The John Murtough Era

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UnitedSofa

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So, which part of what I said above is not true?
“Its been 16 months since Murtough was appointed DOF”

literally implied that whatever you’re blaming him for is his fault.
 

Beans

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Sigh. @Adnan has plenty of posts that highlight why he is qualified and in great detail too.

Can we get these stickied? @mods? Actually being serious. Fed up of seeing the same old shite with no real substance posted all the time about Murtough.
He may be ready to take on a DOF job somewhere, but United isn't the place to learn in the job. Hard to believe there's no one out there who might want to step up from a successful smaller club to be DOF at a giant like United, or that there's no one qualified who fit. We just have poor decision makers in this club, obviously. If ever a club did, we do.
 

UnitedSofa

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He may be ready to take on a DOF job somewhere, but United isn't the place to learn in the job. Hard to believe there's no one out there who might want to step up from a successful smaller club to be DOF at a giant like United, or that there's no one qualified who fit. We just have poor decision makers in this club, obviously. If ever a club did, we do.
Dear lord almighty.
 

Beans

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Dear lord almighty.
If you don't want to argue your side I'll happily admit that I'm a football fan, and thus I don't pay much attention to the DOFs and board members of this world; I don't have a strong opinion on this. It doesn't look encouraging on the surface, but I'm sure big clubs have promoted DOFs from within without prior experience.

However I don't think you can argue we're not a case study for poor decision making from those people behind the scenes with more or equal power to the manager, whatever their positions are called, since SAF and Gill retired.

I wish him all the best, I'll be rooting for him.
 

phelans shorts

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He may be ready to take on a DOF job somewhere, but United isn't the place to learn in the job. Hard to believe there's no one out there who might want to step up from a successful smaller club to be DOF at a giant like United, or that there's no one qualified who fit. We just have poor decision makers in this club, obviously. If ever a club did, we do.
Who is there out there at other clubs in those roles that moved their from other clubs?

Peratici at Spurs (to be Levy’s patsy), Txiki at City (specific prepare for Pep remit) and… ? I guess you could include Campos likely going to PSG as he used to be at Monaco (until he got punted) then went to Lille (until he got punted). Beppe Marotta at Inter I guess, but I’m really struggling to find any more.

Even in those, Txiki got the Barcelona role based on… being a former player turned commentator.
 

Rightnr

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Who is there out there at other clubs in those roles that moved their from other clubs?

Peratici at Spurs (to be Levy’s patsy), Txiki at City (specific prepare for Pep remit) and… ? I guess you could include Campos likely going to PSG as he used to be at Monaco (until he got punted) then went to Lille (until he got punted). Beppe Marotta at Inter I guess, but I’m really struggling to find any more.

Even in those, Txiki got the Barcelona role based on… being a former player turned commentator.
Newcastle just recruited Brighton's DoF.

If you are competent, you can step up. We hire friends, family and associated randomers and then wonder why we are where we are.

On top of that, we get the usual propaganda about impressing this that or the other and some people fall for it hook, line and sinker.
 

phelans shorts

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Newcastle just recruited Brighton's DoF.

If you are competent, you can step up. We hire friends, family and associated randomers and then wonder why we are where we are.

On top of that, we get the usual propaganda about impressing this that or the other and some people fall for it hook, line and sinker.
So a lower mid table side just recruited a lower lower mid table sides DOF. That’ll show 99% of major clubs in the worlds methods.

Ironically a man who replaced Jon Murtough in his previous job.
 

mu4c_20le

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Newcastle just recruited Brighton's DoF.

If you are competent, you can step up. We hire friends, family and associated randomers and then wonder why we are where we are.

On top of that, we get the usual propaganda about impressing this that or the other and some people fall for it hook, line and sinker.
Isn't that what we did with McKenna and Ramsay?
 

UnitedSofa

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If you don't want to argue your side I'll happily admit that I'm a football fan, and thus I don't pay much attention to the DOFs and board members of this world; I don't have a strong opinion on this. It doesn't look encouraging on the surface, but I'm sure big clubs have promoted DOFs from within without prior experience.

However I don't think you can argue we're not a case study for poor decision making from those people behind the scenes with more or equal power to the manager, whatever their positions are called, since SAF and Gill retired.

I wish him all the best, I'll be rooting for him.
I've defended him until I'm blue in the face. It's exhausting keep on defending a clearly qualified man to do the job. Look for @Adnan's posts telling you as such.
 

