United Eye Mikel Gonzalez to replace Dan Ashworth

NewGlory

United make me feel dirty. And not in a sexy way.
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Source: https://sports.yahoo.com/man-utd-eye-mikel-gonzalez-000000633.html

Obviously it may never happen for a myriad of reasons, but if interest from United is indeed genuine, that interest is very strange because of this:

Gonzalez has been operating within the well-known confines of San Mames football. Bilbao only sign players born in the Basque Country (Spain and France) or who learned football at a Basque club.
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Imagine if this translated into "English only" strategy at United. That would be a disaster. Not only such narrow-minded approach would never work at Premier League, but it's also contrary to United's DNA. Our most recent era of success was built on foreign players - Cantona, Ronaldo, Roy Keane - too many to list.

And even if we imagine that he would change strategy at United. Well, Mikel's most recent experience has been forcing him to ignore most of the world's recruitement. So it's not like he will walk-in with good understanding of what's available in global recruitement. How is that helpful?

What is INEOS thinking? Ashworth was a bad signing, now they are considering another odd move to fix it?
 
Seems like a strange link to me anyway. Unless we are planning on focusing on promoting from within the club has opposed to using the transfer market.
 
NewGlory said:
Source: https://sports.yahoo.com/man-utd-eye-mikel-gonzalez-000000633.html

Obviously it may never happen for a myriad of reasons, but if interest from United is indeed genuine, that interest is very strange because of this:



Imagine if this translated into "English only" strategy at United. That would be a disaster. Not only such narrow-minded approach would never work at Premier League, but it's also contrary to United's DNA. Our most recent era of success was built on foreign players - Cantona, Ronaldo, Roy Keane - too many to list.

And even if we imagine that he would change strategy at United. Well, Mikel's most recent experience has been forcing him to ignore most of the world's recruitement. So it's not like he will walk-in with good understanding of what's available in global recruitement. How is that helpful?

What is INEOS thinking? Ashworth was a bad signing, now they are considering another odd move to fix it?
Click to expand...

there's no reason for it to a translate as an english only approach for United though, that's a Bilbao thing

the reason it's a bit strange is he isn't going to have the network like most DOFs, which is where a lot of the value is derived from
 
If we've got other people we're happy leaving the transfers to then getting in someone whose expertise lays elsewhere sounds right.
 
Sportsview via Yahoo Sports?

I think I'm believing a caf newbie with one post who claims to be ITK first.
 
Surely the fact he's been operating with such restrictions means he will have developed an eye for talent, given Bilbao have an excellent track record. Why on earth you think this would translate into an English only strategy is bizarre. If you think he’s going to take a similar narrow approach at United despite there being no need to, it’s more likely that we pick up some basque ballers ahead of the curve if anything.

People worrying he hasn’t got the “network” don’t know that. He’s bought plenty of players from abroad, it’s just where they’re originally from that matters. I just want someone can identify talents who are technically excellent footballers. Bilbao have been pros at that, and the fact they’ve had to do it with such restrictions means they know how to look deep and have experience about how more unknown players have grown.

Seems some of you aren’t willing to let go of the Woodward social media buzzplayer/big name scattergun approach.
 
I remember reading it from this, no idea how reliable the source is. It's just interest though

 
NewGlory said:
Source: https://sports.yahoo.com/man-utd-eye-mikel-gonzalez-000000633.html

Obviously it may never happen for a myriad of reasons, but if interest from United is indeed genuine, that interest is very strange because of this:



Imagine if this translated into "English only" strategy at United. That would be a disaster. Not only such narrow-minded approach would never work at Premier League, but it's also contrary to United's DNA. Our most recent era of success was built on foreign players - Cantona, Ronaldo, Roy Keane - too many to list.

And even if we imagine that he would change strategy at United. Well, Mikel's most recent experience has been forcing him to ignore most of the world's recruitement. So it's not like he will walk-in with good understanding of what's available in global recruitement. How is that helpful?

What is INEOS thinking? Ashworth was a bad signing, now they are considering another odd move to fix it?
Click to expand...

