Imagine going into an interview with that?
If it had to be an ex player it should have been Rio. Hopefully Fletch surprises me if this rumour is true.
Man Utd set to appoint Director of Football (when hell freezes over)
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If it had to be an ex player it should have been Rio. Hopefully Fletch surprises me if this rumour is true.
Did Van Der Sar and Overmars? Does it really matter in the end?
What has VDS anything to do with it? He is not a DoF at Ajax. You should look it up.
I don't mind if Fergie has got to do something with it. He s more competent than Ed for sure.
It remains to be seen who will actually make the decisions. Hopefully all this is not a smokescreen ...
It remains to be seen who will actually make the decisions. Hopefully all this is not a smokescreen ...
What shambles this club is in.
Hired a no body to replace fergie as Jose didn't fit United.
Hired a manager who'll only be here for max of 3 years.
Hired jose, broken one. Surprisingly he was fit for united after 2 failed managers.
Hired essentially a rookie as a manager.
Need a experienced DOF but now this.
Whats next keeping the likes of Young.
Hired a no body to replace fergie as Jose didn't fit United.
Hired a manager who'll only be here for max of 3 years.
Hired jose, broken one. Surprisingly he was fit for united after 2 failed managers.
Hired essentially a rookie as a manager.
Need a experienced DOF but now this.
Whats next keeping the likes of Young.
Woodward: So, I'm glad the board are all here. The situation is this, we're in the shit and the fans want blood. I want to completely distance myself 'visibly' from dealing with the manager while still keeping complete control over everything that goes on. So I suggest we hire someone who can do all the running around from match days in Manchester to my office in London and be my 'face' while we carry on. It will be a superficial role that actually has no power what so ever, Sound good?
Yes throw an inexperienced man into a mess of a club with no discernable structure.
If the DOF doesn't have power to match Woodward then no substantial changes will come.
If the DOF doesn't have power to match Woodward then no substantial changes will come.
No, Overmars is, which is why I mentioned him also.
Pretty much, there's no way he will relinquish the absolute power that he has at the club. It's bad enough he is incompetent but the guy is just scum and pure poison to our club. I have more respect for the dog shit I stepped in yesterday.
Seeing the thread title I thought Ralf Rangnick might have been an interesting candidate.
He obviously hasn't worked at a club of United's size and owing to the budgets of his clubs his transfer strategy has been centered around youth, so he would be a bit of a gamble in that regard but he pretty much built both Hoffenheim and Leipzig from scratch, so he has a successful experiences when it comes to building a functioning structure with a clear plan from scratch.
He's also fairly ruthless, demanding discipline from his players and not hesitating to take action when a coach can't deliver.
He obviously hasn't worked at a club of United's size and owing to the budgets of his clubs his transfer strategy has been centered around youth, so he would be a bit of a gamble in that regard but he pretty much built both Hoffenheim and Leipzig from scratch, so he has a successful experiences when it comes to building a functioning structure with a clear plan from scratch.
He's also fairly ruthless, demanding discipline from his players and not hesitating to take action when a coach can't deliver.
Inexperience seems to be leading factor to getting the top jobs at United it seems.
Just what we need, another middle man instead of an actual DOF to give us direction.
Darren Fletcher...Jesus wept we are becoming a parody.
The club is trying too hard not to become Man City, while forgetting how successful they’ve been and how well they are ran.
Darren Fletcher, Phelan, deary me, let’s bring Phil Neville back while we’re at it.
Seem like they just want another yes man and another victim to blame their incompetence on which is not surprising.
This club is leaving in la-la land, I thought the Moyes debacle made the board grow a bit from their toddler fantasy stories, this is an absolute joke.
Why does it always have to be someone like David May, Phil Neville, Darren Fletcher, Michael Carrick, what’s this club deal with grafters and boring personalities with no experience in the field they are hired “?
Darren Fletcher, Phelan, deary me, let’s bring Phil Neville back while we’re at it.
Seem like they just want another yes man and another victim to blame their incompetence on which is not surprising.
This club is leaving in la-la land, I thought the Moyes debacle made the board grow a bit from their toddler fantasy stories, this is an absolute joke.
