Ruben Amorim, unlike Erik ten Hag, arrived with a large crew from Sporting. One area where Amorim and his staff have received a lot of praise is injury prevention and fitness, and it’s easy to see why someone like Paulo Barreira could bring huge value.
But is this constant turnover of specialist staff actually healthy for the club? It probably takes a guy like Barreira a full year to really get to know the players' bodies and injury histories. I can’t think of many other businesses, or even other sports, that operate like this. In the NFL, NBA, or NHL, the medical and "high performance" teams are usually permanent club staff. A new head coach might bring his tactical assistants, but the people responsible for the players' health stay put. They hold the data and the "institutional memory" of the athletes.
We’ve seen this work in football before aswell. The legendary Liverpool "Boot Room" from Shankly to Dalglish was built on internal continuity. When a manager left, the knowledge stayed. AC Milan did something similar when they transitioned from Arrigo Sacchi to Fabio Capello; the club's structure and core philosophy remained even as the man at the top changed.
In the business world, investors often see it as a major red flag if an organization is forced to hire external talent for every senior role. It usually indicates a failure in internal development and a lack of a clear, long-term culture. A truly great organization builds a pipeline so that when a leader leaves, there is someone ready to step up who already knows the system.
Manchester United seems to be doing the opposite. Every three years, we "reset" the entire department.
Look at Brentford. They recently promoted their own set-piece coach because the system is bigger than one man. They don't need a "savior" to bring a new army; they just need a coach to plug into their high-functioning machine.
After a decade of failed "elite managers" (at least based on cost) hires, maybe the strategy needs to change. Should we focus on young, elite coaches, like Kieran McKenna, who are willing to be part of a team the club has built? Solskjaer was never considered an young, very talented coach, but he did not do worse than those that was.
If the club owns the medical, fitness, and set-piece departments, it empowers everyone, from a new head coach to a caretaker like Darren Fletcher. It ensures that when a manager eventually leaves, the foundation doesn’t leave with them.
But is this constant turnover of specialist staff actually healthy for the club? It probably takes a guy like Barreira a full year to really get to know the players' bodies and injury histories. I can’t think of many other businesses, or even other sports, that operate like this. In the NFL, NBA, or NHL, the medical and "high performance" teams are usually permanent club staff. A new head coach might bring his tactical assistants, but the people responsible for the players' health stay put. They hold the data and the "institutional memory" of the athletes.
We’ve seen this work in football before aswell. The legendary Liverpool "Boot Room" from Shankly to Dalglish was built on internal continuity. When a manager left, the knowledge stayed. AC Milan did something similar when they transitioned from Arrigo Sacchi to Fabio Capello; the club's structure and core philosophy remained even as the man at the top changed.
In the business world, investors often see it as a major red flag if an organization is forced to hire external talent for every senior role. It usually indicates a failure in internal development and a lack of a clear, long-term culture. A truly great organization builds a pipeline so that when a leader leaves, there is someone ready to step up who already knows the system.
Manchester United seems to be doing the opposite. Every three years, we "reset" the entire department.
Look at Brentford. They recently promoted their own set-piece coach because the system is bigger than one man. They don't need a "savior" to bring a new army; they just need a coach to plug into their high-functioning machine.
After a decade of failed "elite managers" (at least based on cost) hires, maybe the strategy needs to change. Should we focus on young, elite coaches, like Kieran McKenna, who are willing to be part of a team the club has built? Solskjaer was never considered an young, very talented coach, but he did not do worse than those that was.
If the club owns the medical, fitness, and set-piece departments, it empowers everyone, from a new head coach to a caretaker like Darren Fletcher. It ensures that when a manager eventually leaves, the foundation doesn’t leave with them.