Man Utd set to appoint Director of Football (when hell freezes over)

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Most DOF’s are all former bankers or accountants without a footballing past who learned the job.

Shock horror you don’t need to have been a footballer to be good at a job related to football. Our very own David Gill who so many pine for was a fecking accountant.

"BUTT EdWodwood know nothing about football, he's a accountant"
 
I honestly don't know if OGS will be successful in the future but serious consideration must be given to a 1 year extension with an incoming Director of Football focused specifically on transfers. There has certainly been a re-imbracing of 'the United way' and with all the old boys back in the dugout we have recaptured our identity which includes scoring goals for fun. Importantly the fans are also very happy. So the board must be very wary of going for a big name that may again not fit the club dna, which despite logic might be the case with Pochettino (his massive contract buyout notwithstanding). A man who apparently wants to win with Spurs and has a huge amount of job security even if he doesn't. He is a great fit there for the time being so I am not sure why he would risk a move at this time. So I would like to posit something:

- Give OGS a contract extension until the end of next season (and all his team, especially Phelan)
- Appoint a Director of Football

10 more games should give enough feedback as to whether this is a low risk strategy or not. It allows a decent structure to be put in place around a coaching team that so far seems a good fit for the club, and also gives time to plan a succession after 2019/2020 if we feel we need a change. It also appears a more realistic timeframe and scenario for Poch if he really is someone that the clubs wants to bring in.
 
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A lot of DOF’s are former bankers or accountants without a footballing past who learned the job.

Shock horror you don’t need to have been a footballer to be good at a job related to football. Our very own David Gill who so many pine for was a fecking accountant.

You’re mixing up Chief Executive with Director of Football. DoF is a football focused position and one that requires great knowledge of the game. I’d be interested to see if you can find a top class director of football who isn’t a former player/coach/manager/scout.
 
A lot of DOF’s are former bankers or accountants without a footballing past who learned the job.

Shock horror you don’t need to have been a footballer to be good at a job related to football. Our very own David Gill who so many pine for was a fecking accountant.
Are you a banker or an accountant?It seems I’ve touched a nerve.
 
You’re mixing up Chief Executive with Director of Football. DoF is a football focused position and one that requires great knowledge of the game. I’d be interested to see if you can find a top class director of football who isn’t a former player/coach/manager/scout.

Perhaps I did. The terms are used somewhat interchangeably on here, so fair enough I probably did mix them up.
 
The biggest doubt I have about Ole is his player recruitment because we have no evidence that Ole can overhaul a squad at this level.

However, if we get a first class Director of Football to identify these targets that'll change.
 
So was Berta responsible for bringing Morata to Atletico?

If so, no thanks! :lol:
 
The biggest doubt I have about Ole is his player recruitment because we have no evidence that Ole can overhaul a squad at this level.

However, if we get a first class Director of Football to identify these targets that'll change.

Not sure we need an overhaul do we? rid of a few players, RB, CB, RW to come in and maybe a long term replacement for Matic, not like he needs to make wholesale changes
 
Not sure we need an overhaul do we? rid of a few players, RB, CB, RW to come in and maybe a long term replacement for Matic, not like he needs to make wholesale changes

We don't need a overhaul to get a quality starting 11 but I think we need a big overhaul to get the squad depth to get to where we want to go.
 
We don't need a overhaul to get a quality starting 11 but I think we need a big overhaul to get the squad depth to get to where we want to go.

Not sure I agree on that, if you look at who will probably go in the summer:

Fellani (now)
Mata
Valencia
Darmian
Rojo
Jones (maybe)

Current Squad:
DDG/Romero
Dalot/Fosu-Mensah/New RB
Shaw/Young
Lindelof/Bailly/Smalling/Tuanzebe/New CB
Matic/New DMC
Pogba/Fred
Herrera/Pereira
Lingard/New RW
Rashford/Lukaku/Greenwood
Martial/Sanchez

4 top quality signings and you have at least two players for each position.

