Manchester United name John Murtough as Football Director and Darren Fletcher as Technical Director

[SalfordRed18]

’Hey everyone. Just to let you know, we make the most fecking money out of all of you and it doesn’t matter how we perform on the pitch. Who wants to do business?’

You joke, but that is pretty much how he conducted his business in hindsight.

 

[Ali Dia]

I think he’s finally tightened up the transfers team. We hear we are going for a target and we actually just try to get them done as fast as possible. None of this Utd might make a bid at some stage. No more relaxed about or monitoring the situation. They are working in relative austerity mode with the ownership and are attracting players of a good age who will strengthen us. I love the manager and his vision and the positive atmosphere around the team but the proof will be in if and when we challenge. Hopefully the players are finally good enough to take us back to where we belong.

I don’t see ETH ever losing the dressing room. He’s got almost a new team and we obviously already have some very good players here. We’ve spent a lot but for years City were on a different planet recruiting and developing some of the best players in the world while we made the wrong choice repeatedly.Their scouting coaching and recruitment was on a different planet to ours. Even Liverpool were. Now it feels like we are catching up and making quicker and smarter buys and working in synergy.

We are also finally even trying to sell the players that will never play and reinvest the money. Hallelujah!

 

[VP89]

Gave that dumb cnut Goldbridge a listen, it's a guilty pleasure just to hear the shit he comes out with.

The imbecile said its been a great transfer window and refused to put anything of credit on Murtough and Arnold. He said its all Ten Hag and there's a theme that we've improved since Ten Hag came.

Hes such a thick shit he doesn't even know Arnold and Murtough came at the same time.

 

[Rightnr]

Gave that dumb cnut Goldbridge a listen, it's a guilty pleasure just to hear the shit he comes out with.

The imbecile said its been a great transfer window and refused to put anything of credit on Murtough and Arnold. He said its all Ten Hag and there's a theme that we've improved since Ten Hag came.

Hes such a thick shit he doesn't even know Arnold and Murtough came at the same time.

Hm, delicious irony.

 

[VP89]

Hm, delicious irony.

By way of transfer windows I'm not wrong

 

[Rightnr]

By way of transfer windows I'm not wrong

https://www.skysports.com/football/...arren-fletcher-promoted-to-technical-director

https://www.manutd.com/en/news/deta...richard-arnold-as-new-chief-executive-officer

 

[edcunited1878]

Classic case of giving the manager all the credit or none at all when things go well or it goes south.

Murtough has navigated things really well with respect to academy overhaul, scouting/recruitment turnover, transfer negotiations for incoming and outgoing.

And there's a larger presence of data analysts, performance coaches, etc. This isn't all down to the manager and the structures that have been put into place since Murtough has been at the club then now recently as Football Director has been fantastic to see.

 

[VP89]

https://www.skysports.com/football/...arren-fletcher-promoted-to-technical-director

https://www.manutd.com/en/news/deta...richard-arnold-as-new-chief-executive-officer

Ed Woodward didn't leave his role until January last year. We needed to bring in emergency contract negotiators in the interim after we sacked off matt judge swiftly after.

Last summer was the first window we actually got to experience Murtough and Arnold in full swing.

 

[Rightnr]

People might engage in some Murtough fangirling and try to point to purchases of players which are basically all EtH targets but the fact we've failed to sell well tells you all you need to know.

The fact essays are needed to somehow prove Murtough's apparently been on a madness just reminds me of corporate bullshitters writing paragraphs of nonsense to justify overinflated compensation.

 

[Roboc7]

Murtough is doing the bare minimum, we’re more reliant on the manager than we’ve ever been and idea some were pushing last summer that ETH wouldn’t have such a huge say in transfers going forward has well and truly been put to bed. I think people just get massively carried away with what Murtough does and have unrealistic expectations of what he can do.

Given needs of the squad I think two signings and one almost done at this stage is nothing to write home about but with Glazers in control can’t expect a lot. Lack of sales is still an issue as well but that is made pretty tough by ridiculous wages we pay.

 

[Adnan]

Murtough explains the process for signings

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The recruitment is centred around ten Hag working with the scouts and analysts. And that's mentioned by Murtough in the tweet you've posted. So whether the player has worked with ten Hag previously or not isn't a issue because it's the job of the scouts, analysts and Dominic Jordan (head of data science) to run the rule over targets and how they (targets) fit into the play style that is being developed. Previously this didn't happen with the managers having their personal scouts. The key is to work together with a view to developing a proactive, attacking play style that has been missing for far too long. Liverpool did the same under Klopp and the key is to work together and develop a team with the aim to play proactive football.