Why does it always have to be someone like David May, Phil Neville, Darren Fletcher, Michael Carrick, what’s this club deal with grafters and boring personalities with no experience in the field they are hired “?
There have been many examples of former players doing a good job for their clubs and Ajax and Bayern are examples of that. Fletcher strikes me as a very intelligent man, has good football knowledge and who knows, perhaps he will do this job very well. There has been a lot of people wanting a DOF and some seem to think there is this or that person that is the Messiah in finding new players. When trying to figure out the United setup it seems to me that we have:
John Murtough - Head of development
Jim Lawlor - Chief Analyst
Marcel Bout - Chief Scout
Plus that we have a scouting network of around 50 around the world accoring to MEN in november 2018 after the club decided to put a lot of money into improving the scouting department.
So say Fletcher was hired then he would be working with those 3 here above+scouts+OGS and his team. Could it not be stated that there is a lot of football knowledge combined there?
One point also about signings:
Mourinho signed: Fred,Dalot,Grant,Lukaku,Matic,Lindelof,Sanchez,Pogba,Mkhitaryan,Bailly,Zlatan for a cost of over 400 million pounds. Do you think Man Utd signed a single player Mourinho did not want? I do not think so and then you could make the arguement that few of those have worked out. So was that Mourinho or the scouting team? Mourinho must carry the blame for that.
Van Gaal signed: Martial,Schneiderlin,Depay,Darmian,Schweinsteiger,Romero,Di Maria,Shaw,Herrara,Rojo,Blind,Falcao for around 310 million pounds. Some ok signings in Shaw and Herrera but largely a lot of mistakes. Again do you think we signed a single player not wanted by Van Gaal?
Moyes signed: Mata and Fellaini for 70 million pounds and they have not turned out to be strong signings either.
So I make the conclusion that the root cause of our problems is a lot of singings we have made have not been to the standard needed. So who is to blame? Is it the owners and Woodward? Managers? Scouting department? Difficulty in the market due to PSG,City and their dodgy stream of cash? Or is it a sum of all those things as I belive BUT at the end of the day the setup at United is that the manager decides on the signings in the end and gets very well for carrying that responsibility.
One of the reasons Zidane took over again at Madrid was because they gave more power to him regarding signings. So for him being able to call all the shots regarding signings was important as I imagine most managers would like to have that power.
So perhaps OGS+DOF(Fletch)+plus this scouting team at the club will surprise a few people going forward. Because the plain fact is that there has not been a single player signed for the past years that the managers did not want. But perhaps it was more convenient for Mourinho to blame everybody else than himself.
John Murtough - Head of development
Jim Lawlor - Chief Analyst
Marcel Bout - Chief Scout
Plus that we have a scouting network of around 50 around the world accoring to MEN in november 2018 after the club decided to put a lot of money into improving the scouting department.
So say Fletcher was hired then he would be working with those 3 here above+scouts+OGS and his team. Could it not be stated that there is a lot of football knowledge combined there?
One point also about signings:
Mourinho signed: Fred,Dalot,Grant,Lukaku,Matic,Lindelof,Sanchez,Pogba,Mkhitaryan,Bailly,Zlatan for a cost of over 400 million pounds. Do you think Man Utd signed a single player Mourinho did not want? I do not think so and then you could make the arguement that few of those have worked out. So was that Mourinho or the scouting team? Mourinho must carry the blame for that.
Van Gaal signed: Martial,Schneiderlin,Depay,Darmian,Schweinsteiger,Romero,Di Maria,Shaw,Herrara,Rojo,Blind,Falcao for around 310 million pounds. Some ok signings in Shaw and Herrera but largely a lot of mistakes. Again do you think we signed a single player not wanted by Van Gaal?
Moyes signed: Mata and Fellaini for 70 million pounds and they have not turned out to be strong signings either.
So I make the conclusion that the root cause of our problems is a lot of singings we have made have not been to the standard needed. So who is to blame? Is it the owners and Woodward? Managers? Scouting department? Difficulty in the market due to PSG,City and their dodgy stream of cash? Or is it a sum of all those things as I belive BUT at the end of the day the setup at United is that the manager decides on the signings in the end and gets very well for carrying that responsibility.
