The ‘Deputy Football Director’ position | 31.05.2022 - Andy O’Boyle appointed

devilish said:
Managers play a minor role these days. Most of the work is done behind the scenes (Ceo, Sporting director,Dof etc). If we end up with Rangnick as Sporting director and Mitchell as DOF then we will improve our situation significantly irrespective of the manager. Also pocus is not an Ole either
Click to expand...
Absolutely this, been saying it for ages. Time for the inept board to appoint football people with real experience (its not hard, especially given our $$). then let them make the decisions. So we dont have Joel refusing to sell Martial, or Ed signing players for social media likes. We also then dont flip flop between manager styles and recruitment direction every couple of years. Its not hard at all.
 
Adisa said:
Or Mitchell is scouting for his club.
Click to expand...

That is the most plausible reason. However I won't exclude anything at this stage. Jon was Woodward's man and Arnold seems to want to avoid any involvement on the football side. He might shift from the strategy of hiring inexperienced yes men to get the best in the job. Mitchell ticks many boxes. He is an excellent DOF and he is from Manchester
 
Rocksy said:
Mitchell is at Monaco and has the top job there. Cannot see any way that United could employ Rangnick AND Mitchell with Murtough there, too (as well as Fletcher). I can’t even see how Ralf can get a meaningful job with his “consultancy”. Wonder if Mitchell wants him coaching Monaco from next season…
Click to expand...

I don’t think they would do that on United’s watch. I said RB link up because they worked together before. He was in town being a Manny lad and he probably invited him along.

Also let’s not be fooled Fletcher isn’t invaluable. He would take his role and relieve pressure of Murtough.
 
Fletcher's not doing the role to assist Murtough in keeping the wheel moving when it comes to keeping the data, scouting, youth and other departments at a optimum level, so having someone experienced to assist Murtough who understands the process would be a welcome help. Fletcher's role in helping parents make a decision to have their child join the club and coaching at youth and now first team level is normal. Rangnick wants him at first team level and the new head coach will probably have his own people. Jason Wilcox who is currently the academy director at City (ex Blackburn) joined them in 2013 straight from a role working in the media.

Murtough has the experience in turning the wheel, because he's the one who has created the departments, which has modernised the club from having one full-time scout and a non existent data analytics department and everything being stored in Jim Lawlor's head. I can provide the references for that as well. So now Murtough has to juggle the first team with everything else he's been doing after the sacking of Solskjaer, from the Women's teams to the youth teams, coaching at youth level, logistics, scouting departments etc. And contrary to what's been written on this forum by certain deluded posters, Murtough was brought to the club by David Moyes who did understand how a recruitment structure worked in the modern game. Moyes also brought scouts to add to the one full time scout we had at United from Fergie's days, but after he (Moyes) was sacked, Man City wasted no time in poaching some of those scouts and James Smith who was a technical Chief scout and brought to United by Moyes was snapped up by City. And they (City) could do this to us along with enticing several of our youth players to jump ship to their club, because we didn't have the mechanisms and processes in place, which meant we couldn't provide the tools for recruitment staff to do their job at a optimal level and provide the facilities for the youngsters. City were taking advantage of this, Murtough came in to provide the tools and revamp the youth academy to stop this. And he's done a good job where if you just look at the youth teams, then we have interesting prospects in every single position, from the GK Vitek, fullbacks Fernandez, Laird, Williams, Pye, midfielders, Hannibal, Mainoo, Hansen Aaroen, wide forwards, Elanga, Garnacho, Chong and centre forwards McNeill, Hugill and many more that I haven't even mentioned. He's also turned the tables on City where we've poached 4 or 5 of their scouts, including head of youth recruitment David Harrison and their lead youth scout Stephen Ajewole, who was regarded as the best in class along with David Harrison's team.

And as far as Mitchell is concerned, I haven't seen anything that he's done thus far in his career that would make me sit-up and take notice. Even the list of players he's signed as a scout/head of recruitment have been a mixed bag. There's obviously some good players in the list, but also some really poor signings that were huge flops. And he's been at Monaco as DoF coming up to 2 years soon and I'm not seeing a noticeable improvement in their team. And even their biggest talent, Tchouameni was signed before Mitchell arrived at the club. I'd be happy if Mitchell arrived but I'd also be equally happy if we appointed someone else who has the experience of making sure the departments on the football side are functioning at a optimal level.

