Sorry guys, WoT. Been thinking about this for awhile and a few drinks helped to crystallize my thoughts (and the dirty feeling of cheering for City so that You'll Never Win Anything still holds true for the BPL).
Structure and organisation - these should be overarching theme for the 'rebuilding'. In the normal corporate context, you pay the so-called management consultants millions to do stuff like this but well, what do they know. Some of my thoughts (in order of priority).
1. Overall structure and organisation - Whatever we have now is junk, that much we can agree. Jose, for all his faults, called it out and well, results over the post-SAF speak for themselves. So the plan (hopefully it's more than a plan by now), reorganize the club's management along the lines of a modern football club. Forget about what worked for SAF and Gill, we've been trying too hard to replicate what worked for them, but well, times have changed and so should we. P.S., for those who are interested, there's a section in the book 'Good to Great' (yes, Moyes' fav), that discusses the difference between a level 4 and a level 5 leader - as great as SAF had been, he's still falls within level 4 leader cause well, the manchester united machinery was designed over the years to be wielded by one or two men (SAF and Gill) and when they left... the hollow feeling in our hearts tell it all.
So what's next? Well, as GN said, we need the 'best in class'. And that starts with the Club's management structure.
CEO - fine, we'll probably have to live with Ed here (realistically, he's not likely to go). That said, he should just stick with the 'money making' stuff and leave the football matters to people who know their stuff. As CEO though, it's still fair that he dictates budget and has oversight over the expenditure.
DoF / Technical Director - terminology aside, this should be the 'football CEO'. Personally, i hate management by committees so I would say that this should be one person and supported by a team of staff below him (including the manager). This person should have the highest oversight over all football matters and well, the key KPI should be well, win everything every season (within budget set by Ed). As with all CEOs, a key attribute must be strategic vision (which we lack big time ... looking at you Ed) - that means, the ability to not just ensure we have the 'best in class' today, but tomorrow and the day after as well. This would involve putting the Club at the forefront of all innovation (e.g. adoption sports science / technology, future planning for the teams, contract renewals, squad rejuvenation, tactical innovation etc), he doesn't have to do it himself, just needs to ensure that the structure he has will put the Club in the best position to receive.
Others - this is getting draggy so i'll keep my points short. With a 'great' DoF / Technical Director (realistically, we need a miracle worker here), the structure below should fall into place. Scouting process would be streamlined (Jose b*tched about this non-stop but hey, for next steps, how bout machine learning / AI to for scouting, that's shut even him up (if it works)), contract negotiations more organised (hate the 'is he staying or leaving' crap. It should be Either they stay or they leave, no maybes), recruitment structured (we know who we want, and why we want them and how the fit into our 'philosophy'. No more buying just to pis* City off). Most importantly, integration across the multiple departments within the Club (i.e. youth team managers knows what they need to do focusing on to get their players ready for the first team, first team manager and DoF are in sync with the development of each player and how the fit in the cog etc).
2. our football Philosophy - the dreaded 'P' word.... Well, love it or hate it, we can't do without it. The players need to know what the plan is out there, be it bore them to death by 10000 passes or ultra attacking, keeper sweeper (Neuer style) etc, and the team needs to be constructed and planned for along this plan. Too often, we either have no plan out there or the players decide to take free style to the next level (a.k.a. play like u first met each other and play like you're having a Sunday kick-a-bout) - a key sign of this is well, we don't make runs or create space. Take the simplest task, playing out from the back - when our players receive the ball, they control (shit) and scan and hesitate on the next step because they're no options. For all Smalling's limitations, not even Beckenbauer or Baresi (combined) could play the ball out if well, the team infront is not well-drilled to make runs or create space for the ball to be played into... arrgh.
Ok so yeah. what's Ole philosophy then. From the his first few games (literally the highlight of our season), he wants to press high, win the ball high, push the full backs high, quick passes and bam.... Well, if that's what he wants, we'll need to build a team to make that happen. So what do we need, again, structure and organisation he shouldn't be expected to do it himself, and we should work to give him a team of support staff who can best bring his ideas to the pitch (think SAF bringing Queiroz). And this would mean more than just, well, talking to team about this 'P' and I'm looking at detailed playbooks and statistical analysis on what is required. Players need to be drilled on what to do to effect play, when and where to run, how to beat the press, how to press, how and where to channel, where are the primary and secondary runs etc. Sounds boring, LVG tried, Jose tried, well... it all went to crap because players want to be 'free to play'.... errm, well, I think the response has to be too bad, if u don't buy into the 'P', then off u go. This should be the baseline for a modern professional team - i'm thinking we can move towards the NFL style 'playbook' (but maybe that's too much) but at least, the level of detail required pretty substantial - I recall someone's biography (maybe keane) describing how Queiroz prepared the 2009 team for Barcelona, the pitch was divided into various zones using mats and players are drilled to work along those zones. Yeah, that's the level of detail and preparation a modern football team needs.
3. player recruitment - this is the last point and I would say, the least pressing of the 3 above. I believe that once we have 1 and 2 above, this should fall into place. So anyway, the fun part. who should we sign and who should we sell this summer.
In
CB - J Boateng or Hummels or errm... Pepe?
MC - Luka Modric or Rakitic or errm Rabiot?
AMR / FC - Bale
Out (must go)
LKK, Rojo, Sanchez
Lemme explain. The issue of whether the team steps out with a coherent plan aside, I think our biggest lack this season are well, personality and leadership. The loss of big personalities like Zlatan and Rooney are felt most this season and Pogba and gang are allowed to dominate the dressing room and set the 'culture'. All accounts describe Pogba as having a 'big personality' but well, he is not a effective leader or suitable for the 'top dog' role in the team. I don't know him personally of course, but I'm guessing that the key reason is the lack of self-discipline (look at how often he drifts off in games, stops tracking back for no good reason, goes on a wacky dribble and take-on in the middle of the pitch etc). He and the team needs, well, some one who can control and enforce discipline (on and off the pitch) - can you imagine what Keane would do if he finds out that someone in the team wants to drive his rolls royce to games instead of taking the team bus. Zlatan and Rooney would probably not stand for that crap as well. So yeah, for the next 'in', I think we should really focus on personality and leadership and that's why my choice of more senior players, with a shorter horizon on playing time and more on rebuilding team ethos and culture.
I think Godin would be a good catch but well, Inter came first. Boateng is currently not well favored at Bayern and well, could be a realistic prospect to tempt to Old Trafford. DDG and our other centre backs are generally bad at controlling the area or things in front of them, a senior CB with the pedigree and command would be very helpful, think of someone screaming at Pogba track back or cut the tricks (which no one really does) or Matic to well, channel the player better. If the Bayern guys can't do it, well, there's Pepe. Been there, done that and never shy to make his feelings known, would do the job for the next season.
Center of the park, same thinking. Modric or Rakitic would be class, would be great a setting the tempo (we can't do that this season) and have the gravitas to control and manage the other guys.
Bale - Worth a punt and if it works out, great. If not, well, it just means we swapped Sanchez for him. But realistically, I think it'll do wonders for the young ones with someone to look up to and well, we can't get Cristiano back this time, so we'll have to settle for a punt in Bale.