Not to mention Gomes & Chong

Think Ole has more than enough to cope with that
 
While he was still our coach, we obviously did.
I wonder why Mou didn't want a DoF ...
So he could sell Martial and pretend AM's heart wasn't in it, rather than AM was unhappy with the tactics etc. Then he'd probably offer Mandzukic 300k a week (comparable to his Ibra signing)

He'd probably have signed Perisic as well just because he tracks back and discard Martial
 
I wonder why Mou didn't want a DoF ...
So he could sell Martial and pretend AM's heart wasn't in it, rather than AM was unhappy with the tactics etc. Then he'd probably offer Mandzukic 300k a week (comparable to his Ibra signing)

He'd probably have signed Perisic as well just because he tracks back and discard Martial
That's the damage that Mourinho almost done as well as Pogba almost forcing a transfer away

This is why we need a DoF

For every world class Pep or Jurgen, there's 2 more world class managers who want to do it like Mourinho on a lesser scale (see Pochettino)
 
Not sure I agree on that, if you look at who will probably go in the summer:

Fellani (now)
Mata
Valencia
Darmian
Rojo
Jones (maybe)

Current Squad:
DDG/Romero
Dalot/Fosu-Mensah/New RB
Shaw/Young
Lindelof/Bailly/Smalling/Tuanzebe/New CB
Matic/New DMC
Pogba/Fred
Herrera/Pereira
Lingard/New RW
Rashford/Lukaku/Greenwood
Martial/Sanchez

4 top quality signings and you have at least two players for each position.

Not to mention Gomes & Chong

Think Ole has more than enough to cope with that

I agree with you there.

I personally would call 6 out and 4 in an overhaul but I understand we're getting into semantics here.
 
I agree with you there.

I personally would call 6 out and 4 in an overhaul but I understand we're getting into semantics here.

Haha well yeah suppose it is actually, only the ten players to change!

I think a few are pretty much out the door already, not sure Rojo is still alive, Darmian pretty much the same, just trying to find buyers for deadwood is not easy.

Would say it will be an interesting summer but we thought that last year and only bought Fred
 
So was Berta responsible for bringing Morata to Atletico?

If so, no thanks! :lol:

As a backup striker to Costa, it’s not the worst decision! He’s replacing Kalinic so definitely an upgrade. I suppose the question over Berta is why Kalinic was there in the first place :wenger: but he’s obviously operating on a restricted budget!

For the record, I think Morata will do quite well there - he’s a great no.2 just not good enough to start for a big club every week!
 
As a backup striker to Costa, it’s not the worst decision! He’s replacing Kalinic so definitely an upgrade. I suppose the question over Berta is why Kalinic was there in the first place :wenger: but he’s obviously operating on a restricted budget!

For the record, I think Morata will do quite well there - he’s a great no.2 just not good enough to start for a big club every week!

Fair enough, to be honest my comment was said in jest more than anything.

I think Berta would be a very interesting DoF appointment for us. Wonder how he’d cope with a much larger budget.
 
Would someone like Mike Phelan be a shout, if Ole doesn’t stay?
 
Fair enough, to be honest my comment was said in jest more than anything.

I think Berta would be a very interesting DoF appointment for us. Wonder how he’d cope with a much larger budget.

Oh, I feel silly now!

Yeah, that’s something to consider alright with Berta. I remember rumours Summer ‘16 where Atletico where being linked with Lukaku. In the end, they opted for Gameiro (at half the price) so with a larger budget at the time, they probably would have signed him.

Recent examples might be Djibril Sibide over Santiago Arias and Liverpool’s Fabinho over Rodri if the budget was bigger.

I think it’s hard to attribute club signings from Simeone signings. Nico Gaitan was quite clearly someone who Simeone wanted and there was a lot of talk of Arsenal’s Lacazette before they went for Costa so I’d be unsure if Simeone was more insistent on Costa, etc.

