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

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AneRu

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Commercially they probably are at or close to the tipping point, start of this season they tried to buy time and sell this idea of a three year plan. We have effectively gone backwards though and there is nothing suggest we are now 2 and a half years from competing.

We always owe a lot on transfers, probably owed some ourselves so I don’t think it will be a problem to pay the transfers. However it will mean there isn’t going to be a big transfer budget, large chunk may have already gone on Bruno.

Last year they had money for Lukaku, this year Pogba money to boost the budget but beyond that we won’t have anyone we can/want to sell to help fund transfers. Glazers won’t put own cash in and revenues are dropping so could be in for a rough time.
Which is why the Dortmund model with the occasional big signing should be the way to go, just look at Liverpool and Leicester in this league and how they have shot their way up the ladder with smart recruitment. Obviously Liverpool got lucky with the Coutinho and Suarez windfalls that got them some money but we can't deny that Salah, Mane, Robertson, Firmino and Wijnaldum are signings within what we might term the reasonable category and when they added the big money signings of Allison and Van Dijk they just went up a level. We tried to build a team where the cheapest players were the 30m players like Lindeloff and Mkhitaryan and filled up the squad with expensive flops such that when we do get the Pogba windfall it won't be enough to cover the cracks let alone improve.

In my view, for the business side to succeed we need a huge paradigm shift in our transfer policy, the first being we shouldn't have Woodward running it and the manager shouldn't have a big say because his stay is too dependent on results whilst his focus is most possibly divided at critical stages in the process of signing up players. Also the fear of having a DOF that might not fit the budgetary controls imposed doesn't hold water, if one is a professional they tow the company line. If he is told he has got 30m to spend he will spend that and not a penny more but the difference would be that with great knowledge of the market and connections within the industry he could get you more from that 30m than say Ole and Woodward who chose to spend the whole budget on a couple of defenders when they had just lost a key midfielder.
 

roonster09

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Antero Henrique left Paris Saint-Germain when Leonardo arrived last summer.

However, the sports director remained very active on behalf of Qatar, leading to many diverse files such as the signing of Mario Mandzukić , Nakajima and Han Kwan-Song at Al Duhail among others. The sports director, who had initiated the signing of Navas and Icardi, was also responsible for transmitting the files to Leonardo , Herrera and Sarabia having already committed themselves under the mandate of Antero .

The sports director does not stop there and also works behind the scenes for Portuguese and English clubs. Antero has played a brokerage role between Sporting CP, Bruno Fernandes and Manchester United, English club with which he is in discussion for an upcoming signing in order to become the director of football.

This transfer is therefore completely initiated by Antero Henrique who was already interested in the player when he was still DS of PSG. This deal marks the first label of the Portuguese at Manchester United.
https://soccerlink.fr/2020/02/09/ch...nrique-entre-le-qatar-et-manchester-4480.html
 

Seij

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I think all the fan criticisms of Eddy Woody had the opposite of the intended effect. From him hiring a PR guy and subsequent clearly PR articles that came out since, it appears that he is doubling down saying to himself "I'll prove these feckers wrong". He hasn't even leaked any "we're looking for a DOF" news for a while now.
 

cyril C

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The rational would be that a more competent guy than the clowns currently at United would draw up better plans. The Glazers care about money so if they approve a £100m net spend the trick now lies in having someone who can utilize it better.

I had a discussion with @JPRouve where the example of Pereira (Leicester's RB) and Dalot's acquisition. When we signed Dalot for circa £20m, Pereira was their first choice and he had moved for a fee in the same range. How we, then we had a stronger hand than Leicester as we had CL football and Mourinho, chose to spend that much on the unproven youth player whilst their first choice, who is also good enough, was a available is a mystery to me.

When you note that we then spent £50m on the same position a year later you would then see the idiocy of our current transfer policy. Same as right now, we will probably spend £70m on Rice in the summer when Sheffield are having a free go at Sander Berge who is not only cheaper but a higher rated and just as effective midfielder. That's why we need this 'middle men'.
Precisely. The middle man is not about signing Pogba or Haaland, where the middle man is simply a middle man, when the Agent would call up Woodward or Mourinho and close the deal before you go to office. Our Middle man, is about someone who can drive our scouts network to unearth the right 20m RB, instead of finding him out the hard way (Dalot can neither defend nor attack, so is neither a RB nor a right winger!) Our Middle man should also be about to look at those 20-50m players himself, and decide whether he will be a right fit. If Schwestiger was an unavoidable mistake, Schneiderlin should be, with jury still out for Fred and a whole lots of MF that we have bought in the past 10 years.
 

