Manchester United name John Murtough as Football Director and Darren Fletcher as Technical Director

laughtersassassin

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Yep, good point. I'd love to see us become quicker at securing deals, even if the standard of deals remains exactly the same. Having players bed in early over the summer makes a difference.
This summer is a big summer for sales too.

Id like to see Lingard and Pereira sold very early. We usually leave it to the last week and seem to not spend the money gained

Last summer was a disaster overall. Hopefully we see a change this one.
 

UnitedSofa

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This looks better than before, a better structure with more competent people higher up. However, I'm not impressed with our signings. A top club doesn't sign a player like Wan-Bissaka, and especially not for £50m. A well-worked smooth scouting system doesn't sign Maguire for £80m. A well-worked club doesn't sign Van dee Beek, without having any idea on how to use him when he doesn't fit the style of play. Bruno was a success but I'm not impressed by our transfers in the last ten years and not in the last two years either, so does this actually change anything regarding WHO we buy? I don't know. But as others have said, this will give us a better structure when the manager is gone and that is good. But still worried about transfers and our type of transfers.
Wan-Bissaka - our best RB in years and not worth 50M?! What?
Maguire easily our best CB, regardless of the slating he gets on here, has largely shored up our leaky defence.

VDB I'm sure will come good in time, look at Fred who was once fodder and now is one of the first names on the team sheet!
 

JPRouve

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I mean isn't the point of the DOF that we have continuity in our planning and not a reset after every manager moves on. Giving Murtough all the power doesn't solve the problem of bad decision making it just shifts the potential weakness from the manager to the DOF.
How do you have any sort of continuity when the DoF doesn't control who coaches the team and which players are in the team? You only have continuity if the DoF is the one dictating these things which some posters are seemingly against.
 

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Did he? You sure? Very much doubt it to be honest! Why would he join as a coach and then leave less than 6 months later and only 3 or so months until the end of the season, if that? Makes no sense whatsoever?
It was mentioned during an interview on the MUTV site yesterday. He said the coaching role was a brief step to gain some ground roots experience and he would be looking to move into a more suitable permanent role which he didn't think would be available at the club. Murtough was aware of his intentions and convinced the board to promote him internally instead as he didn't want to lose him. It's gone a bit under the radar but I think it was a great move by Murtough and speaks volumes about him.
 

Zoo

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Apparent from what? Manchester Evening News wrote that he was a liverpudlian this week. Of course he support United - all liverpudlians do! (Some secretely).
Paul Hirst in the Times
 

Grande

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Correct me if I'm wrong. Does this mean Fletcher is being relieved of his coaching duties to which he was appointed only recently to now become a technical director? Or is it a dual role? Not that I'm an expert but he seemed to have a good footballing brain whenever I heard him speak about the game and players like him generally tend to do well as coaches, more than the ones who had an abundance of natural ability. I would have preferred him as a member of the backroom staff if nothing else then just to see what impact he was having.

Of course, all these titles seem to blur into more or less the same thing to me eg Sporting Director, Director of football, Technical director, etc.
Darren has been rumoured as a candidate for a top staff job for a long time, even touted as a candidate for DoF by some. We have no idea how baseless those rumours were, but I’m pretty sure that when he was hired and spent first some months in our youth set up, then some months in our first team set up, with not too clearly defined roles at any of the places, that he was in fact rather getting to know the departments from the inside because the Tech Dir role was what was intended for him all along.
 

OmarUnited4ever

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The bolded bit is what I was wondering about. From the press release, it sounded to me like Murtough and Fletcher work alongside each other. I couldn't figure out what that would mean for their division of tasks, as it sounds like there's overlap and like DoFs elsewhere would normally have both roles. If it is as you say, with Fletcher reporting to Murtough, the whole thing makes much more sense.
According to the Athletic, it's close to what i guessed: -

Explained: John Murtough and Darren Fletcher’s new roles at Manchester United

Structure
 

elmo

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What an odd post, all I'm saying is that, excluding hindsight, there was nothing to suggest, at the time, that Queiroz was an inspirational hire. He was, as it turned out, but I'm sure there were plenty at the time who considered it as uninspiring as having Carrick, Butt & Phelan in the backroom.. even though, on paper, all 3 are more qualified than Queiroz was when he was hired.
Queiroz had already managed the Portugal under 20s, Sporting Lisbon, South Africa, UAE and Portugal national team before he joined us.