MrSingh2002

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So Murtough decided to be tight? Media briefings today to people like Shrager said that Vitinha is one of 3 priorities. Before the day is over he's signing for PSG.

Couldn't get much worse at the moment. Timber decides to stay at Ajax rather than sign for us because we don't guarantee him a starting position over Maguire?

Things are going to get worse before they get better somehow.
 

golden_blunder

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There are very few DoFs who were not former players given a chance. At least murtough cruelly has a broad spectrum of experience unlike most ex-players. Let’s see what murtough can do. Now it’s on him
 

Cassidy

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So Murtough decided to be tight? Media briefings today to people like Shrager said that Vitinha is one of 3 priorities. Before the day is over he's signing for PSG.

Couldn't get much worse at the moment. Timber decides to stay at Ajax rather than sign for us because we don't guarantee him a starting position over Maguire?

Things are going to get worse before they get better somehow.
He is a RCB so it would be over Varane
 

golden_blunder

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So Murtough decided to be tight? Media briefings today to people like Shrager said that Vitinha is one of 3 priorities. Before the day is over he's signing for PSG.

Couldn't get much worse at the moment. Timber decides to stay at Ajax rather than sign for us because we don't guarantee him a starting position over Maguire?

Things are going to get worse before they get better somehow.
Oh I see you’re back
 

mu4c_20le

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There are very few DoFs who were not former players given a chance. At least murtough cruelly has a broad spectrum of experience unlike most ex-players. Let’s see what murtough can do. Now it’s on him
Van der sar worked his way up the hierarchy while learning on the job. I wonder if Ajax fans ever accused the club of nepotism, orits just a United thing.
 

lex talionis

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It would be hard to argue, which thankfully no one is arguing, that Murtough is off to a brilliant start. But it's early days and the end of the 22/23 season is still 11 months away.
 

MrSingh2002

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He is a RCB so it would be over Varane
I'm sure Varane could play on the left even though he's had played on the right with Ramos and Maguire.

He definitely would be an improvement on Maguire there and a CB with pace like Timber would be helpful.
 

Cassidy

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I'm sure Varane could play on the left even though he's had played on the right with Ramos and Maguire.

He definitely would be an improvement on Maguire there and a CB with pace like Timber would be helpful.
Im sure Ten Hag wants a LCB
 

MrSingh2002

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And the Pau Torres links are real too
In an ideal world we'd sign both and let a combination of Jones, Bailly and Maguire leave.

Varane, Timber, Torres, Lindelof and Mengi would give us the best CB squad in a long time and give confidence when starting a season that you could compete in multiple competitions.
 
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So Murtough decided to be tight? Media briefings today to people like Shrager said that Vitinha is one of 3 priorities. Before the day is over he's signing for PSG.
Romano said we were never in for him however. I think United sometimes gets linked to players, we are not interested, in because agents of said player brief the media to make the actual interested club speed up the negotiations. We are going to be linked this summer to 100s of players still to come.

Couldn't get much worse at the moment. Timber decides to stay at Ajax rather than sign for us because we don't guarantee him a starting position over Maguire?
I think Timber is worried about losing his position for the Dutch World Cup squad. As soon as Van Gaal said he has to play to be picked, I reckon this made him think twice about coming to United. It's a bit of a risk for him, so I can understand him deciding to stay. Nothing we could do about that. Maguire is a starting CB for England at the moment.

Things are going to get worse before they get better somehow.
Think perhaps of what Oscar Wilde said, "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." United were in the gutter last season but there is hope again now that we have a young competent manager who likes to play attractive modern football. There is some hope.
 

::sonny::

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So Murtough decided to be tight? Media briefings today to people like Shrager said that Vitinha is one of 3 priorities. Before the day is over he's signing for PSG.

Couldn't get much worse at the moment. Timber decides to stay at Ajax rather than sign for us because we don't guarantee him a starting position over Maguire?

Things are going to get worse before they get better somehow.
Agreed 100%
 

Rightnr

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So a lower mid table side just recruited a lower lower mid table sides DOF. That’ll show 99% of major clubs in the worlds methods.

Ironically a man who replaced Jon Murtough in his previous job.
Impressively obtuse response.

So Murtough decided to be tight? Media briefings today to people like Shrager said that Vitinha is one of 3 priorities. Before the day is over he's signing for PSG.

Couldn't get much worse at the moment. Timber decides to stay at Ajax rather than sign for us because we don't guarantee him a starting position over Maguire?

Things are going to get worse before they get better somehow.
Come on, chill and go and stroke those unicorns. Apparently everyone else can see them and they're telling them we'll have an amazing transfer window.
 
