United appoint Sam Erith as performance director

Tom Van Persie

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Manchester United have appointed Sam Erith as performance director until the end of the season - as the drive to transform the club continues.

Erith, who joins on an interim basis, is regarded as an industry leader and heads to Old Trafford following spells with England, Manchester City, Tottenham and most recently New York-based Madison Square Garden Sports.

Mail Sport understands sporting director Dan Ashworth targeted Erith, who will start his new role on an interim basis on Monday. The new man is likely to be tasked with ensuring manager Erik ten Hag and his players are provided with an elite environment in which to challenge.


Erith has experience in performance, health and sports science and will work with United’s new football leadership team, brought in following Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS’s acquisition of a quarter stake in the club.

Insiders believe Erith’s role will be crucial to what they are hoping will be a United turnaround, despite a sluggish start to the season.

The move is part of a wide-ranging attempt by the new regime at Old Trafford to ensure they are at the cutting edge of football and across all advances in technology. Erith was senior vice president for player performance and science leader for MSG, who own the New York Knicks and New York Rangers, and will report to Ashworth.

Educated at Loughborough University, Erith performed a number of roles with the FA and the England men’s first team after starting as a sports scientist. From 2016 to 2017 he was a consultant performance coach working with Gareth Southgate.

Erith was also head of sports science for six years at Spurs and spent 11 years at City in a similar role before leaving in November 2022 and heading to the US.

United have transformed their off-field operations since INEOS’s arrival in January. Ashworth arrived following protracted negotiations with Newcastle while Jason Wilcox came in as technical director from Southampton.

In a summer of change, Omar Berrada made the short trip from City to become the club’s new chief executive.
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having a shite day at the office, followed by the emergency hiring of an interim “performance director,” isn’t probably the best sign for haggy.
 
I like woth Vivell and this geezer, its short term stuff with the incentive of extension. In Sam's case I may have made that detail up but I digress.

It tells people you have to do your job and do it well before we show longer term commitment.
 
What exactly is a performance director? Is he a psychologist? Or someone that looks at fitness / injury related issues and makes sure player workload is acceptable?
 
Does anyone else wonder what all these extremely high paid directors do with their day? Scour YouTube looking for talent? Watch our games back and tut a lot? I totally accept that we needed a better structure but just intrigued as to what the likes of Ashworth and Wilcox do on a day to day basis. Must be pretty galling to look at for all the people laid off from the club on what was probably not much beyond minimum wage!
 
Rasmus_9 said:
Does anyone else wonder what all these extremely high paid directors do with their day? Scour YouTube looking for talent? Watch our games back and tut a lot? I totally accept that we needed a better structure but just intrigued as to what the likes of Ashworth and Wilcox do on a day to day basis. Must be pretty galling to look at for all the people laid off from the club on what was probably not much beyond minimum wage!
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Put out the cones.
 
Rasmus_9 said:
Does anyone else wonder what all these extremely high paid directors do with their day? Scour YouTube looking for talent? Watch our games back and tut a lot? I totally accept that we needed a better structure but just intrigued as to what the likes of Ashworth and Wilcox do on a day to day basis. Must be pretty galling to look at for all the people laid off from the club on what was probably not much beyond minimum wage!
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I'm not really a corporate apologist and this rash of directors with big titles will always rub me the wrong way (and yeah bunch of people were laid off but apparently there's plenty of wage space for people that must be 5 to 6 figures a month...) but I don't think they all do video scouting. The affairs of United (beyond the football team) must be complex.

Do wonder what a "performance director" is. Does sound unpleasant. "You've underperformed your xDraft at the concession, could serve 1.18 more pints per quarter hour". Imagine it's more than the squad because I don't think you need advanced metrics to look at the league position last year and assess it wasn't good.

Edit : On second read seems it's maybe more supervising the "sport science" so health, conditioning, nutrition, etc ?
 
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Rasmus_9 said:
Does anyone else wonder what all these extremely high paid directors do with their day? Scour YouTube looking for talent? Watch our games back and tut a lot? I totally accept that we needed a better structure but just intrigued as to what the likes of Ashworth and Wilcox do on a day to day basis. Must be pretty galling to look at for all the people laid off from the club on what was probably not much beyond minimum wage!
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:lol:
 
He'll need to be a miracle worker to get a performance out of a ten Hag team.
 
He’s here to stop us being crocked all the time, and if he succeeds he’s worth every penny
 
I remember Neville (or Carragher) said one time on Sky Sports, fans shouldn't know who all these executives are. The point being, the club was run so bad under Glazers, the entire structure became a question. I bet City, Arsenal, Liverpool fans etc... can't name more than two executives behind the scenes! We all know like 10 now! ha.

From the outside looking in, it looks like all the right people with the right experience and mindset are coming on board and being hired. It will be interesting to see how quickly all these changes come into effect.
 
What does the Performance Director do?

The performance director is the person inside a club or a federation in charge of overseeing the different performance departments of the club such as sports science, medical, nutrition, S&C or analytics, in order to ensure the players’ optimal fitness and performance on the game day, following the coaching philosophy and requirement of the Head Coach.

The role of the performance director consists to lead and coordinate the various departments of the organisation like analytics, medicine and sports science, which complements the players’ condition and wellness according to the needs of the current squad and coaches.

He is also in charge of creating a continuity among the members of the staff that changes throughout the year, by forming a structured working philosophy, identity and culture at the club for the staff to follow.
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https://iterpro.com/the-role-of-the-performance-director-in-a-football-club/
 
Irrational. said:
What an Erith is a performance director?
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So many people asking the same question.

He's in charge of the Christmas pantomime that the players do for the children.

And the pantomime they do on Saturdays for us.
 
To all the nonce’s saying “what’s the point?” Or “what’s a performance director” - he was at City for 11 years till 2022. They’ve had an extremely fit squad commensurate to the number of games they play. Also commensurate to the style of play - which is high intensity workload.

This guy clearly has expertise in high performance without causing an injury deluge.

Let him come, assess and implement a way of sports science that will put us at the truly elite level.

Performance and recovery are 2 things that will define our season.
 
Semper Fudge said:
Yes.
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I don't think those two overlap - one is mental stuff, the other is physical. For the mental stuff, I remember Ralf getting some sport psychologist guy in. For the physical stuff (e.g., measuring player workload and making sure it's appropriate) I assume we have someone but no idea who.
 
I’m sure that’s what McLaren did when he came in 1998 as part of his role
 
"OK lads. I've done an in depth analysis of your performances at the weekend both individually and as a team. And the algorithms show that....."

(Taps on keyboard)

"... You're all shit at football. Thanks all. See you next Monday"
 
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