Manchester United name John Murtough as Football Director and Darren Fletcher as Technical Director
- Thread starter Tom Van Persie
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
Yds agree. Until the leeches go then we dont know if they are competent or not. Leeches control the money instead of giving the CEO a budget.
Just realised if we sign 5 players this window(which looks kinda likely), we would have got 10 new players in since the Ragnick season, and which aligns exactly with what he said about needing 10 new players in couple of summer windows.
Time is running out for your boy.
When this week passes and we still haven't signed anyone, I wonder how you'll spin this to convince yourself and us that your dear John doing a fantastic job.
2 offers already rejected for Rice form City and Arsenal and he decided now to ask WH to give him time to think about considering a deal with a player + cash.
I know
- how will I ever cope?Why not? Maguire and McTominay would both be good signings for them. What difference does it make if they turn around and spend a big chunk of the money arsenal give them on our players?
I am not against the principle of the deal (despite me thinking players + cash deals are not optimal and complicated), but him reacting so slowly is the thing, why he did not think of that 2 weeks ago?
I dont really expect to get a blow by blow accounting of his days to be honest or take these kind of stories that literally. He could have done it 2 weeks ago, considering the stories about him doing it 2 weeks ago and every few weeks for the last 6 months that seems pretty plausible.
I doubt its optimal either but i expect were at least talking about all 3 deals.
Which month and which year?
Time for United fans to accept after 10 years we don't dine at the top Tier table any longer. The only way we have attempted to do this was pay over the odds on wages.
I'm quite happy to not waste my time on these A list targets and move on and achieve progress with targets who actually would be happy to come to us.
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Murtough is another yes man, that’s one of biggest reasons why he got the job. He knew he was signing up for a shit show, he was never going to rock the boat and the Glazers knew that.
The guy might be very competent, he might not but anyone who thought he was going to oversee huge strides forward was living in a dream world.
The guy might be very competent, he might not but anyone who thought he was going to oversee huge strides forward was living in a dream world.
Looks like he is doing a circus with the De Gea situation.
We're like ugly fat kid paying money to give a half decent looking girl a peck on the cheeks! Girl says give me the money quick and get it over with without anybody looking!
For the love of God can these incel metaphors please die.
Story of youre live
If the owners do not give permission for us to sign anybody what are they supposed to do? The Glazers are still the owners so still have the final say. They just want as much money as they can get and messing up our transfer window will be their final stab in the back.
As I said in the DDG thread, we just need to look at the utter shambles of the club sale to see how hard it must be to work for the Glazers. I’ve no idea if this guy is any good at his job but I can categorically say that reporting into owners who take this fecking long to make their mind up must mean that sorting out big money transfers and contracts at MUFC is an excruciating chore.
Ah. I see someone else already made the same point.
Exactly! Which I don’t understand why so many people are chomping at the bit to get rid of them when it’s clear they’re not the problem
This is a decent point. And it’s been widely reported that Avram has to sign off on every decision.
It’s Joel who makes the decisions, but it’s a moot point. They dither and make things difficult for Murtough/Arnold.
Joel.
I would love for someone to explain to me why this guy hasn't been able to sell any of our players (other than Iqbal.) I don't care if it's hard - it's his job. The likes of Henderson, McTominay, De Gea, and Fred all should have been moved on by now. Wouldn't their sales also help with the FFP dilemma that we supposedly face?
Perhaps but I'd also be all for sweeping them all out and getting the best of the best in (I have no idea whom that might be, mind you...)
The Glazers having to sign things off makes it difficult to assess the competence with much of the individuals in the hierarchy. I think at this moment in time there are arguments for and against Murtough. The biggest criticisms have to be that the hiring of Ragnick from what's reported was backed strongly by him and the failure to dismiss Solskjaer earlier in proceedings. That's the past however and the most relevant issue at present from the outside looking in, is another situation where the manager is running the show once again (this dynamic has failed with consecutive managers). ETH supposedly dismissed the scouting recommendations last season in favor of his own which is understandable given the transition of that department but a year on and surely there must be fruit from those decisions that were made months ago ? I still get the feeling United are putting a team together as opposed to building a team. Look at the age profile of the midfield for instance and the supposed interest in Rabiot in this example, thats Casemiro 31, Eriksen 31, Bruno 28, Rabiot 28 as first team players under a new manager. Many dismiss Mount but his age profile alone should be one of the biggest factors because the club will head towards a Liverpool situation where multiple first team players drop off a cliff in form due to regression. I personally don't see what the club is setting out to do with building this team. You can easily discern the direction for instance with the likes of Arsenal / Madrid nurturing the team for the next decade or so and with ownership like the Glazers having a longer term approach is more sustainable compared to every season forking out large fee's for hyped players which has created this revolving door rebuild giving us the reality of that thread "what we still need, never-ending story" which as a thread title does well to define the influence of Murtough and co with the lack of strategy heading forward.
Inept and incompetent all of our recruitment team headed by the Glazers the most pathetic, heartless football club owners ever.
I get the impression Murtough is a quietly spoken yes man with good honest values and who likes to get on with everyone, a bit like OGS. This is no good for modern day football, we need an ambitious go getting proactive, business savvy DOF. If QATAR get in first thing they need to do is replace Murtough.
I dont buy this BS that he is working so hard on transfers, he couldnt close an umbrella this guy, he is too nice.
I get the impression Murtough is a quietly spoken yes man with good honest values and who likes to get on with everyone, a bit like OGS. This is no good for modern day football, we need an ambitious go getting proactive, business savvy DOF. If QATAR get in first thing they need to do is replace Murtough.
