I think he might turn out to be the most important hire we made. There's many candidates to scout and shape a football team, to manage it well financially, especially the position we are in and the plans we have...there are few.
Omar Berrada | Man Utd CEO
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I thought about him 6 weeks ago
I remember that dark period when England had no quality Left Winger. The best we got was Trevor Sinclair.
Yeah that Alvarez clip shows he understands how to shape team and manage financially
You don’t need to be a real financial guy to know that getting a reputation for being a pushover isn’t good.
Difference being he actually cares about that whereas Woody couldn't give a toss
Am I the only 1 here who's asking how the bloody hell Berrada knows more about the player than the actual DOF ?
What does Txiki actually do?
From the snippets from the documentary on this thread, they have Berrada being the brains. If I could bring myself to watch it in full it’s probably more balanced. Or maybe Txiki is just Pep’s handler, feeds and cleans out his padded cell.
Yeah makes you think we have the smarter oneWhat does Txiki actually do?
From the snippets from the documentary on this thread, they have Berrada being the brains. If I could bring myself to watch it in full it’s probably more balanced. Or maybe Txiki is just Pep’s handler, feeds and cleans out his padded cell.
This is to be expected though. Building a superb football structure from scratch is pretty much like building a huge jigsaw puzzle. Some puzzles are easily identified while others require time and patience as the picture is slowly built and smaller parts will fit in that picture. SJR brought two people from the start ie Blanc and Brailsford. The former is a Gill/Woodward on steroids. He's very business heavy, he can bring huge revenues to the club and he can engage himself in huge infrastructure projects while still producing enough cash that would keep the club competitive at transfer market level. Brailsford on the other hand understands sports. He's obsessed with marginal gains and constant improvement. The two have a cycling background and had dipped their toes in football so they pretty much speak the same language. However their background isn't football. That's were Berrada steps in. Some CEOs are football heavy (ex Marotta), some are business heavy (ex Blanc at Juve) while some are mixed. Berrada is the last kind of CEO. He understands, sports, football and business which makes him the ideal third decision maker on that board
Yet having only person who understands football is dangerous as one mistake from the expert and we're in shit. Thus where Ashworth fits in. Ashworth will report to Berrada but he's also Brailsford mate. If there's a disagreement between the two then things could escalate to the higher ups without the need for Ashworth to beg to Berrada to do so. Ashworth is close to SAF whom in turn is close to Brailsford as well. Thus if there's a disagreement then SAF can be consulted and with SAF and Ashworth at his side, Brailsford could win the 'football argument'. Ashworth can't be everywhere at every time thus he'll need top quality people at each section whether its the academy (Cox or Wilcox), recruitment (Jewell?) or/and management (ETH?). If Wilcox joins the club then he'll be in Ashworth's situation, this time round, with Berrada (both worked with City). In the end these are highly skilled people most of whom had already had a work relationship before (Ashworth-Brailsford, Brailsford-Blanc, Ashworth-Jewell, Berrada-Wilcox) thus they know each other strengths and weaknesses and what to expect from one another. Move a bigger piece then a whole hierarchy would need to be built
That what United lacked. Woodward had no clue about football and he hired people with no previous experience in their role who were simply too grateful towards him giving them the job to highlight any potential mess ups to the higher ups. Meanwhile people like SAF and Rangnick who understood football were isolated/fired else they risked exposing their incompetence and inexperience.
this guy has a big task ahead of him this summer trying to flip the squad and decide on whether to keep EtH or sack him and move on
I hope he has broad shoulders and a strong back, and good mental fortitude.
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- Optimism filled the air at Manchester City’s training ground at the start of the penultimate week of January.
- After five months out injured, Kevin De Bruyne had returned, and he gave everyone a reminder of his talents with an inspirational performance in the 3-2 victory over Newcastle United. Pep Guardiola and his staff were in a good mood too, partly because the winter break had arrived and they would soon be jetting off to Abu Dhabi for a week-long warm-weather training camp.
- A couple of days before they departed, Txiki Begiristain’s phone buzzed. The name on the screen was that of Omar Berrada, the chief football operations officer of the City Football Group (CFG), the 13-strong group of clubs to which Manchester City belong.
- That Berrada had called Begiristain was not out of the ordinary. In his role as director of football, Begiristain worked closely with Berrada and the pair spoke daily. Away from City’s £200 million training base, they spent time together socially, sometimes at Tast, the restaurant owned by Begiristain, Guardiola and City’s chief executive, Ferran Soriano. Their respective families got on well too. They were regulars at each other’s family birthday parties.
- Still, despite their familiarity with each other, Begiristain had no idea about the news Berrada was about to deliver. “I’ve been offered the chief executive job at Manchester United,” Berrada said.