Class of 63

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The rational would be that a more competent guy than the clowns currently at United would draw up better plans. The Glazers care about money so if they approve a £100m net spend the trick now lies in having someone who can utilize it better.

I had a discussion with @JPRouve where the example of Pereira (Leicester's RB) and Dalot's acquisition. When we signed Dalot for circa £20m, Pereira was their first choice and he had moved for a fee in the same range. How we, then we had a stronger hand than Leicester as we had CL football and Mourinho, chose to spend that much on the unproven youth player whilst their first choice, who is also good enough, was a available is a mystery to me.

When you note that we then spent £50m on the same position a year later you would then see the idiocy of our current transfer policy. Same as right now, we will probably spend £70m on Rice in the summer when Sheffield are having a free go at Sander Berge who is not only cheaper but a higher rated and just as effective midfielder. That's why we need this 'middle men'.
Choosing Dalot over Pereira would have been Mourinho's call, and with Diogo being comfortable on both sides, and younger so more likely to adapt to the more physical League it was probably the right decision, at the time.
 

kaiser00

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I know he hasn’t got experience, but getting Beckham on board would do wonders for UTD to attract top players.
 

sunama

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Antero Henrique is 3/10 to become the DOF for United, I have no idea who he is, if he's any good or not? but it appears to be likely happening
...when hell freezes over.

Woodward is a megalomaniac who will not want to give up his DoF duties.
He wants to be the main man running every part of the show.
The only way to get change is for him to be fired, but the Glazers won't do that, until we hit rock bottom (as in relegation battlers).
As long as money keeps trickling in, Woodward will be our CEO and DoF.

Ole is clearly out of his depth -no sane person can argue otherwise - but while Woodward is in place, we won't ever compete for the league, regardless of who our manager is.
He needs to go.
 

Chesterlestreet

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Someone should tell Ed that he (from a PR/fan perception point of view) has very little to lose from hiring a DOF. In fact, if he did that and we - finally - got back on track after a fashion, most fans would probably be fine with him staying on as CEO (or Executive Vice Chairman) and would forgive him for past sins.
 

AneRu

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Someone should tell Ed that he (from a PR/fan perception point of view) has very little to lose from hiring a DOF. In fact, if he did that and we - finally - got back on track after a fashion, most fans would probably be fine with him staying on as CEO (or Executive Vice Chairman) and would forgive him for past sins.
I think Woodward enjoys the attention far too much for him to ever willingly appoint a DOF. You just have to look at his latest public statement to notice that this is a lost cause, he is already promising another big summer of transfers, which other CEO in the PL does that?
 

Wednesday at Stoke

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Someone should tell Ed that he (from a PR/fan perception point of view) has very little to lose from hiring a DOF. In fact, if he did that and we - finally - got back on track after a fashion, most fans would probably be fine with him staying on as CEO (or Executive Vice Chairman) and would forgive him for past sins.
On the flip side he thinks he won't get credit if he appoints a DoF now and the club wins something.
 

iKeano

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Utd formula under Woowoo:

  1. Bargain basement window shopping.
  2. Panic buy at 11th hour to mute disgruntled fans.
  3. Announce false intention to appoint DoF to mute disgruntled fans.
  4. Spend season outside of transfer window falsly 'lining up' bids and 'monitoring' top players & giving lip service to disgruntled fans.
  5. Hide
  6. Hope for random flash-in-pan miracles (PSG, Citeah) live off these for months.
  7. Down-play player value during whichever window opens.
  8. Blame market value.
  9. Spend window haggling like they're in a Marakesh Market, all the while over-paying prima donnas that aren't even playing for Utd.
  10. All the while line his pockets and the pockets of the dark overlords with funds drained from the club in plain sight.
  11. Back to step 1
 

Chesterlestreet

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On the flip side he thinks he won't get credit if he appoints a DoF now and the club wins something.
Perhaps he does think that - but it doesn't really make any sense.

If he lucks out and finally hires a genius of a manager (an old school one, with no DOF and no changes to the structure) who is able to transcend the - let's say - multiple issues at United (which include Woodward himself), then sensible people aren't likely to credit him much for that: throw enough shit at the wall and so forth. Which is to say - they will credit the genius manager, not Woodward.

Whereas some might actually give him some credit if he takes a look in the mirror and - finally - realizes that something basic needs to change.
 

ROFLUTION

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next month this thread will be two years old :lol:
It's been so long, we've almost forgotten what a DOF is.

Imagine how far Liverpool gets with 2 years of DOF doing money-ball maneuvres finding value that fits the team.

