Next permanent manager | Poll updated

Who should be the next permanent manager?

  • Luis Enrique

    Votes: 113 7.4%
  • Erik ten Hag

    Votes: 1,300 84.7%
  • Julen Lopetegui

    Votes: 10 0.7%
  • Mauricio Pochettino

    Votes: 79 5.1%
  • None of the above

    Votes: 32 2.1%

  • Total voters
    1,534
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I’m very confused now. Doesn’t he need to be perfect to our club project? I thought the whole point is managers don’t have complete control, we have a clear identity and way of playing then hire managers and sign players to fit that identity which is continuous regardless of manager. The reason we’re in this mess is due to managers having too much control and thus a total supermarket sweep of talented players who don’t fit as a collective.

I beg to differ. We're in this mess, in my opinion, because we handed too much control to the wrong, not remotely football-savvy people. And the guys we allowed to run the team - LVG, Jose, Moyes and Ole - were either out of touch with the modern game or not good enough.

If we're going to employ a young progressive up-coming manager with a pedigree for building a competitive team that plays attractive football - not to mention doing so with severely limited resources - we have to allow him a big say in who wants at the club or vice versa. Otherwise, you may as well give the job to another ex-player who simply "gets the club ethos".

Give him Carte Blanche and run with it, in my honest to God opinion. If it goes wrong again, then, well, feck knows. Just dissolve the club and become Darlingington fans or something. Or maybe take up Rugby?
 
Romano is the master of adding his own little spin on a story that can't be disputed either way. Of course he'll want some input on transfers etc.
It’s incredible how seriously people take him when in reality he tweets absolutely nothing of value. 99% of his “updates” are some variation of “talks are ongoing but not completed yet” and people lap it up, the Sancho saga in particular was ridiculous.
 
I beg to differ. We're in this mess, in my opinion, because we handed too much control to the wrong, not remotely football-savvy people. And the guys we allowed to run the team - LVG, Jose, Moyes and Ole - were either out of touch with the modern game or not good enough.

If we're going to employ a young progressive up-coming manager with a pedigree for building a competitive team that plays attractive football - not to mention doing so with severely limited resources - we have to allow him a big say in who wants at the club or vice versa. Otherwise, you may as well give the job to another ex-player who simply "gets the club ethos".

Give him Carte Blanche and run with it, in my honest to God opinion. If it goes wrong again, then, well, feck knows. Just dissolve the club and become Darlingington fans or something. Or maybe take up Rugby?
Big say, carte blanche not. It should be a cooperation between Fletcher, Murtough, Ragnick, ETH and co. ETH says I need that kind of a player and the rest work on it and present him the options.
 
It has to be a complete collaboration between the sporting directors and management on ins and outs.

The previous archaic, or general mess, set-up is hopefully long gone from the club.
 
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They literally just sit around thinking what stories they can make up that’ll cause the most fecking moaning don’t they?

Chong’s contract isn’t up this summer so he’s already contradicted himself the stupid melon.


I'd like to add rashford and shaw to the list aswell.
 
It’s incredible how seriously people take him when in reality he tweets absolutely nothing of value. 99% of his “updates” are some variation of “talks are ongoing but not completed yet” and people lap it up, the Sancho saga in particular was ridiculous.
Read someone else's rumour and tweet "X is an option for club Y, personal terms will not be an issue, other options are being considered"
 
No, they have said that the new manager will be expected to slot in to, and work with, the existing structure, rather than taking over it. What Romano is describing is much more akin to the traditional manager structure that we previously operated with. It seems that the club have decisively moved away from this towards a director of football model. I think this is a welcome change.
Undoubtedly, as long as the new structure knows what it’s doing, and isn’t pursuing Woodward’s path of signing obvious big names regardless of how they fit the manager’s style.

Presumably ETH will have got satisfactory answers to the questions he would certainly have asked at interview concerning this.
 
No, they have said that the new manager will be expected to slot in to, and work with, the existing structure, rather than taking over it. What Romano is describing is much more akin to the traditional manager structure that we previously operated with. It seems that the club have decisively moved away from this towards a director of football model. I think this is a welcome change.
Managers almost always tend to work in tandem with the transfer department unless its a club like say Chelsea or PSG where the club just goes out signs a player and then asks the manager to make it work with him. Transfer department (or the DOF) ideally should have conversations with the manager regarding transfer targets and whom the manager wants. One doesn't work without the other.