Below are links to some of the stuff I've mentioned about City poaching a prominent Scout after Moyes's sacking. How Moyes inherited a out dated recruitment structure with everything stored in Lawlor's head, and a detailed article from 2013, which sheds light on Moyes and his approach to technology/data science, when it came to recruiting players. And that approach went as far back as when he was managing Preston. Moyes wasn't a elite head coach but his knowledge on the modern day recruitment structure was elite, hence he approached John Murtough who was the Head of Elite development at the Premier League to restructure United's out dated recruitment structure. This is why I say to certain posters, 'tell me what the structure is' and they then go on the defensive and accuse me of patronising them.

All a DoF model is, is that it provides a buffer between the board and first team head coach. The head coach gets sacked and it should be the DoF backed by several recruitment departments working under him who provide the stability and continuity. The board can't do this and the first team manager just can't juggle 20-25 departments and also conduct training sessions in preparation for match days. And then if he gets sacked, you're in a position where the board has to make decisions unless you have a up to date recruitment department, which we didn't have until 2018. Everything was left to Fergie in the past and even though he kept winning titles, structurally we had fallen way behind many many clubs.


Moyes and his approach to backing up his scouts with technology data.
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport...em-that-reveals-david-moyes-mind-8756011.html

City poach James Smith from United after the sacking of Moyes.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...s-United-scout-s-European-talent-spotter.html


Moyes overhauls the recruitment structure after it was discovered everything was stored in Lawlor's head.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...vid-moyes-overhauls-manchester-united-6751601

From the above article: "It is understood that when he arrived at United, his predecessor Sir Alex Ferguson’s system and research wasn’t as detailed and the key information was allegedly in chief scout Jim Lawlor’s head rather than an easily accessible database for the backroom staff".
 
Last edited:
I wonder if the leadership structure on the footballing side may end up looking a bit like this (not exhaustive) -

Football Director (overseeing all teams, management of top staff and footballing infrastructure): John Murtough
>
RECRUITMENT - Assistant Football Director (basically a sporting director, recruitment key): Paul Mitchell
&
PLAYING - Head Coach: Erik Ten Hag or whoever
&
YOUTH - Head of Academy: Nick Cox
>
RECRUITMENT - Director of Football Negotiations: Matt Judge, Head of Football Operations: Alan Dawson, Head of Recruitment Operations: Steve Brown (with Marcel Bout, Mick Court and Jim Lawlor reporting into him)
&
PLAYING - Ten Hag or whoever's coaching staff
&
YOUTH - Technical Director: Darren Fletcher (overseeing young players transitioning to the first team), Head of Player Development: Justin Cochrane and assorted youth staff

With Ralf Rangnick as a consultant/mentor to basically everyone on this list, recommending signings and talented staff, on interview panels etc. Highly paid but is allowed to pursue other ventures as well (without any conflict of interests) and is called upon when needed but his advice is treated as very important.

There's a lot of people on the above list but I don't necessarily think it's a case of too many cooks. Depends on how it's managed and how responsibilities are delegated. It could be really good actually.
 
Hard to believe Mitchell would be brought in at this stage now.

Our recruitment has been awful, retention of players has been terrible as well so anyone new who isn’t by tarnished by all the failure is a bonus. Who takes responsibility for what has been done, good or bad is difficult to establish but it’s collective failure over a long period of time. One minute Murtough is credited with something, next he’s messed up the Haaland/Bellingham transfers but we know he’s been part of the recruitment and it’s failed repeatedly. More new ideas the better.

It’s one thing to be praising the club for having appointed lots of people but recruiting people is one thing, recruiting the right people is what’s important and that’s something we have been incapable of doing.
 
Last edited:
The failure of the managers at first team level when it comes to recruitment doesn't tarnish the good work done by John Murtough and the recruitment team at youth level. Anyone who thinks that is delusional.

LVG signing players like Rojo because they impressed him during the 2014 World Cup semi-final or Mourinho and Solskjaer signing players whilst the board allowed them to utilise their personal scouts isn't the fault of Murtough. That was a collective failure of the board and the managers post Fergie.
 
Adnan said:
Fletcher's not doing the role to assist Murtough in keeping the wheel moving when it comes to keeping the data, scouting, youth and other departments at a optimum level, so having someone experienced to assist Murtough who understands the process would be a welcome help.
Click to expand...