Even if he did feck all for the rest of his career, his coaching credentials were already better than Carrick, Butt and Phelan combined.
 

JPRouve

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He has no experience doing that role? It's basically like us complaining about hiring ex players for a job that they've no experience with.
And it's a lower rank role.
 

mitchmouse

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I thought discussion was about director of football my bad didn't know we were replacing Ed Woodward.
Presumably you agree that we are a bigger club than Ajax. Appoint VdS, Maybe he'd be happy to start slightly lower at United, knowing if he does a great job he can be promoted. I for one have no trouble with him replacing woodward one day. But hey, if you are happy with Fletcher and someone with little track record... well, maybe we aren't a bigger club after all
 

Grande

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It was in several articles yesterday that he was basically the one in charge of setting up our womens team. Don't know if he hired Casey, but probably had input. Then worked with her to identify and sign players and whatever other structure around the team was needed to get it up running so fast as it did.
That’s fantastic. Both because it was an incredibly important act of the club, and because he seems to have done a brilliant job, as have Casey Stoney.
 

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Wan-Bissaka - our best RB in years and not worth 50M?! What?
Maguire easily our best CB, regardless of the slating he gets on here, has largely shored up our leaky defence.

VDB I'm sure will come good in time, look at Fred who was once fodder and now is one of the first names on the team sheet!
Yeah, really hard to be our best RB. We didn't even have one ffs. So if we bought Coleman, it would be great because he would be our best RB? AWB can hardly pick a pass and you think it's great business!? Our defense has been shit this season also. Yes, he is good in 1vs1 but we're Man United ffs. I'm always amazed about how many forget that. It's 50 million and you don't think we could do better? Amazing.

Maguire, again, the Coleman argument. Just because he is better, doesn't mean that it's great business. And I said that, that Maguire isn't poor but for that money, you expect better. What are we talking about? We are talking recruitment, and A LOT of people who work full time with this, and you are happy with Maguire for £80m. Standards. VDB doesn't fit how we play. You can talk about time but as long as Ole is the manager and plays this way, he will be useless. It's a poor signing because it's like peak Barca bought Fellaini to play in midfield. As I said, I'm not impressed by any signing bar Bruno. Any fool here could've paid 80 million for Maguire. Doesn't have to be a genius to see that he would strengthen our team, although it's very debatable that he will be good enough to take us where we want to be.
 

Forevergiggs1

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We also have the most inexperienced football people at top level. Ole was already inexperienced as he is then you got the likes of Mckenna, Carrick, Fletcher as Technical director and Murtough is covering a new and important role himself. That on top of two bankers trying to meddle in football affairs as well (Judge and Woodward). It seems that this club has an aversion towards experience, meritocracy and new ideas.
That's my thoughts as well. How can a club of our size have so much inexperience from top to bottom is beyond me. The only winner in this is Ed. Takes the heat of himself while surrounding himself with people who won't dare say a bad word about the club. It really is a master stroke from him.
 

P-Nut

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Yeah, really hard to be our best RB. We didn't even have one ffs. So if we bought Coleman, it would be great because he would be our best RB? AWB can hardly pick a pass and you think it's great business!? Our defense has been shit this season also. Yes, he is good in 1vs1 but we're Man United ffs. I'm always amazed about how many forget that. It's 50 million and you don't think we could do better? Amazing.

