Are people still baffled by what he does or has done for the last few years?
He’s essentially a player liaison officer. When the changing room was absolutely toxic, he was the eyes on the ground and an opinion that was trusted by both players and staff alike.
I think it was probably quite an important role under Solskjaer’s regime and helped micro manage player relationships and galvanise the squad. He’s an ex-player who understood them.
The position clearly doesn’t exist under Rangnick though which is why he was a bit bemused about his role. Rangnick has no previous relationship with Phelan so why would he trust him to continue that role when he’s not necessarily going to help get his ideas across or even sing from the same hymn sheet.
That would be a weird appointment indeed. First of all Phelan was by far the most experienced staff member Ole had at his disposal. The guy was already an assistant manager when Ole was still at Molde as a player. Secondly I can't see how a 59 year old man who was hardly a top player himself could connect with 20-25 year olds.
I believe that Phelan was signed to do what many expected him to do ie add much needed experience on the training pitch. Ole couldn't be bothered training his players and McCarricky were ridiculously inexperienced which means they needed an experienced head around. If you read SAF's autobiography you'll learn how much the old geezer rated Mike so if Ole went to SAF's office asking for a person who could provide experience to his coaching staff then I am sure that SAF would suggest Phelan.
Anyway Phelan was quite happy with his sporting director job in Australia. He joined United as a favour to Ole and to SAF + he also believed that it was a temporary job. In fact he kept both jobs at the same time.
When Ole was made permanent manager, Phelan probably thought that he couldn't see himself drilling the team at his age and would instead love to move to sporting director in the near . Comparing Mariners to Man United might sound silly but don't forget that at the time all it counted was United's DNA. Promotions were given out like candy to the right people. Fletcher for example was appointed U16 coach in October 2020, he was promoted to first team coach in January 2021 and in April 2021 he was promoted again as Technical director. So Phelan probably thought that if Fletcher could get what he wanted in record time then why can't he who had the experience and had done all the donkey work?
Turned out that Woodward had other plans and he preferred Murtough over him. At the time rumours of Nicky Butt's unhappiness followed by his departure monopolized the scene but there were more subtle rumours of Phelan not being too happy about the appointment as well. Anyway Ole probably did what Ole seems so able to do. He gave Phelan a cushy job, away from the training pitch and closer to what Phelan wanted to do as a sporting director. Which kind of defeated his signing in the first place (ie that of adding much needed experience to a coaching staff team that was so green that it pissed grass).
Rangnick doesn't need Phelan, not even as a coach. Phelan understands gegenpressing as much as a gorilla would understand nuclear fusion. As a former sporting director himself Ralph probably struggles to see why United need a DOF and a 'shadow sporting director' especially since the coaching staff is so ridiculously inexperienced. So after trying to gently nudge Phelan out as he did with McCarricky he raised his voice a notch by exposing him in the media. However I very much doubt that it would work. At age 59, Phelan probably knows that this is his last big contract in the game. He'll stick to it until he gets sacked.
These sort of power struggles are very common when a new manager comes in. He would want to bring in his men and often that can only happen by getting rid of the old guard. Its also relatively common for someone to get a job simply because he's the manager's pet. Back in Moyes time the joke at United was what Jimmy Lumsden actually did. I am confident that Phelan turned out to become Ole's version of that.
