Manchester United name John Murtough as Football Director and Darren Fletcher as Technical Director
- Thread starter Tom Van Persie
- Start date
I saw your previous comment yesterday, a rational voice
I agree its a good step and hopefully will help align transfer strategy with youth development.
People are missing the fact that Murtough has been key in youth development and recruitment. Whilst Fletch is a youth graduate himself. It indicates that youth is going to play a large part in our plans going forward.
Seems like the Athletic just forgot McKenna on their first draft of that hierarchy:
For fecks sake, Van der Sar is Ajax's CEO, i.e., Ed Woodward, HE IS NOT THEIR DOF.
If you think that person directly report to Abramovic, you clearly dont know what you're talking about.
Google the Chelsea board...
What qualifications does Fletcher have, other than 'former player'?
Worked with Michael Owen, Steve McManaman and Glenn Hoddle on BT Sport
He’s been at the club for 12 years+ and is the link between the youth team and first team, nothing to do with transfers whatsoever, he’s more than qualified than most for his position
Part of his job will be selling the club to prospective players, so I think he's pretty well qualified having come through the youth ranks and made it to the first team despite most of the odds being against him.
It’s got that Zidane feel about it. Well know around the World Darren Fletcher, trying to sell our club to players who have never heard of him.
Yeah, I'm kind of struggling to believe that any business in the world will solve this communication problem by changing the title of a senior management member to something that is somewhat belittling.
Since no other club has a director of negotiations, I wonder how we ever manage to find the right people to talk to. Maybe it actually explains some of our transfer dealings!
Great post!
If that Athletic hierarchy is to be trusted, the management team responsible for signing players at United includes:
Is it any bloody wonder we take so long "preparing bids"? It probably takes 3 months before everyone has replied to the initial email! I imagine it's like a game of Chinese whispers where sometime in 2015, somebody recommended signing Virgil Van Dijk, and by the time it had bounced around between the various Heads of this and Directors of that, we ended up signing Donny Van de Beek last summer.
It explains a lot.
- The Football Director
- The Manager
- The Director of Football Negotiations
- The Head of Recruitment Operations
- The Managers Personal Scout
- The Head of Global Scouting
- The Technical Chief Scout
- The Chief Scout
Is it any bloody wonder we take so long "preparing bids"? It probably takes 3 months before everyone has replied to the initial email! I imagine it's like a game of Chinese whispers where sometime in 2015, somebody recommended signing Virgil Van Dijk, and by the time it had bounced around between the various Heads of this and Directors of that, we ended up signing Donny Van de Beek last summer.
It explains a lot.
Settle down, no need to yell. If I am the CEO of my small town and am offered the job of being vice-Mayor of London do I consider that a demotion because I am going from a mayor to the second in charge? Unlikely.
Doesn't matter how much history Ajax has, it is a tiny club that buys almost nobody and entirely relies on homegrown talent + selling players. They had to sell almost all their best players when they made it far in Champions League. Would never be the case for a major club. Whatever history they have, Man United has more history and is one of the biggest clubs in the world. Let me explain it to you in another way: Edwin van der Sar's salary as CEO at Ajax is about $308,464.00. That is less than a week's salary for some of our players, surely we can pay him more than $1M a year as director of football, and he gets a chance to turn around a huge club, the one he really cares about, too. Sounds a bit more tempting now?
Bottomline, nobody knows if he would take the job except for him, but it is far from a crazy idea and he was top candidate for many when Director of Football position for United was suggested, not something I came up with.
Of course it's a demotion, Ajax aren't some nobody non-league team.
I imagine its mainly for academy recruits.
Weird org structure esp for the scouting side. Lots of overlapping titles. Hugely political I can imagine.
Other clubs the CEO/ DoF does the negotiations. That's not the case at Man Utd. So your point falls flat.
Ole's assistants are an uninspiring bunch on paper, no clue how the players feel about them. Surely he could use a top notch assistant ala Queiroz to SAF. Would certainly help Ole preparing for and adjustments within matches I'd wager. Might also help round him into a better manager. Believe SAF praised the tactical knowledge Queiroz brought.
Yep. Solskjaer seems keen to do things the Fergie way - hiring a top first team coach to handle training, is one aspect of SAF's approach that I wish Ole would actually copy.