And when you have people who are more concerned with how quickly transfers are completed rather than how transfers/recruitment is going to develop a play style that correlates to the present day reality of the EPL, where the top end of the EPL is being dominated by teams who implement a proactive attacking style with and with out the ball. Then it's easy to see why such people have a narrow minded view of the remit of a director of football.

The DoF role is simple imo. And the DoF either joins a functional structure or a dysfunctional structure created by someone else. And in Murtough's case he was dropped into a first team structure created by someone else and thus far he's ripped that structure apart and added the people below.

Andy O'Boyle (assistant DoF)
Jose Mayorga (Head scout)
Simon Wells (Head scout)
Dominic Jordan (Head of data science)
Matt Hargreaves (head of transfer/contract negotiations)

 

[wolvored]

WTF they doing with Rasmus? He wont be announced now until next week apparently, so misses the last 2 friendlies.

 

[UnitedSofa]

WTF they doing with Rasmus? He wont be announced now until next week apparently, so misses the last 2 friendlies.

For a start the announcement is over the weekend and secondly “they” are not doing anything wrong.

HE arrived later than expected. All logistics and probably a delayed flight or whatever. Chill out. Bloody hell.

Getting all worked up and throwing shit at the DOF over an announcement is a new one.

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[Dominos]

For a start the announcement is over the weekend and secondly “they” are not doing anything wrong.

HE arrived later than expected. All logistics and probably a delayed flight or whatever. Chill out. Bloody hell.

Getting all worked up and throwing shit at the DOF over an announcement is a new one.

It's not about the announcement, it's about him missing all of our pre-season games because we couldn't get a deal done.

 

[ArbeitervonWien]

Arnold and Murtough came at the same time

Good to hear, I'm happy for them!

But how would you know when even Goldbridge hasn't heard about it? Anyway, he would find a way to give EtH credit for it.

 

[VP89]

Good to hear, I'm happy for them!

But how would you know when even Goldbridge hasn't heard about it? Anyway, he would find a way to give EtH credit for it.

What do you mean "when even Goldbridge"?

The guy is an absolute feckwit and makes up shit on the regular.

 

[Dominos]

I see no evidence that Murtough is doing an amazing job. He's just targeting players Ten Hag wants and overpaying for them. The only positive is that he hasn't gone rogue and tried to make galactico signings like Woody did.

Yeah, I think we've been run so badly for 10 years that not having a complete disaster of a window is now treated as something special.

We've managed to bring in 2 players in time for some pre-season games. The 3rd we've somehow managed to delay to the point he'll have zero pre-season with us. It's not groundbreaking stuff and mildly annoying we've somehow took months to bring a striker in such that we won't see him until the opening game of the season.

The 3rd "take it or leave it" offer for Mount which got rejected, and for us to fold a week later and give them an extra £5m is just comical, Woodward would have been laughed at.

The real test of the football operations is whether the signings actually work and take us towards winning the league and champions league, which remains to be seen.

 

[UnitedSofa]

It's not about the announcement, it's about him missing all of our pre-season games because we couldn't get a deal done.

What on earth do you mean??!! The deal is done. He’s our player for christ sakes.

We signed 3 players in the month of July and now there’s sections of the forum, annoyed, and throwing criticism their way because of an announcement?!? feck me.

There’s 3 games left. 5th, 6th and 14th August.

He’ll play on the 14th. He may even play on the 6th if he’s lucky. Very doubtful though. Christ almighty.

Getting annoyed because Hojlund made it over here a lil late & still blaming Murtough, is fecking incredible. What did you want him to do, fly him over himself? Why don’t he do the medical for him, better yet, make him do it on the plane and get him to get into full kit so he can step out on to OT as soon as the plane lands.

 

[Dominos]

What on earth do you mean??!! The deal is done. He’s our player for christ sakes.

We signed 3 players in the month of July and now there’s sections of the forum, annoyed, and throwing criticism their way because of an announcement?!? feck me.

There’s 3 games left. 5th, 6th and 14th August.

He’ll play on the 14th. He may even play on the 6th if he’s lucky. Very doubtful though. Christ almighty.

Getting annoyed because Hojlund made it over here a lil late & still blaming Murtough, is fecking incredible. What did you want him to do, fly him over himself? Why don’t he do the medical for him, better yet, make him do it on the plane and get him to get into full kit so he can step out on to OT as soon as the plane lands.

It's not about the announcement though is it.. It's about him missing our entire pre-season because we couldn't get the deal done in reasonable time.

The 14th is our opening premier league game, that's not pre-season.

