Click to expand...

If the INEOS deal does go through I’d be amazed if Arnold, Murtough and even likes of Brown and Wells aren’t given the boot very quickly.

But with the Glazers in charge Murtough isn’t going anywhere, he just won’t be held accountable.
 
Mickeza said:
No other top club signs Casemiro for the price we paid at that age. No other top club goes anywhere near Ragnick as an interim manager which is the worst appointment I’ve ever seen at this level. No other top club pays 85m for Antony. No other top club signs Weghorst or goes after Arnautovic. No other top club actively keeps players like Maguire and Mctominay despite the manager wanting them out and them not suiting the play style we’re trying to implement. No other top club has the issue we had with Ronaldo and now Sancho which is frankly bizarre. No other top club gives their manager complete control over transfers. Maybe…just maybe…he isn’t cut out for a top club?
Click to expand...

Completely agree Rangnick shouldn't have been a manager here,however Erik should have at least given him the time of day before deciding I don't need a consultancy. May I bring up players Ralf suggested as a pointer such as Alvarez,Diaz and Fernandez. Won't include Haaland as that sailed when we didn't get him from Molde
 
Amir said:
It's been a bit similar to Solskjaer. After Ole's first full year, people were full of praise for his recruitment - Bruno was brilliant, AWB and Maguire did very well and helped the defence settle, James was fine for a low fee. ETH was the same after his first year. OK, the jury was out on Antony, but Martinez and Casemiro were excellent, Eriksen did very well, Malacia was fine for a low fee.

And then it ends.
Click to expand...
Yup. And anybody criticizing the transfer window in the beginning of the season (before reality set in) was crucified by other posters and called all the usual names.
 
My gut feeling is that Erik doesn't trust Murtough's judgment,so demanded full control. We simply have to appoint a Sporting Director who isn't afraid to challenge Erik on things. IF Erik isn't willing to do that then I feel there is a decision to make on his future.
 
Amir said:
It's been a bit similar to Solskjaer. After Ole's first full year, people were full of praise for his recruitment - Bruno was brilliant, AWB and Maguire did very well and helped the defence settle, James was fine for a low fee. ETH was the same after his first year. OK, the jury was out on Antony, but Martinez and Casemiro were excellent, Eriksen did very well, Malacia was fine for a low fee.

And then it ends.
Click to expand...

True.

But I suppose it's because a manager/decision team has to keep making the right decisions. Ole's first set of signings were decent but it has to be followed up. If not the team struggles and those intial signings no longer look the same.

Antony is a disaster of a signing but if this summer had been really good it's suddenly mitigated until we move him on.

But unfortunately we went the other way.
 
Marwood said:
But I suppose it's because a manager/decision team has to keep making the right decisions. Ole's first set of signings were decent but it has to be followed up. If not the team struggles and those intial signings no longer look the same.
Click to expand...

True, with all of our issues with the squad in recent years, we really need to make a lot of good decisions when it comes to signings. We can't afford too many mistakes.

But part of the problem is that even the early "good signings" by Ole and ETH looked and look different after a while. I don't think anyone would say now that signing AWB and Maguire was decent in any shape of form.
 
Amir said:
True, with all of our issues with the squad in recent years, we really need to make a lot of good decisions when it comes to signings. We can't afford too many mistakes.

But part of the problem is that even the early "good signings" by Ole and ETH looked and look different after a while. I don't think anyone would say now that signing AWB and Maguire was decent in any shape of form.
Click to expand...

I think AWB might but yeah obviously Maguires fee was so crazy he's always up against it.

But I still think had the next summer been a really good one, the team is suddenly performing much better and we view those initial signings in a better light. Good players make not so good player look better. A couple of top midfielders in front of Maguire and he looks much better.

I look at Grealish. For what City paid he's been nowhere near good enough. But he's in a very successful squad and so avoids critcism.

Stick him in our struggling squad for £100 million and he gets hammered.

But like you say, we're now red lining when it comes to transfers. Absolutely no wiggle room. They all have to be spot on.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.