For us, its important to maintain a balance in the current structure. Neither should have absolute control on transfers.
 
You do know that doesn't mean ETH will not be involved in incomings outgoings and new contracts right? It just means ETH (rightly) wouldn't get sole remit over these decisions. He will have material input into the discussion, but it will need to be consistent with the consensus.

Romano isn't saying anything else to that, or to Ducker etc. So I'm really baffled why you think he won't get it? He wants to be totally involved in outgoings, incomings, new contracts. That is not a crazy or out of normal condition requirement for the new manager, and of course he will be.

We have good reason to think that Ten Hag has not demanded to be 100% active in every decision regarding contract renewals, departures, purchases and all present and future transfer strategy. He will have input, of course, and the club should listen to him, but I also think that United wants to do things differently moving forward. This will hopefully be a more balanced approach than we have tended to follow historically.
 
Undoubtedly, as long as the new structure knows what it’s doing, and isn’t pursuing Woodward’s path of signing obvious big names regardless of how they fit the manager’s style.

Presumably ETH will have got satisfactory answers to the questions he would certainly have asked at interview concerning this.

I'm hopeful that it will be Murtough and his new deputy (together with the scouting and data analytics teams) who lead this process. If that proves to be the case, I expect it would manifest in smart, data-driven signings (of the type Liverpool have generally made in the last four years), rather than some kind of galactico-lite strategy, like the one we have tended to follow in the past decade.
 
Yeah, he was a top player no doubt so you can still see quality but his legs are gone and he can't run anymore. I think there's an end to everything and if we are serious about rebuild, Matic is past his time even as a sub. It will only get worse with time. We do need to combine young players with experienced ones, just probably not Matic or Matta, a this point.

He is very good at adjusting to the players at his disposal.

It's why the nuances of our system have changed with every season he's been here
 
It’d be very interesting if we hired Paul Mitchell for a role, because from what I’ve heard and read from differing sources (and may not be true or may be a half-truth) is that Pochettino got essentially promoted to ‘Manager’ from ‘First Team Head Coach’, and his ‘promotion’ essentially marginalised Paul Mitchell at Spurs as Head of Recruitment at that time, resulting in Mitchell making plans to leave but Pochettino wanted him to stay, so it was a bit of a case of Pochettino having his cake and then eating it.

So maybe Mitchell could swing a middle finger the way of Poch if Mitchell got a role here :lol:

Good shout. Mitchell does seem to be particularly pally with Rangnick. I would not be too surprised to see him turn up as the new deputy DOF.
 
The tweet makes sense with or without the journo being a hack. Philosophy managers are never content to be frozen out of transfer decisions, not if they can help it. This is expected. On our end we already refused RR's transfer request in January because the manager might not have liked the player. The club was always going to build its transfers around manager involvement. It's not necessarily a good or bad thing. Can't call BS on the tweets we don't enjoy when half the sources posted in the thread are also garbage tier.
 
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We have good reason to think that Ten Hag has not demanded to be 100% active in every decision regarding contract renewals, departures, purchases and all present and future transfer strategy. He will have input, of course, and the club should listen to him, but I also think that United wants to do things differently moving forward. This will hopefully be a more balanced approach than we have tended to follow historically.
I don't think we have any reason to think Ten Hag is left out of decisions regarding player contracts, outgoings or incomings.
I'd argue even Ole had some input into that too.

But yeah I do agree with the overall point in bold.
 
I don't know why we are complicating this. Its quite simple tbh.
Don't give the manager full control of transfers because:
  • He might not be there long term and so the club may get stuck with more deadwood along the way (happened with LvG and Mou)
  • He might not have found the best option within the budget and might be too fixated on a target
  • He might be biased in many ways.
  • He might not have the club's long term vision in heart.
Don't give the DoF (or recruitment dept.) full control because:
  • The player might not be the best fit for the manager and his style
  • They might sign a player for commercial reasons :cool:
  • The manager may be forced to play a player he doesn't like (happened with Mou)
  • They don't manage the dressing room.
There needs to be at least 70-30 balance (leaning towards the DoF) for a successful transfer strategy imo.

I think that's what Romano was hinting at. I think ETH (or any manager) would want a bit of say in transfers.
 
I don't think we have any reason to think Ten Hag is left out of decisions regarding player contracts, outgoings or incomings.
I'd argue even Ole had some input into that too.

Ole, like previous managers, arguably had too much input on some of these decisions. Letting Van Gaal loose with the transfer budget was a heinous waste of resources.
 
