Influence of Sir Alex

Number 3 is down to the influence of SirAlex although it could have been something OGS picked up in his playing career.

I personally believe it's the lizard people.

Keane is an outcast at the club, driven by personal bias. Interesting idea he might have spoke up about Jose's pensioner signings, but I think Mourinho would have hinted that in the fallout

I wish he had a big influence still, but I would say that it's only advice he is offering Ole now.

mariachi-19 said:

I seem to recall in Mr. Keanes more recent interview that he refers to some influence that Sir Alex still has in the day to day running of Manchester United.

We know that he is a non-executive director, but is the great man still pulling stings and advising the club in certain circumstances.

I personally think he may have been less involved up until Mourinho went off the rails:

1. Advising the Board on the signings Mourinho was proposing to make going into his third season (although he was also recovering from serious illness during this period so it may be wrong);
2. The appointment of Ole and the return of Phelan; and
3. The long term image and direction of the football club in regards to signings and rebuilding.

Specifically when you look at (3) above, it has all the hallmarks of a Sir Alex rebuild including cutting out the players that simply aren't good enough or dont have the United mentality.


Caveat: I dont think he's involved in the day to day running of the club or overall signing of players or the match squad.

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Regarding point 3:
Solskjær has already built success at a club in Uniteds image emulating SAFs methods: Molde.

mariachi-19 said:

I seem to recall in Mr. Keanes more recent interview that he refers to some influence that Sir Alex still has in the day to day running of Manchester United.

We know that he is a non-executive director, but is the great man still pulling stings and advising the club in certain circumstances.

I personally think he may have been less involved up until Mourinho went off the rails:

1. Advising the Board on the signings Mourinho was proposing to make going into his third season (although he was also recovering from serious illness during this period so it may be wrong);
2. The appointment of Ole and the return of Phelan; and
3. The long term image and direction of the football club in regards to signings and rebuilding.

Specifically when you look at (3) above, it has all the hallmarks of a Sir Alex rebuild including cutting out the players that simply aren't good enough or dont have the United mentality.


Caveat: I dont think he's involved in the day to day running of the club or overall signing of players or the match squad.

Click to expand...

I personally highly doubt Fergie was part of vetoing Mourinho's signings, I doubt he'd undermine a manager in that regard. No the vetoing Mourinho's signings has an uninformed person written all over it, proved by the fact that while Maguire was dismissed 12 months ago he bought for a record fee 12 months later.

Might he of had an influence in Ole taking the care taker managers job? Maybe, did he have an influence in Giggs taking over from Moyes? Again maybe but neither are conclusive, again this may have all been someone else

The long term image is just a consequence of Ole carrying on the philosophy of Fergie's tenure

charlenefan said:

I personally highly doubt Fergie was part of vetoing Mourinho's signings, I doubt he'd undermine a manager in that regard. No the vetoing Mourinho's signings has an uninformed person written all over it, proved by the fact that while Maguire was dismissed 12 months ago he bought for a record fee 12 months later.

Might he of had an influence in Ole taking the care taker managers job? Maybe, did he have an influence in Giggs taking over from Moyes? Again maybe but neither are conclusive, again this may have all been someone else

The long term image is just a consequence of Ole carrying on the philosophy of Fergie's tenure

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Spot on.

charlenefan said:

I personally highly doubt Fergie was part of vetoing Mourinho's signings, I doubt he'd undermine a manager in that regard. No the vetoing Mourinho's signings has an uninformed person written all over it, proved by the fact that while Maguire was dismissed 12 months ago he bought for a record fee 12 months later.

Might he of had an influence in Ole taking the care taker managers job? Maybe, did he have an influence in Giggs taking over from Moyes? Again maybe but neither are conclusive, again this may have all been someone else

The long term image is just a consequence of Ole carrying on the philosophy of Fergie's tenure

Click to expand...