This isn't his 'strategy' - it's a long-standing tradition with Atletico Bilbao and restriction he has had to work within, not a personal choice. Odd to even suggest he might adopt an homegrown-only approach with United.

But you are on the money with the other point yes, I would imagine his network of contacts and knowledge of other footballing demographics is much less expansive than other potential candidates, which makes this a rather strange choice.
 
Could come from any associations with Berrada? Ashworth was seemingly sacked on grounds of a lack of cohesion with others, I think Wilcox and Omar will aim for someone who's compatible with their ideology.
 
DOF of Athletic must be the easiest job ever. Can't really buy anyone and they only sell for the release clause :lol:
 
Last month we were looking down the back of the sofa for cash to spend on players. Financially our cashflow and PSR position is up the swanny and we have loads of assets we can't give away.

All things considered would really prefer it if we spent our available money for "on the field" talent rather than another payment to extract a director from their gardening leave.
 
V.O. said:
Sportsview via Yahoo Sports?

I think I'm believing a caf newbie with one post who claims to be ITK first.
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Right. As a matter of fact, any transfer / signing rumors are always huge speculations, no matter the source. Even Romano and Ornstein are wrong at least half of the time. So this, as always, comes with a huge caveat of "if this is even true"

Vidyoyo said:
United Eye is a strong name, I like the sound of this
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:lol:
 
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So caf convinced me that it was a brilliant decision from Ineos to fire Dan Ashworth because we were top heavy and needed to trim the club management for efficiency purposes and that the role itself was no longer needed as we had other big shots and now there are rumors of a replacement :D
 
RedDevil@84 said:
So caf convinced me that it was a brilliant decision from Ineos to fire Dan Ashworth because we were top heavy and needed to trim the club management for efficiency purposes and that the role itself was no longer needed as we had other big shots and now there are rumors of a replacement :D
Click to expand...

Hiring and firing of the gardener will always be one of the unsolved mysteries of the world.
 
Maybe Wilcox has the role covered, just needs a basque expert to assist him for that region?
 
NewGlory said:
Source: https://sports.yahoo.com/man-utd-eye-mikel-gonzalez-000000633.html

Obviously it may never happen for a myriad of reasons, but if interest from United is indeed genuine, that interest is very strange because of this:



Imagine if this translated into "English only" strategy at United. That would be a disaster. Not only such narrow-minded approach would never work at Premier League, but it's also contrary to United's DNA. Our most recent era of success was built on foreign players - Cantona, Ronaldo, Roy Keane - too many to list.

And even if we imagine that he would change strategy at United. Well, Mikel's most recent experience has been forcing him to ignore most of the world's recruitement. So it's not like he will walk-in with good understanding of what's available in global recruitement. How is that helpful?

What is INEOS thinking? Ashworth was a bad signing, now they are considering another odd move to fix it?
Click to expand...
What on earth makes you think that this rumour has anything to do with reality? Are there real and substantial journalistic links elsewhere?
 
It's gotten to the stage where if the majority of fans hate the idea it's probably a good idea...

Honestly though it's very left field. Obviously he'll have to be much better at extracting every last bit of talent out of potential transfers and youth players... but yeah.. no clue.
 
Ali Dia said:
It's gotten to the stage where if the majority of fans hate the idea it's probably a good idea...
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Fans having strong opinions on backroom staffers without any ability to even tie them to specific club decisions is so weird.
 
I’d probably say that now that the hierarchy has been operating for over 6-7 months, they should know what everyone is capable of doing, what everyone does and where there are weaker areas in the setup, it’s probably more likely this one will be a long term appointment.

He’s only been at his Bilbao role for just over two years. He must have something if he can impress in such a short space of time.
 
The only candidate I’m currently interested in for this role would be Luis Campos at PSG. I doubt he will be interested right now as it seems like PSG have a new young squad coming through that he has built.

Maybe it’s best to stay put with the current set-up and wait for the right person to become available. For example, another that might be interesting in a year or two could be Tiago Pinto now at Bournemouth who replaced Richard Hughes (now at Liverpool).
 
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