One of the reasons Zidane took over again at Madrid was because they gave more power to him regarding signings. So for him being able to call all the shots regarding signings was important as I imagine most managers would like to have that power.
So perhaps OGS+DOF(Fletch)+plus this scouting team at the club will surprise a few people going forward. Because the plain fact is that there has not been a single player signed for the past years that the managers did not want. But perhaps it was more convenient for Mourinho to blame everybody else than himself.
Wait? Fletcher? Oh my god
just appoint him already. He needs every day he can to get up to speed, the way things are going I highly doubt this is a decision that has been made for some time. He's going to come in completely blind to what is going on and it will further delay bringing in and getting rid of players in a huge summer for United.
Might get him a job at Tesco.
Darren Fletcher 
Seriously? Why not Robbo, or Cantona? I mean, if you're set on hiring old boys for the job, why not Joe Jordan or even Norman Whiteside. Just put their names on a slip of paper, put 'em all in a hat, don the blindfold and pick one.Darren Fletcher
It looks so bleak to be honest. We might be fighting relegation next season.
Does anyone here have an idea what this role is supposed to be?
Pritt stick between Ole and Ed
The problem: Last year Mourinho and Woodward couldn't agree on transfers leading to us not signing anyone for certain positions and their working relationship collapsing.
The obvious solution: Don't let Woodward have a say in transfers beyond giving the manager a budget. Either back the manager or sack him OR appoint a Director of Football who has a remit covering transfers and the manager acts more as a first team coach.
United's solution: What about Darren Fletcher acting as 'glue'?
The obvious solution: Don't let Woodward have a say in transfers beyond giving the manager a budget. Either back the manager or sack him OR appoint a Director of Football who has a remit covering transfers and the manager acts more as a first team coach.
United's solution: What about Darren Fletcher acting as 'glue'?
Yeah, I’ve no idea what that involves.
Does anyone have an idea about anything at this club. It’s almost feels like a bad social experiment of how to ruin a hugely successful and popular football club in as short a time as possible.
Hahaha. If you don’t laugh you’d cry. Some serious amateur stuff going on at this club. Biggest club in the world apparently. What is happening?
He's not our new goalkeeper fs, wise up.
It has all the appearance of an absolute clusterfeck. Without knowing what the role actually involves, we can’t possibly determine if Fletcher might be the right guy. Certainly for the type of role that I envisioned when speculation about a DoF first surfaced, he seems to lack any qualifications or experience whatsoever.
I'm guessing, but I would imagine Ole and Fletch discuss who they would like to sign, and then Fletch (not Ole), go to Ed and asks if it's possible please, then Ed goes to the Glazers and asks them if they'll pay up, what could possible go wrong..
Very true
Woodward isn't going to give up power on transfers. Anyone expecting otherwise will be disappointed.
Honesty you'd think the guy owned the club, he's a fecking employee, and he's made one mistake after another, yet because he was the dirty devil who helped the even dirtier devils buy he club he's untouchable.
So, how is that supposed to work ? Fletcher trains with his team at morning, spend the rest of the day at United but there might be a game at night, then in a couple days he has to play again...yeah, good call
To me it seems as if there is a market inefficiency in this field ; not enough bodies, I could buy the idea of Darren being in the role. I often see laments on here about the lack of former United players involved at exec level, we gotta start somewhere.
I am not saying he's a good choice but what makes him a bad one?
He's coached at the club, done badges, from all anyone knows on here he could excel at analysis of the game
He's coached at the club, done badges, from all anyone knows on here he could excel at analysis of the game
Paul Pogba couldn't force himself into Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United team because of ill-disciplined displays in the club's reserve side, according to Darren Fletcher .
The former United midfielder did some coaching with the club's second string while Pogba was trying to make his way in the game, and says they had to play the Frenchman further forward because he wasn't suited to the centre of the field at that time.
"I did a spell coaching with the [Manchester United] reserve team which included Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard, Ravel Morrison - a lot of talented players," the Stoke midfielder said on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football coverage of Huddersfield's 1-0 win over Fulham.