- Begiristain was taken aback. He always suspected that the ambitious Paris-born Moroccan could end up being poached, possibly by the NFL or Major League Baseball. Berrada went to school in the United States and studied engineering at a university in Massachusetts before dropping out six months into the course so he could pursue a career in business in Europe. He was also in the class of 1995 at the Rabat American School, so when he speaks English he has a slight American accent.
- But United, City’s great rivals? Now that was a shock. United’s pursuit of Berrada began last December, when Ineos were close to buying a minority stake in the club. Although their stake would stand at 27.7 per cent, Ineos, led by its chairman, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, would take control of football operations.
- The Ineos executives Sir Dave Brailsford and Jean-Claude Blanc were tasked with coming up with what was described as “an A team” of executives who would run United. Ineos thought United’s recent struggles were down to the lack of a clear and defined structure.
- Brailsford, described by colleagues as “an obsessive”, has taken an interest in several elite sports since he shot to fame at British Cycling. Blanc, the former Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain executive, is a great networker, as is Berrada, and he had heard about his growing reputation within football.
- They started looking at candidates capable of filling the key roles of director of football (Newcastle’s Dan Ashworth), technical director (Southampton’s Jason Wilcox), performance director (TBC) and chief executive. Berrada’s name was placed at the top of the last list.
- Within 48 hours, Joel and Avram Glazer, the co-chairmen, flew to the UK from the US. They, along with Brailsford and Ratcliffe, interviewed Berrada. No other candidates were interviewed.
- They were impressed by the 45-year-old, who speaks four languages and has lived in six countries (Morocco, France, USA, Belgium, England and Spain), and offered him the job.
- Berrada deliberated for a while. He owed a lot to City and has a lot of respect for the likes of Soriano and Begiristain. In the end, the United project was too exciting to turn down, and he made the call to Begiristain.
- City tried to persuade Berrada to stay, but his mind was made up. When the official announcement was made on January 20, only a handful of people knew in advance. Most of Guardiola’s backroom staff and players were unaware.
- A tiny minority viewed Berrada’s switch as an act of treachery. Most staff had a pragmatic view of Berrada’s decision. “That’s football,” one executive said.
- Sure, it was a blow losing someone of Berrada’s ilk, but they could understand his logic and they realised that he had poured a lot of his time into helping make City what they are today. Former colleagues said that Berrada, a big advocate of the women’s game, is a driven but approachable individual who inspires loyalty from those around him.
- “We have a joke in the office that we give ourselves five minutes to celebrate an achievement, then we start thinking about the next one,” he once said.
- Talks between United and City were short and “grown up”, Ratcliffe said. United did not have to pay a release-clause fee. Berrada would have to serve his six-month notice before starting, though. Four days after the announcement, Berrada said his goodbyes to staff.
- Since accepting United’s offer, he has spoken occasionally but briefly to United staff. Unlike Brailsford, he does not have an office at United’s Carrington training ground, nor does he have a United email address or security pass.
- Instead, he is spending time with his wife and children before taking one of the biggest jobs in football. Had things turned out differently, Berrada would have not gone into football. After qualifying from the EU Business School in Brussels in 1999 with a degree in business administration, he began an internship in Barcelona with Honda.
- Honda chiefs were impressed, but this was the age of the internet boom and Berrada took a job at a Spanish internet service provider, World Online, which then became part of Tiscali after its value plummeted following an IPO. While at Tiscali, Berrada met his wife, Angela Valtueña, and a long-term boss, Esteve Calzada. After Calzada moved to FC Barcelona, he poached Berrada, who was head of sponsorships in his seven years with the club.
- After being headhunted, he took on a similar role with City in 2011, and initially found it tough.
- “We could choose our sponsors at Barcelona. With City, some of them wouldn’t open their doors to us,” he said in an interview with the EU Business School in 2021.
- In 2012, he accepted a more lucrative job at a Swiss agency, only to renege at the last minute and return to City, where he became director of partnership sales. This brought him into the orbit of Soriano, one of the most powerful men in the CFG.
- Berrada became chief operating officer in 2016, which meant that he had to fulfil some of Soriano’s duties when the chief executive was covering matters related to other CFG clubs. In 2020, Berrada moved away from the business side of the operation and became solely involved in transfers and contract negotiations after being made chief football operations officer. This brought him to Begiristain’s side, and the pair formed a good relationship.
- “They were a double act,” one former colleague said. “The scouts and Txiki would identify players that Guardiola needed, then Omar would then look at the deal to see how much it cost and whether it would be within budget. Omar would do the negotiations. He was the dealmaker.”
- Their most successful mission came in the spring of 2022, when Begiristain and Berrada flew to Monaco to persuade Erling Haaland to sign. Guardiola had a half-hour video call with Haaland, Begiristain weighed in with his pitch, then Berrada produced a raft of sheets detailing the terms of the deal.