Is calling Fletcher a “Technical Director” a bit of a mistake then? I’m sure he’d be good at most jobs but United don’t really seem to know what he’s doing and the term “Technical Director“ implies that those departments, or at least some of the would be reporting to him. It seems there was no need all to promote DF so quickly. It means that any change is a demotion of someone who‘s a good United professional. Woodward’s decisions are just weird. If Murtough alone was promoted it would leave more room for appointing Rangnick (or whoever). Do you think Rangnick would ever take a job working under JM? I couldn’t see that. It’s not long since he turned down Milan and Schalke because he wanted absolute control of everything.
 
Rocksy said:
Is calling Fletcher a “Technical Director” a bit of a mistake then? I’m sure he’d be good at most jobs but United don’t really seem to know what he’s doing and the term “Technical Director“ implies that those departments, or at least some of the would be reporting to him. It seems there was no need all to promote DF so quickly. It means that any change is a demotion of someone who‘s a good United professional. Woodward’s decisions are just weird. If Murtough alone was promoted it would leave more room for appointing Rangnick (or whoever). Do you think Rangnick would ever take a job working under JM? I couldn’t see that. It’s not long since he turned down Milan and Schalke because he wanted absolute control of everything.
Click to expand...
With all due respect, I'm not fooled by what titles are given to certain people. Because the first thing I did when Fletcher was given the title of Technical Director, was to look up what his role at the club entailed. And it was very clear that his remit at the club was one where he assisted the recruitment/coaching staff at youth level. Similar to Jason Wilcox at City, who joined them in 2013, straight from a media job. Wilcox has now been promoted into a prominent role in their academy. Sebastian Kehl at Dortmund from what I read, spent a year back packing in Australia before he was appointed Technical Director at BvB. And they didn't appoint him because he was the most experienced candidate, but rather because of his association to the club, where they could mould him into one day taking over from Michael Zorc. So for me the title isn't important but what the person's remit is. Jason Wilcox is also a football director in City's youth setup. Anybody who oversees a particular department on the football side of a club, is a director of football.

I've followed Rangnick's career for many years and watched his RB Leipzig team regularly for 3 years. So I have a basic idea on how he developed the football side of the club. And how he (imo) developed the football side was first through having one of the richest owners in the game, in Dietrich Mateschitz, who is worth £20b, and then with that financial backing he brought scouts, video analysts, etc and built up a recruitment structure and set out a blueprint for the recruitment departments to target players for a particular way of playing the game. And that particular way, was to set out to play in a compact high block, with high intensity, fast transitions in a very direct vertical approach, which would also help in creating conditions for controlled chaos (counter pressing) off the ball. So the Leipzig scouts were targeting players with a specific profile who were either first contract players (16/17 year olds) or second contract players (18/22 year olds). And the appointment of a head coach would fit into the above way of thinking. He did similar at Hoffenheim under their billionaire owner Dietmar Hopp. And without the financial backing of the sugar daddy owners, he wouldn't have been able to do what he did at either club.

You also talk about Rangnick wanting control at other clubs hence him leaving etc. I agree, for any 'head of football' to be successful he needs control. You can't be successful as a DoF if the first team manager/head coach is setting the football directive independently from a club's recruitment team whilst being allowed his own personal scout(s). That's what United's biggest issue has been since Fergie retired, because even though the structure was outdated under Fergie, Fergie had the structure on the football side of the club working for him. Which created two of the 3 conditions to succeed in a manager model type setup, which are alignment - (streamlining operations) and stability - (as long as the manager is in his job). But what that setup doesn't give a club is continuity and hence when Fergie retired and his scouts also went with him, which included his brother and his coaching staff, we were left with Derek Langley as the head of recruitment and Jim Lawlor as the only fulltime scout with everything stored in his head.

What we need is the board to give the recruitment department the control, which has never happened until possibly now, that Solskjaer has been sacked. If Rangnick is on board then fantastic. But if he isn't, then it's no big deal imo. Because for me it's about streamlining everything and working towards a common goal. And that goal I'm hoping will be to recruit for a particular way of playing the game. And that will then reflect in who is hired as the head coach and the type of profile we target via the transfer window. It's a simple approach to recruitment that I've spoken about on here for years. Why do we need Rangnick to tell us that we need to streamline football operations, which have not been streamlined since the days of Fergie.