We played [Pogba] a lot higher up the pitch in attacking areas and we felt like he was the one that could go and win us games really.
"A combination of the fact that we felt he had a little bit of ill-discipline in the middle of the park as more of a central midfielder."
And it was that ill-discipline that was clearly on Ferguson's mind when a midfield selection crisis forced him to cobble together a side for a league game against Blackburn on New Year's Eve 2011, which forced Pogba to decide to leave.
"It goes back to that famous game which we though he left Manchester United off the back of, when we lost to Blackburn 3-2," continued Fletcher.
"Everyone was injured really, all the midfielders - Ji-sung Park, Phil Jones and Rafael had spells in midfield, and Paul was on the bench.
"I think at that time we didn't think he was disciplined enough for the reserve team so to then to jump into the first team in an important game - people can see why [we didn't start him]."
Pogba left United for Juventus on a free transfer that summer, only to return for £89m four years later.
And Fletcher says he still thinks Pogba is better suited to be on the attack
“I like to see him in the final third and creating things," he added.
“He played for Juventus [on the left] and I spoke before about his connection with [Anthony] Martial. Pogba can easily drift out wide. He can also get in the box, he’s a big lad. I’d love to see him with a bit more freedom to express himself.”
The former United midfielder did some coaching with the club's second string while Pogba was trying to make his way in the game, and says they had to play the Frenchman further forward because he wasn't suited to the centre of the field at that time.
"I did a spell coaching with the [Manchester United] reserve team which included Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard, Ravel Morrison - a lot of talented players," the Stoke midfielder said on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football coverage of Huddersfield's 1-0 win over Fulham.
We played [Pogba] a lot higher up the pitch in attacking areas and we felt like he was the one that could go and win us games really.
"A combination of the fact that we felt he had a little bit of ill-discipline in the middle of the park as more of a central midfielder."
And it was that ill-discipline that was clearly on Ferguson's mind when a midfield selection crisis forced him to cobble together a side for a league game against Blackburn on New Year's Eve 2011, which forced Pogba to decide to leave.
"It goes back to that famous game which we though he left Manchester United off the back of, when we lost to Blackburn 3-2," continued Fletcher.
"Everyone was injured really, all the midfielders - Ji-sung Park, Phil Jones and Rafael had spells in midfield, and Paul was on the bench.
"I think at that time we didn't think he was disciplined enough for the reserve team so to then to jump into the first team in an important game - people can see why [we didn't start him]."
Pogba left United for Juventus on a free transfer that summer, only to return for £89m four years later.
And Fletcher says he still thinks Pogba is better suited to be on the attack
“I like to see him in the final third and creating things," he added.
“He played for Juventus [on the left] and I spoke before about his connection with [Anthony] Martial. Pogba can easily drift out wide. He can also get in the box, he’s a big lad. I’d love to see him with a bit more freedom to express himself.”
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I could be wrong, but I think Fletcher's role will be to act as a go-between for the manager and the board. Oh, and he will also be expected to make the tea.
So a messenger boy or a tea boy or a combination of the two.
Just what we need to fuel our resurgence.
Look, what I figure is that every fan is panicking right now. Whatever decision is made, its gonna be criticized, and DOF or whatever is the position, will be under a lot of pressure.
Lets just hope that after 7 years of catastrophic decisions and football, the top has sorted themselves out and is making the right decisions. Van Der Sar didn't have any directorial experience, he's at Ajax now, killing it. Might be a good idea to appoint someone who really hurts and cares for our club. Someone who knows what the club is about and what the fans want.
Lets just hope that after 7 years of catastrophic decisions and football, the top has sorted themselves out and is making the right decisions. Van Der Sar didn't have any directorial experience, he's at Ajax now, killing it. Might be a good idea to appoint someone who really hurts and cares for our club. Someone who knows what the club is about and what the fans want.
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As much as I like Fletcher and think there's a small chance he could actually be good in the role given the chance...We are Manchester United. There is no fecking way we should be just giving jobs to people with zero experience in that field. Literally no other club in the world would give Fletcher this job. But we might be because....he used to play for us. Jesus christ...if he fancies being a Dof go to some non league club and prove himself there and work his way up. We are a total joke.
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