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

Foxbatt

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So only positive stories are true and anything negative should not be believed?
 

Matriac

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So only positive stories are true and anything negative should not be believed?
Who is the source of the negative news? I don't believe everything positive either of course. But I'd want to see a credible source for claims. In regards to the above timezone rumor, the original mirror article doesn't even say something like "according to a trusted source". They just write it out like fiction.
 

Infra-red

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The Haaland timezone mix-up story has been aired before, but I don't recall Murtough being linked specifically to it. Has anyone other than The Express run with it? If not, that probably tells you all you need to know about its credibility.
 

Dr. Dwayne

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Who is the source of the negative news? I don't believe everything positive either of course. But I'd want to see a credible source for claims. In regards to the above timezone rumor, the original mirror article doesn't even say something like "according to a trusted source". They just write it out like fiction.
Mirror, Express, Givemefootball etc. All highly reputable sources. ;)
 

Matriac

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Mirror, Express, Givemefootball etc. All highly reputable sources. ;)
Well in my comment that you quoted I specified that the article from the mirror doesn't reference any sources. Like, who is their source for this? :lol:

(I realize that you were (rightly) making fun of those news sources. But I was asking foxbatt what source the mirror had. As they wrote a completely unsubstantiated story in-between another story about how Everton wanted to sign Haaland to make it seem like the Everton scout had told them this other story as well. And several other news sources were either tricked or didn't care when they referenced the mirror article.)
 

acnumber9

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Who is the source of the negative news? I don't believe everything positive either of course. But I'd want to see a credible source for claims. In regards to the above timezone rumor, the original mirror article doesn't even say something like "according to a trusted source". They just write it out like fiction.
Newspapers don’t tell you who their sources are. If they did they wouldn’t have sources anymore.
 

Matriac

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Newspapers don’t tell you who their sources are. If they did they wouldn’t have sources anymore.
Did you read my entire comment? I said they didn't even write "according to a trusted source", meaning they acknowledged that they talked to someone the journalist knows who are and trust, but the identity is kept anonymous.

For transfer rumors etc you usually see "according to sources at the club" or similar.

In this case there's no mention of a source at all.

And then other articles based on the mirror article reference it saying that the Everton scout Brian King said this to the mirror. Which they don't at all actually say in the article from the mirror.
 

acnumber9

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Daily Mirror isn’t a newspaper. The reason Daily Mirror don’t tell you who their sources are, is because they don’t have any.
I’m sure they have some. Doesn’t preclude them from talking shit all the same.
 

EvilChuck

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it was in the Mirror.

In August 2018, Molde were expecting a call at 9am from the Manchester club to finalise a £3m deal. However, as England was an hour ahead, Murtough mistakenly made the call at 10am. In the meantime, the Norwegian side agreed a deal with RB Salzburg instead.
This doesnt even make sense from any perspective. Molde are as much a business as any other club, and would know the financial benefits of making a deal with United over RB Salzburg. They'd have been able to negotiate more up front from us, as well as realistic incentives on the deal too (league winner payment, CL winner payment) etc. I am sure they wouldnt walk away from that potential money spinner, because of a mixup in time zones.
 

Grande

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So only positive stories are true and anything negative should not be believed?
That sounds like a ridiculous proposal.

How about believing things that sounds likely, and that are reported by trustworthy sources?

Trustworthy as in, not Daily Mirror.
And likely as in, nothing like this: Solskjær wanted his previous player at United, and a deal was agreed with Haaland’s agent who also is Solskjær’s agent and close friend - but when Solbakken didn’t get the call he expected at 9 a.m., he just thought ‘Who the feck are Man United?’ and sold the player to Salzburg within the next sixty minutes without bothering to check.

You would have to be crazy to think that could have happened as such.
 

Grande

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I’m sure they have some. Doesn’t preclude them from talking shit all the same.
Well, if the bathroom tap or John at The Crooked Hen can be called ‘a source’, why not. If by ‘a source’ we mean, somebody with actuall information about actual happenings, I’d say most of the time they don’t have one.
 

acnumber9

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Well, if the bathroom tap or John at The Crooked Hen can be called ‘a source’, why not. If by ‘a source’ we mean, somebody with actuall information about actual happenings, I’d say most of the time they don’t have one.
I’d agree. It doesn’t mean they don’t have any at all or that failure to name them means anything.
 

Dr. Dwayne

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How about believing things that sounds likely, and that are reported by trustworthy sources?
Or posting links with your rumours, so that people can make an assessment of its veracity based on the source. There's a reason why that didn't happen and it's because all of the media sources reporting it are garbage.
 

Crashoutcassius

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it was in the Mirror.