The DoFs take all the credit at clubs, but the bulk of the work is done by the scouts on he ground who then feed into their respective head of departments, who then collate the information passed on before feeding the filtered information to the DoF. No DoF can be successful if the departments below him/her are not functioning to a optimal level.
 
Adnan said:
With all due respect, I'm not fooled by what titles are given to certain people. Because the first thing I did when Fletcher was given the title of Technical Director, was to look up what his role at the club entailed. And it was very clear that his remit at the club was one where he assisted the recruitment/coaching staff at youth level. Similar to Jason Wilcox at City, who joined them in 2013, straight from a media job. Wilcox has now been promoted into a prominent role in their academy. Sebastian Kehl at Dortmund from what I read, spent a year back packing in Australia before he was appointed Technical Director at BvB. And they didn't appoint him because he was the most experienced candidate, but rather because of his association to the club, where they could mould him into one day taking over from Michael Zorc. So for me the title isn't important but what the person's remit is. Jason Wilcox is also a football director in City's youth setup. Anybody who oversees a particular department on the football side of a club, is a director of football.

I've followed Rangnick's career for many years and watched his RB Leipzig team regularly for 3 years. So I have a basic idea on how he developed the football side of the club. And how he (imo) developed the football side was first through having one of the richest owners in the game, in Dietrich Mateschitz, who is worth £20b, and then with that financial backing he brought scouts, video analysts, etc and built up a recruitment structure and set out a blueprint for the recruitment departments to target players for a particular way of playing the game. And that particular way, was to set out to play in a compact high block, with high intensity, fast transitions in a very direct vertical approach, which would also help in creating conditions for controlled chaos (counter pressing) off the ball. So the Leipzig scouts were targeting players with a specific profile who were either first contract players (16/17 year olds) or second contract players (18/22 year olds). And the appointment of a head coach would fit into the above way of thinking. He did similar at Hoffenheim under their billionaire owner Dietmar Hopp. And without the financial backing of the sugar daddy owners, he wouldn't have been able to do what he did at either club.

You also talk about Rangnick wanting control at other clubs hence him leaving etc. I agree, for any 'head of football' to be successful he needs control. You can't be successful as a DoF if the first team manager/head coach is setting the football directive independently from a club's recruitment team whilst being allowed his own personal scout(s). That's what United's biggest issue has been since Fergie retired, because even though the structure was outdated under Fergie, Fergie had the structure on the football side of the club working for him. Which created two of the 3 conditions to succeed in a manager model type setup, which are alignment - (streamlining operations) and stability - (as long as the manager is in his job). But what that setup doesn't give a club is continuity and hence when Fergie retired and his scouts also went with him, which included his brother and his coaching staff, we were left with Derek Langley as the head of recruitment and Jim Lawlor as the only fulltime scout with everything stored in his head.

What we need is the board to give the recruitment department the control, which has never happened until possibly now, that Solskjaer has been sacked. If Rangnick is on board then fantastic. But if he isn't, then it's no big deal imo. Because for me it's about streamlining everything and working towards a common goal. And that goal I'm hoping will be to recruit for a particular way of playing the game. And that will then reflect in who is hired as the head coach and the type of profile we target via the transfer window. It's a simple approach to recruitment that I've spoken about on here for years. Why do we need Rangnick to tell us that we need to streamline football operations, which have not been streamlined since the days of Fergie.

The DoFs take all the credit at clubs, but the bulk of the work is done by the scouts on he ground who then feed into their respective head of departments, who then collate the information passed on before feeding the filtered information to the DoF. No DoF can be successful if the departments below him/her are not functioning to a optimal level.
Click to expand...
 
Monaco fans have started to turn on Mitchell, with some calling him a fraud. I guess it might be a good time to appoint him at United.

 
Meanwhile in Tampa…

”Sir, our fans are saying we should look into Paul Mitchell”
”Of course! Why didn’t we think of it sooner?”
”Sir?”
”An official hair product sponsor! Get on the phone with them and see if they’re interested! We can replace Aeroflot with them. Great idea, McGillicuddy!”
 
Adnan said:
Monaco fans have started to turn on Mitchell, with some calling him a fraud. I guess it might be a good time to appoint him at United.

Click to expand...