Prior to joining Utd Queirozs "top notch" experience was managing NY/NJ MetroStars, Nagoya Grampus Eight, United Arab Emirates & South Africa
Dont project your knowledge of footballers on to other people, especially professional footballers.
Google exists as well btw, if they’re unsure of who Fletcher is all they have to do is google his name before they speak to him to see that he’s won everything there is to win as a player.
Assistant to the regional manager
SAF rated him enough to bring him aboard with other assistants already in the fold. He was highly rated around Europe in the 90s from what I've read. Should have been given the US job in 1998 after Sampson resigned but USSF went with an American flavor, per usual. Nonetheless, he proved himself top notch and I don't see where I mentioned he was top notch before arriving. SAF must have rated though, shrugs.
I see you left out his stints with Portugal and Sporting CP but carry on.
I suspect Ole will do this once he wins a few medals. He has his own ideas for now and if they fail, then he will revert to Plan B.
Seems like the Athletic just forgot McKenna on their first draft of that hierarchy:
Prior to this, Matt Judge was reporting directly to Woodward and what's Ed's remit? Finance. So that means a transfer was judged on the prism of financial/bottom-line.
Now that Judge is reporting to a footballing guy, a transfer will be judge from the prism of a footballing perspective. How the player fits into the team and his importance. I think this actually makes Matt Judge's role and hopefully success easier
They were, what? 10 years prior to him coming to Utd?, so given the path he took afterwards they don't really seem relevant.
Roberto Di Matteo won the Champions League with Chelsea 10 years ago, should we hire him?
We also know Fletcher will be working alongside Judge too, as part of his role involves selling the football side of the club to potential signings. Which negates Evra's complaint about us sending lawyers to deal with players instead of football people and (presumably) will make Judge's role easier too.
So we didn't actually hire anybody new or bring new ideas or new experience to club, we shuffled staff that were already here.
Except Ed has no power to offer Phil Jones new contract now. This is not just shuffling staff, staffs who don’t have the power to implement their idea before now get the chance to do it.
Lighten up, Francis. It was just a passioned opinion on adding more quality to the coaching ranks. It was not a slight on Ole.
A step in the right direction regarding the DoF, however a little disappointed that we as one of the biggest clubs in European football havent gone out a brought in a top drawer DoF one that specialises in that role. However as I say a step in the right direction and hopefully a successful appointment
Yep.
How you feel about this entirely depends on how well you think the restructuring of our academy and scouting system have gone in recent years.
If you think it's been a success (as the club do) then it's presumably a positive that the apparent architect of it is being given more responsibility and authority to continue developing the club in that direction.
If you don't think it has been particularly successful then we've just moved people who were already here around to little effect. Though even then you might think that surrounding our chief negotiator with more support is a plus.
The appointment is fundamentally based on the idea that the club was already on the right path and just needed to accelerate that rather than needing to bring in any outsiders to change things. You either buy that or you don't.
It wasn't really though was it, I mean, you literally referred to Michael Carrick and Mike Phelan... who'd both won multiple titles as players/coaches at Utd.... as "uninspiring" when compared to Carlos Queiroz, who'd won the square root of feck all before he joined Utd.... you seem a bit lost.
Most of the top European clubs have been structured that way for a long time now, even in England I remember Ancelotti saying no club was ran like United, where the manager had so much control, he was their to coach not conduct transfers, since Fergie retired we've been lagging behind in this regard.
No, I think the change we need was a DOF with experience in the actual transfer market to replace Judge in getting the actual deals done, not just being able to identify talent.
Positive news. The more football people the better. Let Woody handle the business side as much as possible.
That's right. The absence of matchday revenue has hit us hard. We need Woody out there nailing down huge commercial deals.
Pedantic and not actually very interesting
What gives you this impression? Isn't DoF always below the CEO/President at every football club? They don't actually run the entire club you do realize?
Not necessary -- when Liverpool changed from Shankly and promoted Paisley, the playing style and philosophy changed dramatically. And equally successful outcome.
You got me there, big guy. Queiroz was a shit hire cause he had won nada before United while Carrick and Phelan are the most accomplished assistants out there, worthy of nothing but praise. How dare I, the lost poster I am, suggest otherwise. Thanks for your concern, citizen, I will jump on that proper road now.