I wouldn't get my hopes up for savings... Because as the salaries of some players go down, the salaries of other players may go up. And new stars appear every year, their price goes up. In general, as we know, everything gets more expensive! And even a packet of chips gets a little more expensive every year just because of inflation
Rashford and Dalot will get new contracts. Both likely on higher wages. I can even see De Gea getting a new deal, or at least triggering the 12 month extension, to save splurging on a new keeper for now.
What's Murtough got to do with any cultural reset? His job was to bring in the players on the list given to him. He did that
Generally you'd want the director of football to have some idea of the list themselves, not just ask a manager who wasn't responsible for identifying players at Ajax to just name some players he knew. That being said it's probably too early to be judging Murtough and regardless of his performance he's not the cause of games like today.
I'm thankful he did. Now he just needs to force him to play him
That's not his job.
Curious. What’s his job then if it’s not to buy players? (Not his only task)
Poor manager. He got top class dmc without wanting him.
The problem over the past ten years has been square pegs round holes. I don't think there's a Casemiro shaped hole in the squad.
Yeah get him out of this club and bring in a proper DOF like Mitchell/Campos. Guy is clueless
His job is not to be the manager's errand boy, to be given a list he must follow unquestioningly. A DoF works alongside the manager, not under him, by virtue of his experience and knowledge and does his best to balance the manager and bring the long-term vision of the club to bear. So no surprises there then that Murtough delegated his duties to Ten Hag. @Vapor trail got the gist of it, more or less.
So ten Hag went and concluded all those deals?
I'm not really sure what you are trying to say here? Murtough went joyriding across Europe and managed to close a couple of deals, as ordained by Ten Hag, by paying significantly over the odds after the season had already started and we had been comprehensively beaten by Brighton and Brentford. So I guess good job Murtough, you fulfilled your duties?
No it wasn't
I’m no saying that I’m curious what the poster thinks his job is? Ten Hag obviously gave him the list of targets he wanted and the profile. Ten Hag doesn’t go and do the deals himself which was my point
I think it's fair enough to say his first 6-8 months in charge have been shambolic. Paying 14m to Ralf, overpaying for Antony, the whole FdJ saga. I don't know how you can claim any successes here.
I really am only answering 1 particular part of a conversation that I found strange
The good is we don't have to sustain that level of spending if we do our homework right, I mean let's be honest that amount was inflated by 25-50% because we didn't. The bad is our decisionmakers are the type to get their homework eaten by the dog. Whether through inexperience, incompetence or bad luck there will always be some reason much can't be asked.
Yes I think this as well. The fact TH hasnt started him in a premier game so far, also strengthens my belief in this. Obviously he will eventually start as he is a better player than Mc Tom.
Yup, we'll see if Murtough has the ability to be successful in the next few windows, he's already said not to expect out summer spending again, which is completely fair, my main worry is that he thinks supporters just wants spending for spending sake - what supporters actually want is to see long term planning and signings to fit into our club.
That's precisely what they want. Because if we refuse to sign a player because the price is not right or the club doesn't think it's the right fit, they'll just screech "back the manager" for the entire season.
The issue last summer was chasing players that involved huge fees - if we had our structure in order then we could be targeting players that were on the cusp of the next step, we would have held more power in thar scenario.
The underlying problem is the same though. The manager holds way too much influence in the clubs decision making - and if there's any challenge to his authority, the clubs fanbase will lose its shit. Again.
His assessment period has started, in fact we're well into it. Don't like referencing old takes but everyone was adamant this time last year that we should only start judging him this summer and even that was super generous. There's no need to continue backdating it till the end of time. Not having a structure is the same as CR not attending preseason, self-inflicted and should be held accountable.
The problem is there's 2 ways to "back the manager", there's giving them too much influence as you note or putting a structure in place where they aren't burdened with being solely responsible for the identifying of players because the club is on top of identifying good players at good prices who fit the system and is able to bring them in.
A top manager (ex SAF) could win irrespective whether the club is well managed or not. Thus the DOF's role is independent on what happens on the pitch and how many trophies we win. His job is to make sure that the club is managed smoothly at the back end. That means
Doesn’t address any of my post, just a reiteration of your normal stuff. Surprised you didn’t mention Fletcher too
It did actually if you only cared to read it properly. Let me explain it to you in simpler terms. The DOF (we're talking about him after all) can't and shouldn't be judged on RESULTS, at least not directly. Inter for example won the treble thanks solely to Mourinho.. Neither Moratti (who was like a 13 year old playing FM) nor his best mate Branca had a clue of what they were doing and the best decision they made was to allow carte blanche to the manager. Once Mou left, everything went tits up.
SAF was the DOF and football has massively moved on since his time too
Oh I agree with all of that. However that's not my point. Let's say that a 50 year old SAF returned to football as our manager. Surely our performances would improve. Does that mean that Murtough and co would suddenly become great in their jobs? Of course not! The DOF is judged on different metrics to those of a manager. Managers are mostly judged on success on the pitch vis a vis the resources handled at his disposal (for example you can't expect Brighton's manager to win the local treble). DOFs on the other hand are judged on various metrices I've mentioned above
Yes, it'll take time but if we're serious we'll have to put in a decent structure in place. The likes of Murtough are from Woodward's group. Basically it's more of the same. We're competing with City and we have to be at the races.