In August 2018, Molde were expecting a call at 9am from the Manchester club to finalise a £3m deal. However, as England was an hour ahead, Murtough mistakenly made the call at 10am. In the meantime, the Norwegian side agreed a deal with RB Salzburg instead.
Does anyone believe this hahahaahahahahaababa
 

crossy1686

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Why is literally any story related to our club always negative? Sometimes you've got to stand back and ask what the motive is behind these stories, then you realise 90% of them are absolute bollocks.
 

crossy1686

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This doesnt even make sense from any perspective. Molde are as much a business as any other club, and would know the financial benefits of making a deal with United over RB Salzburg. They'd have been able to negotiate more up front from us, as well as realistic incentives on the deal too (league winner payment, CL winner payment) etc. I am sure they wouldnt walk away from that potential money spinner, because of a mixup in time zones.
I work for a UK company but I'm based in Sweden. The time difference confusion happens from time to time but it never results in a deal being completely thrown out. Someone usually just sends a quick email to see if it's still on.

Considering this kind of deal is probably a meeting of two parties with a broker in the middle, you can absolutely expect that there's a middleman making phone calls if someone is late. But of course the press prefer to make these deals sound like someone missed a bus and the world ended.
 

sglowrider

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Why is literally any story related to our club always negative? Sometimes you've got to stand back and ask what the motive is behind these stories, then you realise 90% of them are absolute bollocks.
Any negative stories about United sells. Plus they know half the United fan base will believe it with their current attitude.
 

Drz

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Any negative stories about United sells. Plus they know half the United fan base will believe it with their current attitude.
This is so true, and they are pretty tricky too, just the other day I fell for it myself with a twitter post in the transfer thread, where they put quotation marks to comments supposedly attributed to Maguire and I didn't pay attention to the source and assumed them to be true, thankfully other posters pointed out the unreliability of the paper/source.
 

RashyForPM

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Molde wouldn't do that anyway
Yeah. Ole was their manager when they sold Haaland to Salzburg wasn’t he? If he caused us to lose out on him, that’s more grounds for dismissal than his results here :lol:

Best bit is probably that in that one hour where Murtough went for a nap, Salzburg suddenly pounced and got him. Don’t know how these journalists even think up stories like that when they get together.
 

sglowrider

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Yeah. Ole was their manager when they sold Haaland to Salzburg wasn’t he? If he caused us to lose out on him, that’s more grounds for dismissal than his results here :lol:

Best bit is probably that in that one hour where Murtough went for a nap, Salzburg suddenly pounced and got him. Don’t know how these journalists even think up stories like that when they get together.
Maybe its something at its core that happened to them? So they figured that it can happen to others?

Besides, I wouldn't use the word 'journalist' with that lot. You have real journalists risking their lives in getting the truth out and then you have these hacks.
 

Matriac

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About Haaland's move from Molde to Salzburg.
This is partly from memory/internet detecting and partly my own opinion/theory.

When Ole was still the manager at Molde I remember news stories (in Norwegian papers) about him inviting United to come scout Haaland as he was a great talent that would quickly outgrow Molde, and Ole has always wanted the best possible for United.

The Norwegian league unlike most other leagues, runs from spring to early winter. So unless it's a now or never deal, they prefer to not sell their biggest talents in the summer if they still have a chance at winning the league/getting European cup play or to avoid relegation. That's why you'll see a lot of Norwegian league talent move in January. But the deals are normally signed between August and early December. (The 2018 season ended 24th of November.)

Digging through old articles it says that Molde on August 1st accepted a bid from RB Salzburg for £6m rising to £10m if Haaland hit certain targets. Juventus had earlier bid £5m with the intention to play him in their third division team.
Molde only said that they had been speaking to 5 clubs from European leagues, with no more info than RBS and Juve, plus that United had previously scouted him.
On August 2nd Haaland and his team flew to Salzburg to negotiate his terms, and on August 18th it was announced he had signed a deal with RBS but would move in January so he could finish the season in Norway.

Other clubs in Europe were aware of him, but no club were willing to pay up to £10m and promise first team squad inclusion (or other promising career development) for a 17 year old striker from the Norwegian league.

Now this is just a theory of course, but at that time Mou was still the manager, and he raged in the media about not getting the signings he wanted in that summer window. He would never have sanctioned a £10m move for a striker he couldn't really use much for another season or more.

Like we have done now with Pellistri/Amad.

Us not signing Haaland from Molde is not Murtough's fault. But had Ole been our manager 6 months earlier the story could have been very different.
 

RashyForPM

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Maybe its something at its core that happened to them? So they figured that it can happen to others?

Besides, I wouldn't use the word 'journalist' with that lot. You have real journalists risking their lives in getting the truth out and then you have these hacks.
True. There are loads of good sports journalists with integrity, but there are also these guys and most Sun writers who make money from lying.
 

devilish

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About Haaland's move from Molde to Salzburg.
This is partly from memory/internet detecting and partly my own opinion/theory.

When Ole was still the manager at Molde I remember news stories (in Norwegian papers) about him inviting United to come scout Haaland as he was a great talent that would quickly outgrow Molde, and Ole has always wanted the best possible for United.

The Norwegian league unlike most other leagues, runs from spring to early winter. So unless it's a now or never deal, they prefer to not sell their biggest talents in the summer if they still have a chance at winning the league/getting European cup play or to avoid relegation. That's why you'll see a lot of Norwegian league talent move in January. But the deals are normally signed between August and early December. (The 2018 season ended 24th of November.)