I dont buy this BS that he is working so hard on transfers, he couldnt close an umbrella this guy, he is too nice.
I think it’s probably because they were employed by the Glazers to be agreeable yes men, rather than based on their previous brilliance at the job they’ve been given.
So while it’s true that working under the Glazers must make it difficult to do a great job here, it’s also true that they’ve been employed by the Glazers to do what they’re currently doing.
So it’s probably a best case scenario of - they might turn out to be amazing at their job if given the right circumstances, but when did the Glazers employ anyone in the infrastructure of the running of Man Utd who was amazing at their job?
Tbh if I were a new owner that was serious about Utd being successful, I’d look to phase out literally every element of the Glazer’s ownership, with ETH being the only figure I’d be interested in keeping on.
A club of Utd’s size and means must be aiming to employ best in class. You can’t have little clubs like Brighton and Brentford employing better infrastructure than Utd ffs - there’s literally no excuse for it.
Would any of these guys get a job at Brighton? If not, why not?
And if the honest answer to the above is ‘no’, then why are they employed and earning top coin at the biggest club in the country?
How did you come to that conclusion given Murtough rarely, if never, speaks publicly or gives interviews?
He was head of elite performance at the Premier League beforehand, hardly someone with no football knowledge. He’s responsible for trying to revamp United’s academy, and he was behind the recruitments Garnacho and Mejbri for instance.
Doesn’t make him a genius but you have as little knowledge on who he is or what he does as the rest of us.
And any responsible new owner with a minimum of experience in acquisition knows that you first conduct your own audit on the employees before deciding who will be kept and who will be let go.
Firing everyone employed by the Glazers might quench the Caf thirst for blood but would be incredibly bad business
I think the new owners will do just that. If you're spending billions on an asset, you want it to be managed by people you can trust, not by people with a dubious track record. Clearing the Glazer rot also gives them an easy PR win with the fans.
That is why i am not losing my nerves this window. I expected nothing from Murtough and Fletcher and so far they are delivering according my expectations.
New owner will replace them with his own people so it is easier to cope with (another) messy window.
we've never been a club that sells well historically. The only players we sold well were Beckham and Ronaldo. I would have thought with this 'commercial' approach and business focus the deals would be more profit driven. But this is complete different level of incompetence from everyone involved.
Murtough in Turin: Wait for the big reveal of a terrible trainer/suit outfit. It’s like when Alan Partridge wears the Castrol GTX jacket to a funeral…
He even made a mess with simple contract renewal with Dave.
Ed was a plonker but this guy is just completely incompetent.
Ed was a plonker but this guy is just completely incompetent.
feck me. You’d complain if we gave him a new one and call him incompetent for doing so!
feck, even the reports are claiming that EtH is behind the contract repeal and not Murtough, but yes, let’s blame Murtough
I am talking about mess he made regarding that extension circus. Not about final decision will Dave leave or stay.
And for the last time; Murtough is the boss of Erik. Not opposite. If Erik changed his mind then it is third time that Murtough looks like a clown because of Erik (and when he looks like a clown then club look also).
First he camped 2 months in Barcelona for Frenkie (who didn't have any desire to leave Barca). Then he overpayed hugely for Antony and now this with Dave.
I am delighted with having Erik as a manager but DoF who will be manager's yes man is a absolute disaster for the club in a long run.
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Maybe time to get Overmars in? 
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...-man-united-tom-heaton-luton-town-goalkeeper/
Just another shit show unfolding at Old Trafford, nothing to see here....
Just another shit show unfolding at Old Trafford, nothing to see here....
Maybe because he never signed off on it in the first place
One down, one to go
With the limited knowledge I have on this, if asked who out of Murtough or Arnold to keep, I'd go the latter all day long. Maybe some of that is because I've heard Arnold speak and found him warm and honest (in the pub chat with the protestors, which was admittedly small-time but humanised him, and also at the United awards show).
Besides some of the stupid stuff I see us doing from a footballing point of view, two other things stick in my mind about Murtough -
1) The conversation with Lingard, rejecting a loan but offering days off, seemingly without Ralf Rangnick's say-so
2) The fact that the media basically had to tell ETH that Luke Shaw signed a new contract. Why the feck isn't Murtough doing that?
He seems to be a poor communicator. For someone meant to be getting our footballing operations organised, he seems to be doing anything but that. Having said all this, it's really hard to assess while the Glazers are in charge. Maybe the likes of Murtough and the scouts etc. will thrive under new owners.
As for Fletcher, I don't get the crazy hate/suspicion over him here. He's clearly a very intelligent bloke (I've spoken to him so perhaps I'm biased) and lots of successful clubs employ ex players in more important roles than our Darren occupies.
Besides some of the stupid stuff I see us doing from a footballing point of view, two other things stick in my mind about Murtough -
1) The conversation with Lingard, rejecting a loan but offering days off, seemingly without Ralf Rangnick's say-so
2) The fact that the media basically had to tell ETH that Luke Shaw signed a new contract. Why the feck isn't Murtough doing that?
He seems to be a poor communicator. For someone meant to be getting our footballing operations organised, he seems to be doing anything but that. Having said all this, it's really hard to assess while the Glazers are in charge. Maybe the likes of Murtough and the scouts etc. will thrive under new owners.
As for Fletcher, I don't get the crazy hate/suspicion over him here. He's clearly a very intelligent bloke (I've spoken to him so perhaps I'm biased) and lots of successful clubs employ ex players in more important roles than our Darren occupies.