If we hire Mitchell, I would feel quite confident about it due to the Rangnick connection.
 
andersj said:
If we hire Mitchell, I would feel quite confident about it due to the Rangnick connection.
Click to expand...
Even without the Rangnick, he'd be a good addition imo, because he knows the UK market and that's a advantage in my opinion.
 
Adnan said:
Even without the Rangnick, he'd be a good addition imo, because he knows the UK market and that's a advantage in my opinion.
Click to expand...

Yes. Poorly worded. His CV speaks in his favour. Very few at the age of 40 has several years of experience from the PL, Ligue 1 and Bundesliga (and is from Manchester).

I just meant that I would not be that worried even if some fans labelled him a fraud if he had Rangnicks approval.
 
I always sign Mitchell as DOF and Ribalta as technical director in FM so obviously it’ll work in real life. I like the idea of Mitchell. I think he did some great work with Spurs. They found a sweet spot for value and youth and unearthing and developing overlooked players of high quality. If they could keep their best players and invest similar amounts to us they would have won the league at some point. Think of the players they’ve had to sell over the years
 
Would Mitchell be hired for this Deputy role? Or something different altogether?

This role seems like a step down for him if you base it on job titles.

Either way, I’m glad that a combination of Arnold, Murtough and Ralf are doing this kind of thing. A club the size of United needs a few people working on the footballing sides of things.
 
andersj said:
Yes. Poorly worded. His CV speaks in his favour. Very few at the age of 40 has several years of experience from the PL, Ligue 1 and Bundesliga (and is from Manchester).

I just meant that I would not be that worried even if some fans labelled him a fraud if he had Rangnicks approval.
Click to expand...
Completely agree.
 
Chairman Steve said:
Would Mitchell be hired for this Deputy role? Or something different altogether?

This role seems like a step down for him if you base it on job titles.

Either way, I’m glad that a combination of Arnold, Murtough and Ralf are doing this kind of thing. A club the size of United needs a few people working on the footballing sides of things.
Click to expand...
He might do it for a season or two until he finds a new role while we could be grooming a replacement.
 
Adnan said:
Fletcher's not doing the role to assist Murtough in keeping the wheel moving when it comes to keeping the data, scouting, youth and other departments at a optimum level, so having someone experienced to assist Murtough who understands the process would be a welcome help. Fletcher's role in helping parents make a decision to have their child join the club and coaching at youth and now first team level is normal. Rangnick wants him at first team level and the new head coach will probably have his own people. Jason Wilcox who is currently the academy director at City (ex Blackburn) joined them in 2013 straight from a role working in the media.

Murtough has the experience in turning the wheel, because he's the one who has created the departments, which has modernised the club from having one full-time scout and a non existent data analytics department and everything being stored in Jim Lawlor's head. I can provide the references for that as well. So now Murtough has to juggle the first team with everything else he's been doing after the sacking of Solskjaer, from the Women's teams to the youth teams, coaching at youth level, logistics, scouting departments etc. And contrary to what's been written on this forum by certain deluded posters, Murtough was brought to the club by David Moyes who did understand how a recruitment structure worked in the modern game. Moyes also brought scouts to add to the one full time scout we had at United from Fergie's days, but after he (Moyes) was sacked, Man City wasted no time in poaching some of those scouts and James Smith who was a technical Chief scout and brought to United by Moyes was snapped up by City. And they (City) could do this to us along with enticing several of our youth players to jump ship to their club, because we didn't have the mechanisms and processes in place, which meant we couldn't provide the tools for recruitment staff to do their job at a optimal level and provide the facilities for the youngsters. City were taking advantage of this, Murtough came in to provide the tools and revamp the youth academy to stop this. And he's done a good job where if you just look at the youth teams, then we have interesting prospects in every single position, from the GK Vitek, fullbacks Fernandez, Laird, Williams, Pye, midfielders, Hannibal, Mainoo, Hansen Aaroen, wide forwards, Elanga, Garnacho, Chong and centre forwards McNeill, Hugill and many more that I haven't even mentioned. He's also turned the tables on City where we've poached 4 or 5 of their scouts, including head of youth recruitment David Harrison and their lead youth scout Stephen Ajewole, who was regarded as the best in class along with David Harrison's team.