Maguire, again, the Coleman argument. Just because he is better, doesn't mean that it's great business. And I said that, that Maguire isn't poor but for that money, you expect better. What are we talking about? We are talking recruitment, and A LOT of people who work full time with this, and you are happy with Maguire for £80m. Standards. VDB doesn't fit how we play. You can talk about time but as long as Ole is the manager and plays this way, he will be useless. It's a poor signing because it's like peak Barca bought Fellaini to play in midfield. As I said, I'm not impressed by any signing bar Bruno. Any fool here could've paid 80 million for Maguire. Doesn't have to be a genius to see that he would strengthen our team, although it's very debatable that he will be good enough to take us where we want to be.
If our players are so shit you must be over the moon with Ole having us in 2nd right?
 

UnitedSofa

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It was mentioned during an interview on the MUTV site yesterday. He said the coaching role was a brief step to gain some ground roots experience and he would be looking to move into a more suitable permanent role which he didn't think would be available at the club. Murtough was aware of his intentions and convinced the board to promote him internally instead as he didn't want to lose him. It's gone a bit under the radar but I think it was a great move by Murtough and speaks volumes about him.
Nice, never knew that, I could've sword Fletch was a permanent inclusion to the coaching set up, which is why I found it so strange he'd only be here for 6months.

and the problem with him being our DoF is what?
Because he has no experience in it, much like what people are complaining about right now in regards to both Fletch and Murtough, even though Fletch won't be dealing with transfers, which people don't seem to understand, but that's besides the point.

People are clamouring for VDS to be the DOF because they see the good work 'he's' doing with Ajax, when in actual reality, Overmars is the DOF.

That's why people, like myself, are getting annoyed at people clamouring for VDS, considering he's never done the role himself!
 

Eyepopper

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Even if he did feck all for the rest of his career, his coaching credentials were already better than Carrick, Butt and Phelan combined.
Phelan was Fergies right hand man during three Premier League title wins, a Club World Cup, two League Cups and two runs to the final of the UEFA Champions League, so that's at least debatable.

I'm not down playing Queiroz, just challenging using his appointment to throw negativity at what's happening now.

If we were appointing someone today who'd spent the majority of the last 10 years managing second rate international teams and clubs in Japan and US, I doubt you'd have many on here claiming it was an inspiring top notch appointment.
 

Hectic

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Nice, never knew that, I could've sword Fletch was a permanent inclusion to the coaching set up, which is why I found it so strange he'd only be here for 6months.
Yeah although it might not be true. But if it was true then it paints Murtough in a great light and that's the positive thinking we need right now. Even if it never actually happened.
 

elmo

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Phelan was Fergies right hand man during three Premier League title wins, a Club World Cup, two League Cups and two runs to the final of the UEFA Champions League, so that's at least debatable.

I'm not down playing Queiroz, just challenging using his appointment to throw negativity at what's happening now.

If we were appointing someone today who'd spent the majority of the last 10 years managing second rate international teams and clubs in Japan and US, I doubt you'd have many on here claiming it was an inspiring top notch appointment.
From how people defend Ole on here...
 

JPRouve

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I’d say his primary role is as the first line of contact between agents & players, who works together with the recruitment board and manager to ensure the recruitment fits the clubs ethos and doesn’t go all self indulgent LVG/Mourinho on us.
He should have veto power and he should be the boss of the scouting team.
So you want a negotiator/Chief scout not a DoF. Normally a DoF isn't a glorified head of scouting department, he is the equivalent of a general manager in american sports, he is the chief of the sports department meaning that he oversees coaches, scouts and trainers. In that setup, you do not have a manager but a head coach who coaches the first team, he has an input on the type of player that he wants but that's about it.
 

Bilbo

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It’ll be judged like Liverpool’s. Amazing when winning, shit when not.
Its just another thing that people will use and twist to suit whatever agenda they are pushing for. The same crowd that hadn't realised or hadn't bothered to learn that we already had a very robust footballing structure in place before this restructuring. To those people its as simple as 'haven't heard of = shite'
 

Bilbo

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Yeah, really hard to be our best RB. We didn't even have one ffs. So if we bought Coleman, it would be great because he would be our best RB? AWB can hardly pick a pass and you think it's great business!? Our defense has been shit this season also. Yes, he is good in 1vs1 but we're Man United ffs. I'm always amazed about how many forget that. It's 50 million and you don't think we could do better? Amazing.

