Maguire thing is not his fault - that's the mess Solskjaer left.
But he overplayed his hand with McTominay. That's fecked us up royally.
But he overplayed his hand with McTominay. That's fecked us up royally.
Manchester United name John Murtough as Football Director and Darren Fletcher as Technical Director
- Thread starter Tom Van Persie
- Start date
Nothing is ever anyone's fault. They're all innocent executives on six figure salaries.
I still believe he's no better than Woodward, probably even worse.
Woodward at least was able to overrule the manager at times.
Woodward at least was able to overrule the manager at times.
I hope that we are considering giving him new contract. After his masterclass this summer he will raise interest among big clubs in Europe.
We just need to end the obsession with him, I think he is a bit of a non entity in terms of significant decision making, especially transfers. There’s a reason we appointed an administrator/fixer rather than a figurehead .
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That should be the case but when we from chasing FDJ (ETH target) to signing Casemiro (club target) last summer and that's surely a sign that the thinking wasn't aligned as they couldn't be more different. I don't think there's anything wrong with ETH wanting certain players or having different types of players as options but I worry about the way we've approached transfers under Murtough.
I think there's a lack of experience or competence somewhere forcing us to depend on his judgment a little more than we should. It just defeated the point of having these positions. By several accounts he didn't build the Ajax team so there's no way he's going to have the global scouting knowledge to find a profile replacement for FDJ. If Klopp had joined we would have gotten him absolutely Brandt for 100m then blamed all of it on him. In the market Managers also need to be protected, sometimes, from their own judgment but it takes one heck of a Director to be able to do this.
Useless. Selling players for 1m and leaking positive PR about himself how good a job he is doing. What do you expect? he is an Everton graduate!
But but but he signed Hojlund. Or something...
feck me. Football fans need to get into fantasy fiction or fan fiction or scriptwriting or something because they are something else. Their imaginations run WILD!
I always say that professional team sports are basically soap opera for dudes. Rumours, imaginary tales, the works
What does he actually do, seems like he does the negotiation of targets eth identifies (with uestionable success) but not much else. Is he utilising our scouting network
Celebrations began too soon this summer. He gets a huge lift for not being Woodward - who if people remember wanted to upgrade Maguire's deal without any need to do so, which we summarily did with Bruno. And he's taken on a difficult job both getting rid of players on huge contracts that aren't anywhere close to being merited and raising our reputation within the football world again, from being an absolute laughing stock. It seemed for a while that we were being shrewd and there have definitely been club briefings to cast a favourable light on how things have improved. But I started to question things when we dished out that contract to Mount and paid that fee with him with a year left on his deal, not because he's not a good player but because he's not exactly what we need and then we go and give him the #7 shirt which is a statement.
I think the Mount deal is perhaps not bad financially (contract apart) but that money could have gone towards improving the first XI rather than raising the overall floor of the squad. The Onana deal still looks pretty great to me though, though there was a fiasco with Dave for an unnecessary long time so it wasn't clear this was a move in the works until mid summer.
Some positives include adding sell-ons and buy-backs when selling young players who may yet come good and getting the players publicly on board before a transfer saga begins (every target has been reportedly eager to join).
A couple of weeks ago it looked as if the new United stance was working so well that mid table clubs were going to invest significant sums in United squad players and unwanted players, but it seems now that we have shed a couple of youngsters and Fred for 10m or so.
It's hard to gauge how good the new hierarchy is, having taken on such a clusterfeck of a job but the early signs are that Erik is calling the shots which I don't think is too smart.
I think the Mount deal is perhaps not bad financially (contract apart) but that money could have gone towards improving the first XI rather than raising the overall floor of the squad. The Onana deal still looks pretty great to me though, though there was a fiasco with Dave for an unnecessary long time so it wasn't clear this was a move in the works until mid summer.
Some positives include adding sell-ons and buy-backs when selling young players who may yet come good and getting the players publicly on board before a transfer saga begins (every target has been reportedly eager to join).
A couple of weeks ago it looked as if the new United stance was working so well that mid table clubs were going to invest significant sums in United squad players and unwanted players, but it seems now that we have shed a couple of youngsters and Fred for 10m or so.
It's hard to gauge how good the new hierarchy is, having taken on such a clusterfeck of a job but the early signs are that Erik is calling the shots which I don't think is too smart.
You were saying?
Could be them or the Glazers. But failing to sell Maguire, Hendo and McTominay is a big red flag.
A shite Ed Woodward
They were offered 80m pounds for these 3 players who barley played last season. But failed to sell them. Incompetent bunch earning 7 figures a year.