Big say, carte blanche not. It should be a cooperation between Fletcher, Murtough, Ragnick, ETH and co. ETH says I need that kind of a player and the rest work on it and present him the options.

Yeah, that would work. The important thing here is everyone involved with transfers is thinking along the same lines. I.e, does this player fit the system, will he gel with the existing squad, is he motivated by money or trophies, can he actually play central midfield effectively, is he a cat or dog guy, and other relevant questions. The opposite of Woodward's 'buy the most expensive big name on the market' approach, basically.
 
Romano is the master of adding his own little spin on a story that can't be disputed either way. Of course he'll want some input on transfers etc.



I got attacked earlier under a fan page about saying Fabrizo hasn't a clue about most stuff especially when it comes to us.


Got attacked from all angles.....he has a fearsome online army who will attack at anything bad said about him. Insane how much clout he gets for mostly spoofing and spinning stories as his own that other people have actually more and likely made up, to sound smart.
 
Ole, like previous managers, arguably had too much input on some of these decisions. Letting Van Gaal loose with the transfer budget was a heinous waste of resources.

Jose too.

I don't think Ole's transfers are quite as bad as this season would suggest. The way most are playing right now is not a fair reflection of their ability overall. At least give them a spell under the new manager and allow him to assess them himself. That goes for the entire squad I guess.
 
Yeah I don't get the Romano praise. The guy is only considered reliable because he piggybacks on surefire stories picked up by other reliable journalists, throws in some hard to disprove tidbits ("personal terms not an issue", "club/player are talking, they like each other") and adds his trademark "here we go!" when they're just about confirmed.He's certainly not this clairvoyant oracle a lot of fans make him out to be. His interviews on fan channels are essentially him giving opinions on transfers and nothing else("nothing confirmed, but the transfer makes sense etc"). Honestly, I reckon most of us could do his job.

The latest tweet by him above is a perfect example. No one is going to be able to disprove a claim as generic as our new manager wanting involvement in transfers. The club nor Ten Hag aren't exactly going to rush out and deny/disprove that by saying "actually nah that bs Fab, Ten Hag ain't touching transfers"

I remember when he took a chance and prematurely put a tweet out claiming Solskjaer was sacked after the Liverpool game, only for him to have egg on his face, promptly delete the tweet and then proceeded to threaten twitter users with legal action after they started sharing a screenshot of his deleted tweet :lol:
 
Yeah, that would work. The important thing here is everyone involved with transfers is thinking along the same lines. I.e, does this player fit the system, will he gel with the existing squad, is he motivated by money or trophies, can he actually play central midfield effectively, is he a cat or dog guy, and other relevant questions. The opposite of Woodward's 'buy the most expensive big name on the market' approach, basically.
Yeah exactly. I think appointing Ragnick was a step in that direction and now getting ETH definitely means we're changing an approach.
 
Yeah I don't get the Romano praise. The guy is only considered reliable because he piggybacks on surefire stories picked up by other reliable journalists, throws in some hard to disprove tidbits ("personal terms not an issue", "club/player are talking, they like each other") and adds his trademark "here we go!" when they're just about confirmed.He's certainly not this clairvoyant oracle a lot of fans make him out to be. His interviews on fan channels are essentially him giving opinions on transfers and nothing else("nothing confirmed, but the transfer makes sense etc"). Honestly, I reckon most of us could do his job.

I remember when he took a chance and prematurely put a tweet out claiming Solskjaer was sacked after the Liverpool game, only for him to have egg on his face, promptly delete the tweet and then proceeded to threaten twitter users with legal action after they started sharing a screenshot of his deleted tweet :lol:
Got to give it to him, he knows how to sell himself. He says obvious things which are already known but sells it like a big exclusive. Similar to Ballbag who apparently is a 'Spanish football expert'.
 
We have good reason to think that Ten Hag has not demanded to be 100% active in every decision regarding contract renewals, departures, purchases and all present and future transfer strategy. He will have input, of course, and the club should listen to him, but I also think that United wants to do things differently moving forward. This will hopefully be a more balanced approach than we have tended to follow historically.
Exactly the manager should be involved in who we sign by giving them a list of players he wants. Then he should be telling them which players do not fit and which players contract should not be renewed. It is all about building a team, not a brand. You can look at branding once you actually have a team.
 
Jose too.

I don't think Ole's transfers are quite as bad as this season would suggest. The way most are playing right now is not a fair reflection of their ability overall. At least give them a spell under the new manager and allow him to assess them himself. That goes for the entire squad I guess.