Maguire, again, the Coleman argument. Just because he is better, doesn't mean that it's great business. And I said that, that Maguire isn't poor but for that money, you expect better. What are we talking about? We are talking recruitment, and A LOT of people who work full time with this, and you are happy with Maguire for £80m. Standards. VDB doesn't fit how we play. You can talk about time but as long as Ole is the manager and plays this way, he will be useless. It's a poor signing because it's like peak Barca bought Fellaini to play in midfield. As I said, I'm not impressed by any signing bar Bruno. Any fool here could've paid 80 million for Maguire. Doesn't have to be a genius to see that he would strengthen our team, although it's very debatable that he will be good enough to take us where we want to be.
Is it really necessary to turn yet another thread into what you think about Ole? There are better places for that
 

golden_blunder

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and the problem with him being our DoF is what?
It’s a step down career wise after all the studying and work to get to CEO. We should be discussing him replacing Woody more than anything

Overmars is Ajax DoF and he’s looking for a new challenge supposedly
 

golden_blunder

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Yeah although it might not be true. But if it was true then it paints Murtough in a great light and that's the positive thinking we need right now. Even if it never actually happened.
Spot on H. Let’s give the guy a chance to show what he can do. He’s had a highly regarded career so far so on paper seems like a good football man
 

JPRouve

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It’s a step down career wise after all the studying and work to get to CEO. We should be discussing him replacing Woody more than anything

Overmars is Ajax DoF and he’s looking for a new challenge supposedly
Murtough barely got the job and you are already looking for his replacement? :nono:
 

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That's my thoughts as well. How can a club of our size have so much inexperience from top to bottom is beyond me. The only winner in this is Ed. Takes the heat of himself while surrounding himself with people who won't dare say a bad word about the club. It really is a master stroke from him.
And here I thought Sir Alex and Sir Bobby at the board had fixed this by hiring Aloysius Vangaalopteryx and Joséosaurus Mourinhex.

I suppose we should just cling on to Jones, Mata, Romero, Rojo, De Gea, Sanchez, Matic, Lingard and Cavani the best we can, and wait for the others to grow old and get experience too.
 

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Chuffed for Fletch I knew he has a bigger role at the club other than a first team coach. He´s one of the brightest guys of all former United players of the last decade and if we could build something similar here like Bayern in Germany, would be only great.

What people forget about is that Fletcher came out of the academy hiimself and he absolutely knows what is needed to succeed here when it comes to development. John Murtough I feel is there because he´s a more experienced manager which can help to execute some of the ideas which Fletch comes up with. I feel we are on the right track wheather this is a PR move more than actual big change in our club I still feel this is the move in the right direction. Just hope we can be ruthless when we finally find out Ole or other manager is not good enough and do some proper research to replace him in time.

That ruthlesness I am missing form us because finding the right time when something is not working and changing it is a key skill of any manager. Unfortunately the 27 years of success under Sir Alexwon´t help with that and perhaps we might be one of the clubs acting a bit slowly but let´s keep fingers crossed the footballing side and football knowledge is now hugely strenghten in oreder to make some next steps in coming months/years.
 

rollingstoned1

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It’ll be judged like Liverpool’s. Amazing when winning, shit when not.
We will need a fly-on-the-wall Amazon documentary ala Leeds to know what exactly everyone does behind the scenes. It was hard not falling in love with the exotic Victor Orta in that series. Until then it's just guessing.
 

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If our players are so shit you must be over the moon with Ole having us in 2nd right?
Our players aren't shit, far from, we have a great squad. But quite telling that everyone wants a new CB after just buying one for £80m. Our recruitment has been far from great. Let's see if this changes thing, it's a good step.