Haha I wish United were cheapskates! They’re probably the most frivolous club in the league when it comes to throwing cash around!
Dan Ashworth - Newcastle DoF currently tending to his garden
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) was joined by comedian Ali Woods to look back at the best and worst moments of a rollercoaster season with the annual United Hour Awards.
Has Ten Hag been sacked yet? We're not sure and we hope not, but it's looking more likely as the days pass.
Who should replace him and why is it taking so long to make a decision?
Sorry Stobzilla.
Soon we will be paying compensation fees for signing the tea lady.
PG demand £10 million compensation for Doris Smith
If it's true that Newcastle placed him on gardening leave before he had submitted his resignation, then far from being cheapskates - we've been incredibly generous in offering £2.5m.
Newcastle choosing to not only reject that pity offer, but to have their finger puppets in the press mock and belittle it is just a really poor way to do business.
Newcastle choosing to not only reject that pity offer, but to have their finger puppets in the press mock and belittle it is just a really poor way to do business.
What's your opinion on Ashworth for the role we are recruiting him for?
Ashworth is a good appointment and if he's afforded the time and patience, he will get things right.
As his role is strategic hopefully he his "working from home" as they put it.
If I was on gardening leave and moving into I bigger role I'd spend my time planning which is what he'd be doing in his first 3 months anyway.
If I was on gardening leave and moving into I bigger role I'd spend my time planning which is what he'd be doing in his first 3 months anyway.
He will be, it would be impossible to police him doing teans calls etc if he just uses a burner account.
What happened to this arbitration being in May?
I was gonna ask the same thing. Do we know when the arbitration will be taking place?
It's still May
Sure but is it really going to start in the next 3 days? Think we'd have heard.
Probably has already.
May 2026
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I was just going to post this as my prediction - INEOS/Ashworth want a good manager who wont challenge anything in a top down approach.
No manager worth their salt will agree to that. They should have a right to challenge status quo at time to time, in the right manner. It's healthy to do so.
Hence the Southgate links
Rob Dawson from ESPN? Seriously?
Just a couple of days he reported Ole done deal at Besiktas. He just guesses, takes the acclaim if correct, and moves on when wrong… which is often.
Just a couple of days he reported Ole done deal at Besiktas. He just guesses, takes the acclaim if correct, and moves on when wrong… which is often.
They want a coach. That’s fair. ETH was meant to coach us to play attacking pressing football. If he stays he is still obviously on very thin ice. I don’t think he’s going to get a higher paid or profile job so he’ll stay if he’s wanted but I assume he’s going to clash over recruitment as it was one of the provisos of him signing that he would able to pick his own players
If Rob Dawson had any credibility, he’d be working at the athletic not be Mickey Mouse’s bitch.
Got the link for that? I've always questioned ESPN but thought Rob Dawson and Ogden were meant to know things
They better start agreeing, because that is going to be the job most places in the near future.
Calling them a “yes” man is harsh and u true though. Manager/Coaches will have some input. But teams will have infrastructure that recruit to particular styles of football, and that same desired profile will play into what manager is chosen as well.
The days of letting a manager come in and axe/alienate two or three players and get 4 or 5 of “their” guys before getting the axe after year two … leaving the team with a squad full of players absolutely unsuited to playing together …. frankly should be gone.
I think, if you get a situation where somehow, some way you strike on the next SAF or Pep, and the manager is just winning every year consistently, getting trophies, and they become a fixture … then you could see it shift to where they are a larger part of the upper structure, like in old, classic managers.
But that would have to be earned, and would be as rare as … it always was. MOST of the managers with “Total control” were not worthy of it. The truly great and consistent managers were always rare.
Is Thomas Frank a ' Yes' man that could just focus on coaching the team without picking what players we need to recruit.
Ten Hag, Tuchel, Poch, Di Zerbi seem to be demanding type of characters and would want full input in to who they should sign.
Maybe that's why they don't want Ten Hag. Doesn't fit the project or may have already challenged the plan they want.
Ashworth's appointment has disaster written all over it.
Stop chasing him, he's not up to it.
Stop chasing him, he's not up to it.