Yes, I think this has to be viewed as a reset of sorts, at least for some of the players. I certainly don't want the club to dispense with a player as talented as Rashford, for example, until he has been given a fair crack under the new regime. I'm sure Ten Hag will be keen to work with him, too. There are admittedly some others who I am a little bit more indifferent about.
 
The Romano hatred is always funny when you have actual players and team officials around Europe that use him to stay up to date with news/rumors :lol:

Sometimes he might get fed information prematurely by agents that may not come to fruition but he's absolutely got good sources and doesn't report things without doing diligence first.

He's also bot unique in that there's information brokers like him in other sports and their credibility is rarely questioned. American sport fans know the likes of Adrian Wojnarowski and Adam Schefter as his equivalent in their respective sports
 
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Yes, I think this has to be viewed as a reset of sorts, at least for some of the players. I certainly don't want the club to dispense with a player as talented as Rashford, until he has been given a fair crack under the new regime. There are admittedly some others who I am a little bit more indifferent about.
The likes of Mata, Jones and Lingard should surely leave. Rashford I agree should get time with new manager. Same with Maguire although he's the main target for abuse in these boards.
 
The Romano hatred is always funny when you have actual players and team officials around Europe that use him to stay up to date with news/rumors :lol:

Sometimes he might get fed information prematurely by agents that may not come to fruition but he's absolutely got good sources and doesn't report things without doing diligence first.

I don't think he is hated by anyone aside from football writers, who, unlike Romano, have sources, speak to clubs, attend press conferences etc.

As an aggregator, I'm sure he's fine - he trawls the internet, pulls together the stories that seem most plausible and tweets them for his followers. If all you want is the information, he, like other aggregators, can be useful. The main difference between him and the other aggregators, is that he doesn't tend to cite sources, but instead presents them as his own stories. That's where the criticism comes in.
 
The Romano hatred is always funny when you have actual players and team officials around Europe that use him to stay up to date with news/rumors :lol:

Sometimes he might get fed information prematurely by agents that may not come to fruition but he's absolutely got good sources and doesn't report things without doing diligence first.

He's also bot unique in that there's information brokers like him in other sports and their credibility is rarely questioned. American sport fans know the likes of Adrian Wojnarowski and Adam Schefter as his equivalent in their respective sports


It's not hatred. He seems a nice bloke any time I've seen him talking........it's a dislike of his Hollywood gossip style of football ITK'ing he does, and the constant posting of anything he says like he actually in the know.


He barely knows anything and packages up info from other journos citing their own sources as his own sort of info. Bad enough even trying to work out of the original is even true without everyone sharing his about like it is legit. Total gossip
 
I don't think he is hated by anyone aside from football writers, who, unlike Romano, have sources, speak to clubs, attend press conferences etc.

As an aggregator, I'm sure he's fine - he trawls the internet, pulls together the stories that seem most plausible and tweets them for his followers. If all you want is the information, he, like other aggregators, can be useful. The main difference between him and the other aggregators, is that he doesn't tend to cite sources, but instead presents them as his own stories. That's where the criticism comes in.
Exactly hes a good single source to see the latest rumours, but anyone that believes he's got an inside line to every significant transfer across the world is gullible.
 
I'm hopeful that it will be Murtough and his new deputy (together with the scouting and data analytics teams) who lead this process. If that proves to be the case, I expect it would manifest in smart, data-driven signings (of the type Liverpool have generally made in the last four years), rather than some kind of galactico-lite strategy, like the one we have tended to follow in the past decade.
Let’s hope so. The Telegraph reckons our Top Targets are Kane and Rice. If true* it doesn’t look like much has changed. Not that they’re crap, but they do give off a strong Ed Woodward vibe.

* yes I know; “reputable” papers aren’t averse to pumping out clickbait.
 
Let’s hope so. The Telegraph reckons our Top Targets are Kane and Rice. If true* it doesn’t look like much has changed. Not that they’re crap, but they do give off a strong Ed Woodward vibe.

* yes I know; “reputable” papers aren’t averse to pumping out clickbait.
There's clever money and silly money. Signing both would be the latter, I'm not even sure we could afford both even if we wanted to.

I'd be delighted with Rice. I'd stay away from Kane though. He's the sort of player you get when the rest of your team is in order and you're missing that final piece up top. I'd rather we get our foundations right before we put on an expensive new roof.
 
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