Urgh, how many times can people misattribute a quote. RR does know why he's on the bench, and values him being there - when we lost McKenna, Carrick and that other coach there were few coaches that had a link with the players. He said more he didn't know the scope of his responsibilities beyond assisting him in coaching - that's another issue in and of itself. BUT 1, in Germany technical directors commonly sit on the bench and two, if someone's job is to oversee the pathways between academy to first team, him having an intimate knowledge of the first team is more than fine.
Its clearly ignorance from fans like
@ti vu and
@Class of 1902. Probably saw a tik tok or United Stand tag line of a quote, instead of reading the full quote, make their mind up that Ralf doesnt know what Fletcher does.
Like you say, Technical Directors in other countries do sit on the bench and the situation we have is unique as well, when Ralf came, all our coaches left, Fletcher was the only one to help RR and he has decided to stay there and perhaps look at the players and him and RR can make judgment about the squad as he will see them on a day to day basis.
Then clearly, we all know he is involved with the managerial appointment, one thing we have asked for is a football man to get involved, when he does we say what is he doing?