Shades of rejecting (or actively not pushing for) selling Lingard for 25m with a year left on his contract
He might be on borrowed time if our season is disappointing.
I can't believe that Maguire and Murtough can't find a solution. It's bloody obvious that Maguire need to go if he wants to play for England.
I'm sure Maguire considered that when making his decision. He's probably not going to start for England anyway, or not for much longer. Obviously values trying to get back into our team, or the money, much more.
A bid was made for Henderson? Where?
We didn't want to sell McTominay unless the bid was at a high price so not sure how us rejecting the bid is relevant.
Maguire? You can't force a player to move.
Henderson? He was injured and the terms Forest wanted to use were trash.
Adam's thread is a perfect encapsulation of the comical theatricality of it all. I love it.
Competent DoF would sell McT, Maguire and Henderson early and bought Pavard and Amrabat for that money. Competent DoF....
Woodward was a different level of bad, and his bad management is the reason we're unable to move on Maguire...... wages.
Who?
Rooney was an Everton graduate and went on to be our all time leading scorer
So sell a one legged Henderson. Who to, long John silver?
There was only a loan bid for Henderson because as you rightly state, he’s still injured
Useless.
Saw Vidic and Rio joking on his podcast that they wish they got contracts under Woodward - must be a known thing in the club/industry. The bloke was a case study in when ego and incompetence meet.
Someone whos first job as DoF isn't in Manchester United. He should have been fired last year.
Nottingham, Leeds, Villa, Everton all sacked their DoFs after they bad transfer window. In United (where standards should be high as it goes), owners just don't care.
I am not sure what a competent Director of Football (DoF) would do. My experience with trade negotiations is limited to swapping a "Dark Charizard" card for a "Moltres" and "Articuno".
Murtough is junk, we should have got the man Newcastle picked up from Brighton. Say what you want about them Saudis, unlike the Florida inbreds they know which people to hire.
Oh, thought you actually had examples in mind and could qualify your statement....
This is it. Owners dont care. Woodward was monumentally unqualified to run the club and Murtough almost as bad for his role. THere have been experienced DoF available. We still seem to have no coherent policy (other than sign players who have played in Dutch list) or horribly unable to identify or secure rising talent. Nothing changed. And now we cant unload Maguire.
Pretty sure he'll be the first out of the door once the takeover is complete. And like many of our sold players, he won't end up at any other top club, because he should have never had the job to begin with.
You can just see the strategy from Newcastle with who they are acquiring and money can't be used as an excuse because they have negotiated decent proposals in the market.
Comes down to efficient planning. The middle east ownership certainly have dodgy runnings with the finance side of things but when it comes to football operations they have been exemplary.
I don't think Murtough has shown competence at any real credible capacity but I'll reserve outright judgement until the end of the season. That's approximately four windows and 24 months to adequately see improvement / the fruit of change.
Ragnick would have been fantastic to have in the hierarchy. Awful manager granted, but much of what he said in his assessment of the squad has come into fruition. He also identified talented players that the club should have been in the running for that is reminiscent of the DOF role that other clubs aside United at present have successfully demonstrated.
Learn to walk away from an overly high asking price, learn to say no to the manager, learn to prioritise urgent positions more than others.
He's quite clearly a yes man, he's rolled over and spread his cheeks on many occasions now. Starting with renewing Phelan's contract after a shocking, sackable managerial performance in the Europa League final, spending the budget on Sancho instead of a defensive midfielder, carrying through with spending 80-90 million on Antony instead of walking away and buying a much needed striker with the money instead, and now paying 55 million on an out of form player with a year left on his contract, 5 million more than his public take it or leave it offer, still leaving a obvious hole in midfield that now urgently needs the Mount money to find a replacement. It's embarrassingly bad.
The role of a DoF has been explained countless times in here, yet people rehash the same old ramblings.
There’s not even room for debate. « He’s shite » and thats it, end of story.
We have seen many many DoFs who did a great job fail spectacularly when they changed clubs. Maybe it’s more to do with overall structure - which by all accounts has been the crux of Arnold and Murtough’s work since taking their new responsibilities - rather than a one-man operation?
Good luck to you guys finding new scapegoats, your creativity towards finding the negative in everything will never cease to amaze me
There’s not even room for debate. « He’s shite » and thats it, end of story.
We have seen many many DoFs who did a great job fail spectacularly when they changed clubs. Maybe it’s more to do with overall structure - which by all accounts has been the crux of Arnold and Murtough’s work since taking their new responsibilities - rather than a one-man operation?
Good luck to you guys finding new scapegoats, your creativity towards finding the negative in everything will never cease to amaze me