There’s big talk of Atletico going for Telles from Porto in the summer and they have watched Tierney multiple times in the past so Berta would be targeting the right profile of players. I think he’s the standout choice but the club should at least consider Henrique, Mitchell, etc too!
 
Would someone like Mike Phelan be a shout, if Ole doesn’t stay?
No. He is a coach, not a director of football.

It won't either be Roy Keane, Sir Bobby Charlton, Fred the Red or the Tea Lady. They are very good at their jobs, but unfortunately, their job is not a director of football.
 
Not sure I agree on that, if you look at who will probably go in the summer:

Fellani (now)
Mata
Valencia
Darmian
Rojo
Jones (maybe)

Current Squad:
DDG/Romero
Dalot/Fosu-Mensah/New RB
Shaw/Young
Lindelof/Bailly/Smalling/Tuanzebe/New CB
Matic/New DMC
Pogba/Fred
Herrera/Pereira
Lingard/New RW
Rashford/Lukaku/Greenwood
Martial/Sanchez

4 top quality signings and you have at least two players for each position.

Not to mention Gomes & Chong

Think Ole has more than enough to cope with that

I agree but i dont think Lukaku will play second fiddle or be happy with playing one in three games or against the poor opposition. If he is not getting game time he will go. Not sure he will even like playing on the right like he did against arsenal.

Its no biggie if he wants to go. We would easily get 55/60 million for him.

Buy an out and out RW winger then like sancho.
 
I agree but i dont think Lukaku will play second fiddle or be happy with playing one in three games or against the poor opposition. If he is not getting game time he will go. Not sure he will even like playing on the right like he did against arsenal.

Its no biggie if he wants to go. We would easily get 55/60 million for him.

Buy an out and out RW winger then like sancho.
If by easily you mean beg someone to take him off our hands then yeah. maybe.
 
My only concern with some of these names mentioned is that they would need to understand Manchester United just as much as the manager. Would the Atletico guy get ‘it’? I’m not sure he would in all honesty and I could see us making more weird signings.
 
My only concern with some of these names mentioned is that they would need to understand Manchester United just as much as the manager. Would the Atletico guy get ‘it’? I’m not sure he would in all honesty and I could see us making more weird signings.

My other concern is unclear requirement on the job. The Manager post is clear enough, just ask him how many trophy has he won, for fans and for players ego, and you would be able to screen off half of the pretenders including Moyes.

What is the job description of this Director of Football?
1. Involved in the game before, but so did ball boys.
2. Head of recruitment/scouting? OK, narrow the list.
3. Good negotiator? Easy to validate.
4. People management, can handle moody person like Mourinho and Pogba? Can be validate as well.
5. Understand the Club philosophy. Anyone who has done his homework would pass this test, problem is how much does he believe in it, and whether he will deviate from it when shit hits the fan...
 
My other concern is unclear requirement on the job. The Manager post is clear enough, just ask him how many trophy has he won, for fans and for players ego, and you would be able to screen off half of the pretenders including Moyes.

What is the job description of this Director of Football?
1. Involved in the game before, but so did ball boys.
2. Head of recruitment/scouting? OK, narrow the list.
3. Good negotiator? Easy to validate.
4. People management, can handle moody person like Mourinho and Pogba? Can be validate as well.
5. Understand the Club philosophy. Anyone who has done his homework would pass this test, problem is how much does he believe in it, and whether he will deviate from it when shit hits the fan...
The only thing he isn't, is no 2 on your list. He isn't gonna be buying players without expert knowledge from our scouting department. The players he will target, will be the ones the scouting department have given him the green light on. A DoF works closely with the recruitment team to identify potential incoming players. He doesn't just start signing players on his own accord, like some seem to think. Paul Mitchell is someone who works as the head of recruitment at RB Leipzig and has been linked to us. He is someone that a DoF could work with, and Mitchell would be responsible for our incoming signings.
 