Our pre-season ends this weekend. If he plays in one of them, fair enough, well done John, but it seems unlikely from what we're reading. But in the event he has missed our entire pre-season, it's poor.

He's not missed our entire pre-season because his plane was a bit late, he's missed our entire pre-season because it's taken us 2 months to get the deal done.

 

[Waynne]

Yeah, I think this is close to the reality. But would add that this doesn’t mean Murtough should be criticised in the slightest - he’s just actually doing his job. A job he is paid handsomely to do.

He’s not going above or beyond, or pulling off wonder deals, but conversely, he’s getting the players his manager wants fairly swiftly. Whether he’s getting the first choice or second or third, we don’t really know.

I think that Woodward did such an unbelievably bad job that just having someone simply do their job seems like an incredible achievement.

I also think most of what’s positive about Utd atm is down to ETH.

Haha, this is so true.

 

[UnitedSofa]

It's not about the announcement though is it.. It's about him missing our entire pre-season because we couldn't get the deal done in reasonable time.

The 14th is our opening premier league game, that's not pre-season.

Our pre-season ends this weekend. If he plays in one of them, fair enough, well done John, but it seems unlikely from what we're reading. But in the event he has missed our entire pre-season, it's poor.

He's not missed our entire pre-season because his plane was a bit late, he's missed our entire pre-season because it's taken us 2 months to get the deal done.

In that case my bad. (14th)

But, the deal got done relatively quickly. 3 players in 1 month is incredible. I don’t see it being too much of an issue (missing pre-season) he’ll be bedded in and it’ll be fine.

 

[Adnan]

It's not about the announcement though is it.. It's about him missing our entire pre-season because we couldn't get the deal done in reasonable time.

The 14th is our opening premier league game, that's not pre-season.

Our pre-season ends this weekend. If he plays in one of them, fair enough, well done John, but it seems unlikely from what we're reading. But in the event he has missed our entire pre-season, it's poor.

He's not missed our entire pre-season because his plane was a bit late, he's missed our entire pre-season because it's taken us 2 months to get the deal done.

I don't think he's going to start the Wolves game either because it's been reported that the plan was to introduce him slowly.

The last two strikers we signed on permanent deals who missed the whole of preseason and were signed at the end of August, were Dwight Yorke (August 20) and Wayne Rooney (August 31). So hopefully it's a good omen.

 

[sglowrider]

He's not missed our entire pre-season because his plane was a bit late, he's missed our entire pre-season because it's taken us 2 months to get the deal done.

Sure we could have got the deal done within a week if we were to cough up the 90million that Atalanta was asking initially -- assuming that's how you get things done?

Look at Bayern.... if been months now and yet they have not been able to bring Kane over to Munich. Arent they supposedly a better-run club?

Its shocking how Caftards look at things in the world -- like some emo teenager or someone who has never worked a day in his life.

 

[roonster09]

It's not about the announcement though is it.. It's about him missing our entire pre-season because we couldn't get the deal done in reasonable time.

The 14th is our opening premier league game, that's not pre-season.

Our pre-season ends this weekend. If he plays in one of them, fair enough, well done John, but it seems unlikely from what we're reading. But in the event he has missed our entire pre-season, it's poor.

He's not missed our entire pre-season because his plane was a bit late, he's missed our entire pre-season because it's taken us 2 months to get the deal done.

It's always good to sign players before the preseason starts or during the preseason but this idea that every player should be signed before preseason is silly. It's an absolute perfect scenario which happens rarely at any club.

 

[Abraxas]

Murtough explains the process for signings

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This was sort of interesting and not at the same time. Interesting in the sense it's quite rare to get this direct insight at the club.

But it also aligns with exactly what you'd expect. I guess the most enlightening comment was probably around the manager AND wider recruitment team having to agree on a signing. So it's not just a case of Erik ten Hag getting everything he wants neccessarily, if this is to be taken at face value.

 

[Tom Van Persie]

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[ArbeitervonWien]

What do you mean "when even Goldbridge"?

The guy is an absolute feckwit and makes up shit on the regular.

It was meant tongue-in-cheek, every time I hear something from Goldbridge he is talking out of his ass. The whole post was intented to be a primitive joke on the basis of the ambiguity of the half-sentence "Arnold and Murtough came at the same time". I guess it's not exactly a great joke, when you have to explain it...

 

[Herman Toothrot]

Oh my God, I've been sat around bored waiting for them to put a picture of a player on Twitter and they haven't done it yet. SACK THE BOARD.

Some right weirdos here. Some posts have an indecent level of confidence with almost zero knowledge to back them up.

