There's quite a lot of problems here, and daft interpretations.
Lets not pretend there weren't visions, plans and/or strategies to move United forward after Ferguson stepped down. The problem isn't developing visions, plans and strategies, any knobhead can do that. Why should we have hired a DOF in 2012, why not 2007 or even earlier, if it's so critical.
Liverpool's transfer committee and Michael Edwards during Rodgers reign was pretty much being used as an example on how not to run a football club, now it's the perfect solution.
Why ?
We're talking about the future of the club, if it's in the form of a director of football, a larger committee (ala Liverpool's transfer committee), you still need to work out a plan so that the person you're hiring and/or people in the committee fit what you want to achieve. How did Damien Comolli work out at Liverpool ? He was a DOF, DOF's are mint. Michael Edwards doesn't have a fancy name, isn't from Spain/Italy/Argentina/somewhere foreign, yet he's a key part of Liverpool's success.
People are acting as if there's clear cut answers to everything. Ferguson wanted full autonomy, Mourinho craves it to the point where he goes into self-destruct mode to prove a point if he's not given it. Ole doesn't, he's happy to accept that signing players needs to be a bigger discussion. Nicky Butt is being given a larger role within the club as we're looking to improve our chances of successfully bringing players from the reserves and into the first team. People just ignore it because it's Nicky Butt, if we'd hired Nicolas Butte from France to do the same, half the forum would *** over it.
The important thing isn't if we hire a DOF or not, but if we make the needed structural changes to how we operate, that goes in terms of the football we play on all levels, strategies on player development, player signings and identifying the right type of manager. If that structural change happens to be int he form of a DOF, so be it, if it's decided it should be a committee, so be it, but anyone believing that we haven't hired a DOF because nobody is interested in such a role needs to get their heads checked.
United absolutely failed by not hiring a DoF in 07 or 2012. Look at the complete and utter lack of midfield recruitment by United in Ferguson’s last few years, which has still continued. With a good DoF in place Hazard likely would have been at United.
United was successful because Ferguson was a rare manager who could handle both managerial duties as well as some aspects of a DoF role. He was also a brilliant tactician who excelled at maximizing talent and concealing deficiencies.
The problem is that the game continually becomes more and more complex and there isn’t anyone who can manage a team and be the DoF. There are just too many responsibilities and not enough to do both.
The improvements in technology have made watching film and clips much easier but also require more time. Training techniques are changing, dietary plans are much improved.
There’s a much smaller gap in the quality of players from top to bottom, so every minuscule advantage needs to be analyzed.
Analytics play a massive role and its value will continue to increase.
Of course, you can hire all the DoFs you want but if the ownership sucks it isn’t going to matter.
Even if the ownership and management are poor, it is completely insane not to have a DoF.
Having a DoF guarantees nothing, but not having one guarantees a shit show because teams have to have an authoritative figure who has final say, and that figure needs to know what decisions to make, how to delegate, and how to hire the right people.
The DoF develops the vision and the culture of the club. They develop the plans and the methods of execution.
There is good reason every single major sports in North America franchise operates this way and for good reason.
Not everyone is successful just like not everyone can hire the best manager. There is a lot of cronyism, which typically leads to a lot of retread hires that almost always fail.
However, those organizations with vision and stones are rewarded.
Again most successful football franchises have gone away from committees and have adopted the DoF model. It doesn’t mean they abandon collaborative group thought, it simply means the DoF is the grand architect and they lay the foundation so to speak. They then should be hiring the best people to do the job.
At the end of the day someone has to be in charge and make the final decisions.
You are correct that the bottom line is that things need to be fixed from top to bottom.
The problem here is why has it taken so long to get a DoF in place when almost all billion dollar+ franchises can hire a general manager (DoF equivalent) in a matter of days/weeks.
Certainly, it’s not all up to people not wanting to take the job, and maybe there isn’t a job to be had and Woodward was just spouting that off as a distraction technique.
However, in my conversions with a few GMs in NA sports there are situations they will not touch certain positions with a ten foot pole because the culture of ownership is terrible.
Given what most people have seen from United’s management/ownership, I would believe it’s likely true.