Digging through old articles it says that Molde on August 1st accepted a bid from RB Salzburg for £6m rising to £10m if Haaland hit certain targets. Juventus had earlier bid £5m with the intention to play him in their third division team.
Molde only said that they had been speaking to 5 clubs from European leagues, with no more info than RBS and Juve, plus that United had previously scouted him.
On August 2nd Haaland and his team flew to Salzburg to negotiate his terms, and on August 18th it was announced he had signed a deal with RBS but would move in January so he could finish the season in Norway.

Other clubs in Europe were aware of him, but no club were willing to pay up to £10m and promise first team squad inclusion (or other promising career development) for a 17 year old striker from the Norwegian league.

Now this is just a theory of course, but at that time Mou was still the manager, and he raged in the media about not getting the signings he wanted in that summer window. He would never have sanctioned a £10m move for a striker he couldn't really use much for another season or more.

Like we have done now with Pellistri/Amad.

Us not signing Haaland from Molde is not Murtough's fault. But had Ole been our manager 6 months earlier the story could have been very different.
If true, its further proof why transfers shouldn't be decided by managers
 

OmarUnited4ever

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Good explanation, and it makes sense, an outsider DoF might not fit well with how the club operates (an external DoF might want to have decision making powers, whereas in Manchester United, the decision making is somehow shared when it comes to transfers).
 

SAF is the GOAT

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Still don't understand what Fletch is actually does except trying to convince new players to join the club ?

he's not negotiating the deals(That's what Judge is doing) or talking to the player and his agent from a footballing perspective.
 

clarkydaz

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Still don't understand what Fletch is actually does except trying to convince new players to join the club ?

he's not negotiating the deals(That's what Judge is doing) or talking to the player and his agent from a footballing perspective.
i thought thats exactly what he was doing, to babysit Judge talking with players
 

Judas

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Why is literally any story related to our club always negative? Sometimes you've got to stand back and ask what the motive is behind these stories, then you realise 90% of them are absolute bollocks.
What's even more irritating is how many on here will wilfully and almost seemingly gleefully believe every word and can't wait to go full on meltdown every single time, no matter the source or how daft the story seems.
 

TheReligion

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What's even more irritating is how many on here will wilfully and almost seemingly gleefully believe every word and can't wait to go full on meltdown every single time, no matter the source or how daft the story seems.
Some on here wallow in it.
 

TheReligion

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Well it fits their narrative that we're the worst run club in the history of football and not a single person working there has a braincell to call upon. If that's your starting point then any negative news is confirmation bias.
It's quite funny reading the new sponsor thread and those same people slagging the club. Now Mercedes have announced them as their new sponsor.

Not so shit now is it.
 

red woppit

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Why is literally any story related to our club always negative? Sometimes you've got to stand back and ask what the motive is behind these stories, then you realise 90% of them are absolute bollocks.
I disagree.
I think 95% are absolute bollocks,.
It's a similar story with the dozens of players we are supposedly linked with every year.
 

paulscholes18

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Basically another Woodward yes man. Instead of the the right thing which IMO would have been to bring in a real DOF like Ralf Rangnick with Woodward who would move over and work solely on the commercial side of things, and Ralf would work solo on the football side of things and someone who would (hopefully) gut the club of all the Woodward yes men on the footballing side.

Hopefully John Murtough & Darren Fletcher prove me wrong.
 

OmarUnited4ever

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Basically another Woodward yes man. Instead of the the right thing which IMO would have been to bring in a real DOF like Ralf Rangnick with Woodward who would move over and work solely on the commercial side of things, and Ralf would work solo on the football side of things and someone who would (hopefully) gut the club of all the Woodward yes men on the footballing side.

Hopefully John Murtough & Darren Fletcher prove me wrong.
I mean we all know that Woodward knows nothing about football and should not intervene in any footballing decision made my Ole or Mourtough, but where does this rediculious idea that there are Woodward "yes men" in the club come from??

The guy gave full reign to LVG & JM when he hired them.

Only times he intervened were when he sacked LVG & JM, and when he vetoed the players JM wanted in his 3rd season (he vetoed because the transfer committee recommended it to him not to allow JM to bring in the likes of Willian, Perisic and Boating).

Woodward is not an eccentric owner like Ibrahìmovich, he is just a CEO appointed by the Glazers, who themselves are mostly hands off owners since they bought the club in 2005.
 

hungrywing

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Still don't understand what Fletch is actually does except trying to convince new players to join the club ?

he's not negotiating the deals(That's what Judge is doing) or talking to the player and his agent from a footballing perspective.
Gotta figure Rio's heard some things from Fletcher:


via here.

Sounds like Murtough will sort of diagram out player strengths/depth/contract lengths/spending in each position from the first team down through the academy and Darren will be providing on-pitch eyes and ears for the first-team part of that (I guess in addition to being involved in the player negotiations as speculated?)