And as far as Mitchell is concerned, I haven't seen anything that he's done thus far in his career that would make me sit-up and take notice. Even the list of players he's signed as a scout/head of recruitment have been a mixed bag. There's obviously some good players in the list, but also some really poor signings that were huge flops. And he's been at Monaco as DoF coming up to 2 years soon and I'm not seeing a noticeable improvement in their team. And even their biggest talent, Tchouameni was signed before Mitchell arrived at the club. I'd be happy if Mitchell arrived but I'd also be equally happy if we appointed someone else who has the experience of making sure the departments on the football side are functioning at a optimal level.

Below are links to some of the stuff I've mentioned about City poaching a prominent Scout after Moyes's sacking. How Moyes inherited a out dated recruitment structure with everything stored in Lawlor's head, and a detailed article from 2013, which sheds light on Moyes and his approach to technology/data science, when it came to recruiting players. And that approach went as far back as when he was managing Preston. Moyes wasn't a elite head coach but his knowledge on the modern day recruitment structure was elite, hence he approached John Murtough who was the Head of Elite development at the Premier League to restructure United's out dated recruitment structure. This is why I say to certain posters, 'tell me what the structure is' and they then go on the defensive and accuse me of patronising them.

All a DoF model is, is that it provides a buffer between the board and first team head coach. The head coach gets sacked and it should be the DoF backed by several recruitment departments working under him who provide the stability and continuity. The board can't do this and the first team manager just can't juggle 20-25 departments and also conduct training sessions in preparation for match days. And then if he gets sacked, you're in a position where the board has to make decisions unless you have a up to date recruitment department, which we didn't have until 2018. Everything was left to Fergie in the past and even though he kept winning titles, structurally we had fallen way behind many many clubs.


Moyes and his approach to backing up his scouts with technology data.
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport...em-that-reveals-david-moyes-mind-8756011.html

City poach James Smith from United after the sacking of Moyes.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...s-United-scout-s-European-talent-spotter.html


Moyes overhauls the recruitment structure after it was discovered everything was stored in Lawlor's head.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...vid-moyes-overhauls-manchester-united-6751601

From the above article: "It is understood that when he arrived at United, his predecessor Sir Alex Ferguson’s system and research wasn’t as detailed and the key information was allegedly in chief scout Jim Lawlor’s head rather than an easily accessible database for the backroom staff".
Click to expand...

Thank you. I've certainly learnt something about the structure of the club, and the attempts at getting it right.
Having the glazers at the top is still the biggest problem we have.
 
It looks like Mitchell is about to be sacked according to L'equipe and the deputy director position at United will likely suit him, as well us.

 
Monaco are denying this thus far but it seems the Monaco fans want Mitchell and his team out.

 
Adnan said:
Monaco are denying this thus far but it seems the Monaco fans want Mitchell and his team out.

Click to expand...

Do you think that bringing in Mitchell would be a good move for us, what with his stock seemingly falling? Also, if we do bring in Mitchell, would that make Pochettino more likely for us than ten Hag?
 
Remember the geese said:
Do you think that bringing in Mitchell would be a good move for us, what with his stock seemingly falling? Also, if we do bring in Mitchell, would that make Pochettino more likely for us than ten Hag?
Click to expand...
I think bringing Mitchell in would be a good move for us. He made his name in recruitment but as Sporting director one has to make sure recruitment departments are functioning to a optimal level and he never had experience of doing that.

Murtough has actually known Mitchell far longer than both Pochettino and Rangnick. Laurie Whitwell in the below article mentions that Murtough contacted Mitchell to get to know Rangnick and his methods at Leipzig several years ago. Mitchell is from Stalybridge and Murtough is from Longsight in Manchester.

https://theathletic.com/3127282/202...-man-tasked-trying-fix-manchester-united/?amp

So I wouldn't say bringing Mitchell in would necessarily point to us appointing Pochettino, because Murtough has known the likes of Mitchell and the ex head of football at Soton Les Reed, (who brought Pochettino to the club) way before Pochettino. Murtough has been running football departments since 2004.
 
Adnan said:
I think bringing Mitchell in would be a good move for us. He made his name in recruitment but as Sporting director one has to make sure recruitment departments are functioning to a optimal level and he never had experience of doing that.