Our recruitment have been better lately though. We're just moving too slow, compared to where we need to be at. 1-2 signings to reinforce each window is simply not enough.
There's no real competition in our squad for the positions we need to perform the most in.
 

Jordan_mufc

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Ralf Rangnick is a million times the DOF that Antero Henrique is, it needs to be him, though i'll believe it when i see it.
Yeah he's the ideal man for the jo in my eyes too. Just depends if he would be interested in working with our owners and Woodward I guess.
 

jderbyshire

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Ralf Rangnick is a million times the DOF that Antero Henrique is, it needs to be him, though i'll believe it when i see it.
Depressingly, the article indicates that Henrique is 'closer' to getting the job. He's the one who's supposed to be a bit of a dodgy prick isn't he?
 

Lash

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Depressingly, the article indicates that Henrique is 'closer' to getting the job. He's the one who's supposed to be a bit of a dodgy prick isn't he?
To be fair, there was a report that Rangnick is cryptically joining a "prestigious european club" in the summer. I think we're probably discussing with both and if senior figures prefer Rangnick, would be more likely he comes if we can agree terms.
 

.mica

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To be fair, there was a report that Rangnick is cryptically joining a "prestigious european club" in the summer. I think we're probably discussing with both and if senior figures prefer Rangnick, would be more likely he comes if we can agree terms.
In this state of United, with the currents heads up in front, Woodward and so on, Rangnik would say "no thanks". IF United really wants him as DoF, they have to turn the club inside out. And for that, i think Woodward is to power-mad and to dumb. He proves that since years.
 

Lash

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In this state of United, with the currents heads up in front, Woodward and so on, Rangnik would say "no thanks". IF United really wants him as DoF, they have to turn the club inside out. And for that, i think Woodward is to power-mad and to dumb. He proves that since years.
Yeah, it will be a fair indication of what direction we intend to go.
 

Mainoldo

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I’ve heard a lot of bad things about Henrique. But after reading that article im
Curious to know how Involved he was with both Porto and PSG as his CV looks good.
 

Eckers99

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It never ceases to amaze me how much caf posters seem to know about the relative merits of DOFs.
 

Mainoldo

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Details of his time at PSG:

Yeah I seen all these and they sound very messy. But I wanted to see if anyone has anything of the good things he has done. How did he get Mbappe. Paredes etc. I’ll have to have a look.
 

the chameleon

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Details of his time at PSG:

Wow! He makes Woody seem like an angel. If we hate Woody, we are going to hate this guy more and in turn Woodie even more. He seems like a mixture of Woody (clueless), Raiola (toxic and self-centred) and Big Sam (dodgy and small-time) rolled into one. I didn't know much about this guy before, but now I definitely don't want him near us.

I actually don't think even Woody would stoop so low to hire him. Most likely the links are coming from his camp.
 

red thru&thru

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It is always great to have an alternative argument. He couldn't have been that bad at his job, otherwise he wouldn't have got a sniff in at PSG.

But for me, with Rangnick seemingly available, he would give you more. Not only has he been one of the masterminds behind the RB football vision, he's been a pioneer in football. He has the vision on how a team should also play etc. I just believe Rangnick would bring you so much more, a person for the coach to bounce ideas off.
 

Mainoldo

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It is always great to have an alternative argument. He couldn't have been that bad at his job, otherwise he wouldn't have got a sniff in at PSG.

But for me, with Rangnick seemingly available, he would give you more. Not only has he been one of the masterminds behind the RB football vision, he's been a pioneer in football. He has the vision on how a team should also play etc. I just believe Rangnick would bring you so much more, a person for the coach to bounce ideas off.
The last sentence is the most important. We currently need that the most. Our concept on what type of football to play is lacking.
 

red thru&thru

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The last sentence is the most important. We currently need that the most. Our concept on what type of football to play is lacking.
Agreed. We don't just want someone in effect is going to sign and negotiate players wages etc, we need someone more than that. Ralf has also had to work to a vision similar to ours. Unearthing young talent and making them into stars. This is why either he or Luis Campos are such better options.
 

Adamsk7

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I wouldn’t be against Henrique. He has a good pedigree as an actual Sporting Director - seems Rangnick would rather be a manager.
 

JPRouve

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Yeah I seen all these and they sound very messy. But I wanted to see if anyone has anything of the good things he has done. How did he get Mbappe. Paredes etc. I’ll have to have a look.
He did nothing particular and nothing that should see him get any credit. Everyone was involved from the coach to El Khelaifi. And Paredes was a terrible transfer caused by the Lo Celso decision.
 
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