 

[wolvored]

For a start the announcement is over the weekend and secondly “they” are not doing anything wrong.

HE arrived later than expected. All logistics and probably a delayed flight or whatever. Chill out. Bloody hell.

Getting all worked up and throwing shit at the DOF over an announcement is a new one.

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Im on about hes going to be thrown in the Premier without a pre season game at all. This could have been sorted better. How about sorting the transfer even a week earlier? You know I have defended Arnold/Murtough in the past, but this delay could have been avoided.

 

[pcaming]

It's not about the announcement though is it.. It's about him missing our entire pre-season because we couldn't get the deal done in reasonable time.

The 14th is our opening premier league game, that's not pre-season.

Our pre-season ends this weekend. If he plays in one of them, fair enough, well done John, but it seems unlikely from what we're reading. But in the event he has missed our entire pre-season, it's poor.

He's not missed our entire pre-season because his plane was a bit late, he's missed our entire pre-season because it's taken us 2 months to get the deal done.

I'm all for bashing the incompetence of our management, but this is a dumb take. It's not been 2 months, they initially wanted more money, and we've been working on other/alternative deals (some we know very little about like Muani).

I still think we are overpaying (to a lesser extent than prior seasons), and we are extremely poor with sales, but those are different points to make.

 

[jadaba]

Ten Hag's targets may turn out to be successes or flops, but they are at least sensibly recruited as opposed to the sugar-rush signings by managers (or Woodward) in desperate need of short-term success that may hinder long-term team-building. For that reason, I don't have a problem with Murtough approaching the role by pursuing players as instructed by Ten Hag, no more, no less.

It's in circumstances when a manager goes atfer those rash solve-all players as we've become accustomed that I would expect Murtough to take a bolder role and possibly overrule targets considered harmful panic-buys. Or similarly if there's no initiative on the side of the manager as with dithering Dave. Since neither of those situations has materialised, I'm pretty happy with how he's performed in the pretty calm circumstances -- obtained Ten Hag's targets without the drama, hasn't got in the way or caused rifts, and has shown discipline in spending this year (with the exception of Højlund, which in honesty doesn't bother me anyway).

 

[roseguy64]

This was sort of interesting and not at the same time. Interesting in the sense it's quite rare to get this direct insight at the club.

But it also aligns with exactly what you'd expect. I guess the most enlightening comment was probably around the manager AND wider recruitment team having to agree on a signing. So it's not just a case of Erik ten Hag getting everything he wants neccessarily, if this is to be taken at face value.

That was the case under Ole too. It's just more organised now without Woodward getting involved unnecessarily.

 

[Big Ben Foster]

A definite improvement from previous summers

 

[Kush]

I see no evidence that Murtough is doing an amazing job. He's just targeting players Ten Hag wants and overpaying for them. The only positive is that he hasn't gone rogue and tried to make galactico signings like Woody did.

Precisely this.

All the fawning over him in this thread is embarrassing. He's shown himself to be pretty inept when it comes to moving players who are surplus to requirements, and if paying extra 30-40% in fee and wages for a new signing is a job well done then standards are at an all-time low.

 

[baskinginthesun]

People might engage in some Murtough fangirling and try to point to purchases of players which are basically all EtH targets but the fact we've failed to sell well tells you all you need to know.

The fact essays are needed to somehow prove Murtough's apparently been on a madness just reminds me of corporate bullshitters writing paragraphs of nonsense to justify overinflated compensation.

Which is what?

 

[Rightnr]

Which is what?

Murtough is not very good at this job

 

[UnitedSofa]

Murtough is not very good at this job

Let’s just magic up some buyers who want to pay exactly what we want and force the player to move! Wonderful!

 

[Rightnr]

Let’s just magic up some buyers who want to pay exactly what we want and force the player to move! Wonderful!

Are you aware of what a salesman does?

The Murtough defence league is getting desperate.

 

[UnitedSofa]

Are you aware of what a salesman does?

The Murtough defence league is getting desperate.

You’re expecting a perfect world

We’ve had interest in McT, Maguire and Henderson.

2 of which fell under our valuation. 1 of which the selling club moved on to other targets.

Telles is gone. Bailly is always injured and never plays. Who’s gonna fecking buy him?

If we sold them quick you’d moan they were undervalued. I’m convinced this club will do nothing that will impress you.

EDIT: Oh and one of them doesn’t want to go and if he doesn’t want to go, you can’t force him out, even if you do accept a bid!

 

[pocco]

Interesting that the club was pushing for Kolo Muani whilst ETH wanted Hojlund, and ultimately got his way. Seems we still only have a 'Director of Football' in name only.