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The only thing he isn't, is no 2 on your list. He isn't gonna be buying players without expert knowledge from our scouting department. The players he will target, will be the ones the scouting department have given him the green light on. A DoF works closely with the recruitment team to identify potential incoming players. He doesn't just start signing players on his own accord, like some seem to think. Paul Mitchell is someone who works as the head of recruitment at RB Leipzig and has been linked to us. He is someone that a DoF could work with, and Mitchell would be responsible for our incoming signings.

I said Head of recruitment, so obviously the scouting would be handled by a few dozen of scouts. If we have identified a handful of prospects, who is going to do the negotiation? The last thing we want, is to appoint a head of scouts who do the scouting, head of negotiation who negotiate, head of personnel who talk to the players, head of this and head of that. So ending up no-one making decision, and everyone pointing at someone when things go wrong. Like the British government....
 
I said Head of recruitment, so obviously the scouting would be handled by a few dozen of scouts. If we have identified a handful of prospects, who is going to do the negotiation? The last thing we want, is to appoint a head of scouts who do the scouting, head of negotiation who negotiate, head of personnel who talk to the players, head of this and head of that. So ending up no-one making decision, and everyone pointing at someone when things go wrong. Like the British government....
The DoF will be involved in negotiations etc. Player recruitment will be down to the scouting department, then the DoF will try and negotiate a reasonable price. I posted a article on Borussia Dortmund's DoF a few pages back, which explains what you're asking..
 
We are not getting a DOF. Ed is the DOF and will remain so. All these rumors are just fed to appease the fans. If we had any intention of signing DOF, then we wont be extending player contracts or letting players move on before bringing in the DOF.
 
The same way we were convinced we would never sack Mourinho until top four was mathematically impossible.
Let's just wait and see.
 
We are not getting a DOF. Ed is the DOF and will remain so. All these rumors are just fed to appease the fans. If we had any intention of signing DOF, then we wont be extending player contracts or letting players move on before bringing in the DOF.

Agree. This what will happen and I have made peace with this. Of course Ed's supporters here will see otherwise anyway.
 
Not sure I agree on that, if you look at who will probably go in the summer:

Fellani (now)
Mata
Valencia
Darmian
Rojo
Jones (maybe)

Current Squad:
DDG/Romero
Dalot/Fosu-Mensah/New RB
Shaw/Young
Lindelof/Bailly/Smalling/Tuanzebe/New CB
Matic/New DMC
Pogba/Fred
Herrera/Pereira
Lingard/New RW
Rashford/Lukaku/Greenwood
Martial/Sanchez

4 top quality signings and you have at least two players for each position.

Not to mention Gomes & Chong

Think Ole has more than enough to cope with that

McTominay just dissapeared in your analysis, whereas we still own him and actually only just gave the guy a new contract :) That said, theoretically McTominay may be a back-up to Matic in case we fail to purchase a new and good DM.

At the same time, Pereira should be disposed of without a doubt - we've seen enough of his "magic". Fosu-Mensah very likely to be sold too - he can't make it even at a weak club, so that's another exit. Quite frankly, it would also be good to sell Joel Pereira - average goalkeeper, and it's a position where we have the strongest contingent worldwide, so to get several million as a fee is anyway better.
 
We are not getting a DOF. Ed is the DOF and will remain so. All these rumors are just fed to appease the fans. If we had any intention of signing DOF, then we wont be extending player contracts or letting players move on before bringing in the DOF.
You would let contracts to run out to wait for a DoF? It's not rocket science to extend the contracts of Martial & DDG.
 
We are not getting a DOF. Ed is the DOF and will remain so. All these rumors are just fed to appease the fans. If we had any intention of signing DOF, then we wont be extending player contracts or letting players move on before bringing in the DOF.
:confused: So according to you we should just let Martial and De Gea leave?
 
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