- On May 25, Berrada and Begiristain were among the first staff members to meet Haaland in the canteen after the Norway striker had completed his medical.
- Berrada’s supporters say one of his greatest strengths is that he does not overextend himself in negotiations. “He knows when to pull out of a deal,” one colleague said.
- During his time at City, the club walked away from deals for Harry Maguire, Alexis Sánchez and many others because they were too expensive.
- Another string to his bow is his record when it comes to sales. In the past year alone, City have raked in £165 million from the sale of academy talent while also giving themselves a pool of premium talent to cherry-pick from.
- Guardiola, the club’s academy coaches, Brian Marwood, the managing director of global football at CFG, and Begiristain — among others — have played their part in this, of course, but Berrada was the man who negotiated the fees.
- In its assessment of United, Ineos has found that one of the club’s biggest weaknesses has been their inability to sell players, particularly for the right fee. It is hoped that Berrada and Ashworth will strengthen United in that respect.
- Berrada’s departure has not caused the wheels to come off at City even though a successor is yet to be identified.
- Oscar Bobb has signed a new contract and planning for the summer transfer window is going ahead as normal. After all, Berrada was a cog in a well-oiled machine that will, in all likelihood, continue to dominate English football for many years.
- If the derby goes as expected, it will serve as a reminder of how tough a task Berrada has on his hands at Old Trafford. “If he does [solve all United’s problems], they have to name a stand after Omar,” Guardiola said in January after describing his former colleague as “a lovely person” and an “incredible professional”.
- Sunday’s game will be the first Manchester derby at the Etihad Stadium that Berrada has missed in many years. By the time that the next derby comes around, he will be hoping that some of the optimism surrounding the blue side of Manchester has moved over to the red side of the city.
Great read. Exciting times ahead.
Meanwhile...
Meanwhile, we did deals that other state owned oil clubs can dream off. I hope this sent shivers down their spines.
Yes he's an ox...
They've still had their share of expensive signings. Mendy, Phillips, Grealish not doing too hot. Gvardiol's been injured a fair bit/played out of position since signing too but think he will be worth it.
Great posts. I still can't believe there were many posters here defended Arnold and especially Murtough as DOF. There is no comparison at all from people like Woodward, Arnold, Murtough to now Blanc, Brailsford, Berrada, Ashworth and etc.
Many were crying for years to get rid of the the banker and his pals because it was proven time and time again for the last decade they know nothing about running a football club. Thanks to SJR now!
This right here is a recipe for a toxic and factional work environment. I hope Ashworth and Cox will have the maturity to respect their bosses' decisions without leapfrogging them and going upstairs, it's not conducive for a cordial and cooperative working environment. It's important that people stay in their lanes about decisions that should be made by relevant offices. How do you think Berrada will take it hearing Ashworth's talking points from his boss Blanc or Brailsford? Would he ever trust or support him after that?
I have worked for organizations with that sort of culture and trust me you don't achieve much. Things need to be professional and respectful. You might feel strongly about something and your boss doesn't see it that way but going above him is not the way to do things especially when done clandestinely. Trust is broken and with that communication breaks down which will easily lead to internal strife and paralysis.
United's first system was rather simple. We had the CEO calling all financial shots and the manager calling all sports related shots. That worked because SAF was a superb man manager who knew every single aspect of football from transfer handling to appointing the right people in the right jobs (scouts, fitness people, coaches, assistant managers etc) and was a workaholic. Gaz recalls the time when the gaffer would quickly leave the dressing room after a game to fly across Europe to watch some kid playing the day after. Needless to say that the current managers lack that know how. Even if they did, managers are vulnerable to player power. iF a squad favorite loses his place then the manager risk to end up facing a revolt. This task is made more difficult since the manager is tasked to buy players as well. Thus if the manager brings in a dud on silly money then he better make sure that such player do well else he risks being sacked. That means that he'll be forced to play him more which in return tend to upset the dressing room which in turn has an impact on results.
United tried to adapt to that with a 4 men committee all of whom armed with a Veto (Joel, Woodward, Murtough and the manager). On paper it might had made sense and some people were in favor of it. However in reality it did not. First of all at least 2 of those people were incompetent in football. Secondly the former three were tightly linked with one another thus when a mistake is done by either one of them then they used to close ranks and blame the odd man out (the manager). Finally since Joel was the ring leader and the others were yes men then everything rotated on what Joel wanted. Thus it 'suddenly made sense' to spend all summer travelling continents during preseason training even though it left the squad knackered and filled with injuries.