I have a slightly different theory on Maguire. I think that Mourinho was asked to name the big contracts players that would have to leave in order to make a big signing like Maguire on top of offloading CBs and Mourinho failed to name them.

Keane's reference to SAF's influence was on the potential of Keane returning to United in some capacity.

Just Roy's way of thinking, but reality is there's zero chance of Keano returning whether SAF has an influence or not.

Ole is quite clearly influenced by SAF in his role as manager, how could he not be?

Sir Alex wasn't cancelling transfers Mourinho wanted. That's ridiculous.

JPRouve said:

I have a slightly different theory on Maguire. I think that Mourinho was asked to name the big contracts players that would have to leave in order to make a big signing like Maguire on top of offloading CBs and Mourinho failed to name them.

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I agree on this even if we never will know the specifics. That not signing Maguire under Mourinho was a financial decision rather than Woodward or whomever actually getting involved in pure footballing decisions was the case is something I have always argued.
After the Sanchez-signing a few players just had to go for us to be making new signings wage-wise. Mourinho could have let Fellaini go for example, that would have freed up enough wage room for Maguire. As an example.

I’d say 2 and 3 are definitely things that Sir Alex has played a part in or had advised as I don’t think for a second Woodward would have been intelligent enough to have gone with Ole, bringing Ole in was such a romantic appointment that the fans got caught up in it and soon all the backlash on Jose and the board was forgotten or at least til the last bit of the season when we went on that awful run.

Ole, Phelan, the profile of player we’re targeting and the way we’re trying to play is all very reminiscent of Sir Alex but it’ll need time to click due to how bad things were from Moyes appointment through to Jose’s departure and far away the club has taken itself away from everything that was in place under Sir Alex.

I can’t fully remember but didn’t Moyes get rid of literally all of Sir Alex’s backroom staff and change the structure of our scouting and youth systems ? I know right now it’s all fully removed from where it was under Sir Alex and what’s happened with us is similar to what happened to Liverpool in that all the good that was in place was taken away and the club lost a lot of its identity and structure.

amolbhatia50k said:

Sir Alex wasn't cancelling transfers Mourinho wanted. That's ridiculous.

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Indeed.
I believe Woodward has pretty much said that it was him. He said that he didn't like Jose's targets in year 3, so he didn't spend. And when the media called him out for having a terrible transfer window, the "director of football" story was conjured up, to calm everybody down. This DoF story, was also used a few weeks back and I believe it shall be used whenever we have a bad window.

amolbhatia50k said:

Sir Alex wasn't cancelling transfers Mourinho wanted. That's ridiculous.

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Nah, of course he did not. You just need to read one of Sir Alex books to understand what his opinion is on the managers role in United. He would never interfer in particular signings of one manager or another.
The "problem" is not that, the problem is that the Sir Alex "mantra" of that the manager should control everything and all still lives at United and hinders any progressive thoughts as for example a DoF. That is the real problem IMO.

As far as decision making goes I don't think he's involved and hasn't been for years.

mariachi-19 said:

I seem to recall in Mr. Keanes more recent interview that he refers to some influence that Sir Alex still has in the day to day running of Manchester United.

We know that he is a non-executive director, but is the great man still pulling stings and advising the club in certain circumstances.

I personally think he may have been less involved up until Mourinho went off the rails:

1. Advising the Board on the signings Mourinho was proposing to make going into his third season (although he was also recovering from serious illness during this period so it may be wrong);
2. The appointment of Ole and the return of Phelan; and
3. The long term image and direction of the football club in regards to signings and rebuilding.

Specifically when you look at (3) above, it has all the hallmarks of a Sir Alex rebuild including cutting out the players that simply aren't good enough or dont have the United mentality.


Caveat: I dont think he's involved in the day to day running of the club or overall signing of players or the match squad.

Click to expand...

Since his retirement, SAF has maintained that he was always available to offer advice to the current manager in any capacity, and that is pretty much the extent of his influence on the club (if you can even call it that).