Murtough has actually known Mitchell far longer than both Pochettino and Rangnick. Laurie Whitwell in the below article mentions that Murtough contacted Mitchell to get to know Rangnick and his methods at Leipzig several years ago. Mitchell is from Stalybridge and Murtough is from Longsight in Manchester.

https://theathletic.com/3127282/202...-man-tasked-trying-fix-manchester-united/?amp

So I wouldn't say bringing Mitchell in would necessarily point to us appointing Pochettino, because Murtough has known the likes of Mitchell and the ex head of football at Soton Les Reed, (who brought Pochettino to the club) way before Pochettino. Murtough has been running football departments since 2004.
Click to expand...
Ah, interesting. So Mitchell's primary role at Monaco wasn't in recruitment. I'd hope that we would use him in a way that would emphasize his strengths. Also, as someone who would prefer that we target ten Hag, I'm encouraged to hear that Mitchell has a long standing friendship/working relationship with Rangnick and Murtough, hence he isn't tied to Pochettino per se. Thanks for the reply.
 
If Murtough is able to bring in Mitchell, that would be a strong combination. Both have the same visions and beliefs, which then can allow them to be more efficient in developing the department(s). With Rangnick by their side, guiding them through each process as one would imagine, this is shaping up rather well.
 
Remember the geese said:
Ah, interesting. So Mitchell's primary role at Monaco wasn't in recruitment. I'd hope that we would use him in a way that would emphasize his strengths. Also, as someone who would prefer that we target ten Hag, I'm encouraged to hear that Mitchell has a long standing friendship/working relationship with Rangnick and Murtough, hence he isn't tied to Pochettino per se. Thanks for the reply.
Click to expand...
His role at Monaco was to lead the football departments and to make sure they were operating at a optimal level. So instead of collecting and collating information in a head of recruitment capacity like at Leipzig for the Sporting Director to act upon, his role at Monaco was reversed where he was the one relying on the information passed on to him. I'm sure there was scouting involved on a personal level, but when you take on the role of the head of football operations, then you have your hands full and have to monitor/review difference aspects of the different departments under you.

Mitchell was appointed DoF at one of the RedBull 'baby clubs' before he took on the Monaco role.
 
Adnan said:
His role at Monaco was to lead the football departments and to make sure they were operating at a optimal level. So instead of collecting and collating information in a head of recruitment capacity like at Leipzig for the Sporting Director to act upon, his role at Monaco was reversed where he was the one relying on the information passed on to him. I'm sure there was scouting involved on a personal level, but when you take on the role of the head of football operations, then you have your hands full and have to monitor/review difference aspects of the different departments under you.

Mitchell was appointed DoF at one of the RedBull 'baby clubs' before he took on the Monaco role.
Click to expand...
Ah, I see. Sounds like his role at Monaco was a promotion of sorts compared to his previous experiences. Hopefully the role we potentially offer him will make the best use of his skill set.
 
Has there been any serious link with Mitchell (other than him sitting next to Rangnick at a youth game). Mitchell joining in would imply Rangnick will also take a serious role, I guess.
 
Probably just paper talk due to him knowing Murtough and RR but this would add a huge amount of player recruitment knowledge and experience across Europe of squad building to us. I wonder if this happens means there will be more in and outs than expected this summer. Hopefully.
 
Crick said:
Probably just paper talk due to him knowing Murtough and RR but this would add a huge amount of player recruitment knowledge and experience across Europe of squad building to us. I wonder if this happens means there will be more in and outs than expected this summer. Hopefully.
Click to expand...

Unlikely. If he did join your club, let’s say by April, really not sure how much he will influence the summer transfer window within 3 months of getting the job. Would likely be reduced to a few recommendations but definitely not a major overhaul in such a short time. You would expect a competent board would already have plans in place for the summer, with or without him.
 
Adnan said:
Moyes overhauls the recruitment structure after it was discovered everything was stored in Lawlor's head.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...vid-moyes-overhauls-manchester-united-6751601

From the above article: "It is understood that when he arrived at United, his predecessor Sir Alex Ferguson’s system and research wasn’t as detailed and the key information was allegedly in chief scout Jim Lawlor’s head rather than an easily accessible database for the backroom staff".
Click to expand...

Our success made us arrogant and complacent, and we are now paying the price for it. Rotten, old structures dominate our club from top to bottom, I really hope Murtough sees this and is up for the job of modernizing our club and not just another one of the Glazer stooges who just has this job because he ain't going to kick up too much of a fuzz.
 
Isn't Mitchell much more qualified than Murtough hard to see him wanting to work as his deputy
 
You must log in or register to reply here.