I advocated to a system were each role is clearly defined and were every person was best in class. Back then Juventus had that system and since I kept highlighting it I earned this tagline. Such system had the advantage of quickly addressing were the flaws were. For example if the manager got tactics wrong then its the manager's fault, if the club bought duds then it was the Head of Recruitment/DOF fault, if the academy is not producing top talent then its the head of academy's fault and if the departments aren't cooperating with one another (imagine a situation were United buy a 30 year old midfielder even though it had a young Scholes and Beckham scoring shitloads of goals in the academy) then something is wrong with the sporting director. I still believe that this system is a clear upgrade to what we had so far and yet it had one clear flaw. Unsurprisingly the victim of that flaw happens to now sit on the United's board.
When Blanc joined Juventus he fount a mess. Juventus were relegated in the Serie B even though its wage bill was that of a Serie A serial winner. Sponsorships fled, the money well ran dry and Inter fans were celebrating the end of the vecchia signora. I don't blame them. It wasn't that long ago that Leeds imploded having failed to hit its financial targets. Juventus was facing an even steeper run since it was immediately relegated, it lost many sponsors and the Serie A was nowhere near as rich as the EPL. Blanc played a huge part in Juventus revival. Instead of taking a cautious approach by simply selling players and live on the spoils, Blanc took a bold move based not on mere survival but on Serie A dominance. Sure many players were sold but the core was kept (Del Piero, Chiellini and Buffon) while Blanc engaged himself into the idea of building a new stadium, fully owned by the club. That was incredible considering that years later Elliott group (guys everyone fear, the one who brought Argentina on their knees) would try and fail to do that at Milan due to Italian red tape. Blanc basically succeeded were Elliott group failed and with a team who was in much worse shape. Juventus flew past the Serie Bit immediately consolidated their role as a big team in the Serie A and Blanc was made CEO. Yet it was then that when the flaw was exposed. You see, Blanc is a great commercial person. He's basically a GIll on serious steroids. Yet football wise he's not great. Hence he failed to acknowledge that the sporting director and the fitness people Juve had at the time weren't good enough. Money was spent on wrong transfers, the squad was ravaged by injuries, Juventus's performance plummeted and Blanc was forced to resign from CEO. The system worked as it quickly identified the problem and made amends to it. Marotta was identified as Blanc's successor and Juventus dominated the Serie A for a decade. Yet this CEO centric system meant that when Marotta left and no adequate replacement was fount then Juventus struggled.
I believe that what INEOS is trying to implement at United is an upgrade to that system. Sure each role will be defined, the best in class mantra will be maintained and the CEO will probably have a final say yet he won't be on his own. If a big decision needs to be taken then people like Blanc, SAF, the manager and Brailsford could be consulted to give their professional input. In few words if Berrada and Ashworth clash on a certain decision then there will be people that both parties trust both at high level and lower level who can give their 2c and quickly break the deadlock without having to spend months going through and forth and concluding nothing in the process.
I have no problems with structures buty issue was on you saying someone like Ashworth should use his preexisting relationship with Brailsford to lobby for his ideas should Berrada be resisting. I am saying that's not the right way to resolve issues, it creates mistrust, divisions and factions.
Maybe they're relaxed because he's a double agent on a sabotage job
I’m far more excited for Omar Berrada being CEO than Ashworth who might be looking to employ Potter or Southgate, I have the feeling by Omar being in potentially 3 months before Ashworth, the time will allow him to get his feet under the table and he may be of the opinion, the club waits and gives ETH one more year providing he can make CL football.
It’s fair to say that should the wheels come off Madrid this year, Ancelotti may be put out to pastures green again and this time a full United fan base and executives would be unanimously behind recruiting the great Man.
It’s fair to say that should the wheels come off Madrid this year, Ancelotti may be put out to pastures green again and this time a full United fan base and executives would be unanimously behind recruiting the great Man.
Like Sanchez, Fred and Maguire.
Yeh I’m not sure I want Ashworth
Why?
I’m assuming this is all down to the recent Southgate links which may well be a load of bollocks anyway.
Why would city need to run a sabotage on us, of all clubs
The poster can be a bit overly negative at times, I’m just wondering on what basis he’d object to Ashworth? He’s one of the best around
Our majority owners are more than capable of that without City having to send Berrada in to do so.
Yeh a few things. One being how long it’s taking for him to start the job. Is he that good that we’re waiting around for him?
Second is the links with Southgate and Potter. Agreed it’s probably bollocks but no smoke without fire? The links aren’t going away.
Thirdly is Newcastle aren’t exactly setting the world alight. Yeh great last season but not so great this season. Plus he seems to be getting some blame for Tonali regarding the lack of due diligence. Damaged goods?
So who should we appoint as DOF then?
No idea but I’m sure there’s a big list of candidates?