We have no idea if it's true but the original Klopp v Edwards drama (or even the Pep v Barca drama) was exactly this. Klopp became the superstar manager and gained control over many different departments in the club leading to Edwards leaving. He was brought back by FSG and promised full control which in turn meant no more Klopp. Guardiola on the other hand complained about how the manager is the one in Barcelona that gets all the toxic hate from media / fans despite not having much control over how the board does things.
This is the way football is going, so the managers (let's just call them head coaches at this point) need to adapt or perish. Look at the NBA head coach as a decent model of how they want things to look like. The squad building aspect is not their duty and their only role is to get the players they're given perform up to expectations.
This is the way football is going, so the managers (let's just call them head coaches at this point) need to adapt or perish. Look at the NBA head coach as a decent model of how they want things to look like. The squad building aspect is not their duty and their only role is to get the players they're given perform up to expectations.
Bit hard when it now says “this post is unavailable”. Numerous people have replied/replied to him and tagged his tweet but gone.
Hard life being a journalist? Chuck a ton of shit at the Twitter timeline and see what sticks… either way, you get some tweets.
And no, Dawson is poor i.m.o. Whitwell maybe, Ornstein almost definitely.
Agree with most of this. I think the media are putting an unnecessary negative spin on this by referring to the position as a 'yes' man, especially as it's about Man Utd. Brighton impose the exact same structure on their managers. It's supposedly one of the reasons why RDZ left, and probably why he was overlooked for the Chelsea job, and seemingly the United one too.
I don't for a minute believe they want someone who will just come in and do as they're told. They want someone who will come in and focus on coaching the team and be less involved in transfers. They won't be cut out entirely, but the idea is they focus on coaching the agreed philosophy and tactics, and the club will do their best to always provide the players that can best carry that out for the manager.
It does seem quite bewildering that so many managers feel like they should get carte blanche, when they have very little credit in their career to justify it, especially compared to the true greats of the game. Even Klopp at Liverpool had to bow to a transfer committee. We all know the story about how he wanted Brandt and the club pushed for Salah instead, but it's a perfect example of why managers can't always be trusted to pick their transfer targets.
Because Ashworth went and told someone in the press "When I get into that club that I can't disclose I have anything to do with currently, I want a yes manager"
Come on folks, don't believe everything you read, take a second to think about it
I don't even think it's that the manager/head coach won't get a say in what kind of player comes in. Of course if you expect someone to take a squad of players and get them to produce the performance and strategy needed to win games, adapting this to each opponent and to who's available and who's not, week-in-week-out, then you are going to trust their input on what elements are missing from that squad. They will understand that more than anyone, from the ground level.
You're just not going to let them have a say in which specific individuals are signed to fulfil those needs.
You're just not going to let them have a say in which specific individuals are signed to fulfil those needs.
Oh good, another nothing tweet for all the weirdos to start frothing in rage over.
United fans and gullibility - name a better pair
Liverpool fans and think it's their year.
So we are really waiting on this guy like he's the second coming of Christ, are there no other DOF with a better track record?
It is all about finding the right balance and there are certainly pitfalls to giving the manager too much power. But it should be stressed that a club can really badly feck this kind of thing up in the other direction, not taking enough input from the manager.
It's all well and good to say that you'll recruit to a particular style of football, but most sporting directors don't really understand the game on a tactical level to nearly the same depth and detail as today's top managers. They can undoubtedly talk the talk because they've been around football forever. But in terms of the intricacies and details of how a team is being prepared to deal with specific opponents and gameplans, that's not their lane. The manager knows better than any other person what characteristics and qualities a player must have for a particular role in his tactical system to make it work.
Sidelining the manager so that a sporting director and his team of data analysts can buy all the players, then expecting the manager to make it work, is akin to these cooking shows where great chefs are given some random hodgepodge of ingredients and expected to make a Michelin star meal. They'll come up with something pretty damn good, but nowhere near as good as they would if they had real input - not total control, but real input - into the shopping.
Only when it’s United do they call a head coach working under a Director of Football a ‘yes’ man.
Arne Slot? Maresca? No such reporting
Arne Slot? Maresca? No such reporting
He can keep on gardening if it's true he wants to bring Southgate in
Talk sport did an entire segment on Chelsea parting ways with Poch and signing Maresca because we wanted a “yes man”
I saw it all over the place. It was a heated fanbase discussion.
With Slot you are right though, not even a mention. The process has simply found the next hidden gem to carry on what Klopp started … etc.