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alexthelion

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He's already showing signs of being expendable. It's not like there haven't been opportunities Paul Mitchell was free not to long ago, Rangnick ideally should have actually been given the role of a DOF before he was even considered a manager. Dan Ashworths work with Brighton is also a notable mention.

The biggest issue with Murtough is he has absolutely no credibility to fall back on, he has no experience to the degree of being the right individual to move United forward. The way I see it is the glazers have just moved the goal posts with the replacing of Woodward and fans have lapped it up. All the way through the hierarchy there are non-football individuals making footballing decisions.

Andy O’Boyle can be thrown into the same mix he's the deputy director of football. Club should have gone for a tried and tested like Edwin.
:rolleyes:

"Edwin" is their CEO, not DOF.

Why do posters still get this wrong, it's been stated enough times on the forum, ffs.
 

SirSean

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Newcastle just recruited Brighton's DoF.

If you are competent, you can step up. We hire friends, family and associated randomers and then wonder why we are where we are.

On top of that, we get the usual propaganda about impressing this that or the other and some people fall for it hook, line and sinker.
I don't think we wonder where we are at all. The board is satisfied. Otherwise, we'd see a proper reaction, and not just change of manager. As a consultant, I've seen sooooo many companies through the years not make the right decisions, because overall the results were "fine".
 

Cassidy

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No, not knowing how much budget is left seems logical.
If you have a max figure you apparently are not going above for De Jong then you have no issues. Get your other business done
 

vva

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Spurs appointed Fabio Patrucci as Director of football in Jun 2021. Spurs get Dejan Kulusevski, Cristian Romero, Rodrigo Bentancur, Ivan perisic and Bissouma. It's clearly a hit rather than miss due to quick negotiation, bargain fee, and getting good players.

This is what outstanding & experience director of football does. Nothing we can see from John Murtough at this moment. Apart from convincing Erik Ten Hag joining Man United, there is no any good sign in transfer market. He's been average to poor until there's better supported evidence.
 

Escobar

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Spurs appointed Fabio Patrucci as Director of football in Jun 2021. Spurs get Dejan Kulusevski, Cristian Romero, Rodrigo Bentancur, Ivan perisic and Bissouma. It's clearly a hit rather than miss due to quick negotiation, bargain fee, and getting good players.

This is what outstanding & experience director of football does. Nothing we can see from John Murtough at this moment. Apart from convincing Erik Ten Hag joining Man United, there is no any good sign in transfer market. He's been average to poor until there's better supported evidence.
I still find it strange that we never appointed a DoF who actually has a good track record...
 

Woziak

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I still find it strange that we never appointed a DoF who actually has a good track record...
I means it’s not as if one of our great ex players Edwin Van de Sar has not priven
Himself too be excellent at Ajax?
 

Andy_Cole

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Spurs appointed Fabio Patrucci as Director of football in Jun 2021. Spurs get Dejan Kulusevski, Cristian Romero, Rodrigo Bentancur, Ivan perisic and Bissouma. It's clearly a hit rather than miss due to quick negotiation, bargain fee, and getting good players.

This is what outstanding & experience director of football does. Nothing we can see from John Murtough at this moment. Apart from convincing Erik Ten Hag joining Man United, there is no any good sign in transfer market. He's been average to poor until there's better supported evidence.
Don’t forget Conte
 

#07

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I still find it strange that we never appointed a DoF who actually has a good track record...
Yeah but if we did that the person might expect too much.

No other club of United's size would have appointed Murtough as Football Director. This is his shot at the big time. He's not going to jeopardize it by talking out of turn to the higher ups.

United promote from within to ensure there's nobody rocking the boat. If everything goes to pot they don't want someone like a Paratici telling the Italian press why. They'd prefer someone who owes their career to them in place, someone who will act as a human shield.

Murtough may turn out to be as good as Monchi, we all hope as much. But if it happens it'll be by accident not design. He was put in his job because he's a known quantity. That was a more important quality to the United suits than his ability to do the job.
 

vva

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I still find it strange that we never appointed a DoF who actually has a good track record...
Good DoF can do world of good things in short period of time. John Murtough must work harder and show what he can contribute. He's not up to standard of DoF right now. Last summer, he can complete the transfer of Sancho and Varane but offer them superior contract like 300K++. This will continue to create the damage in the long term on wage structure. And, this year, what's the point to chase FDJ 70 Million Euro and offer superior contract like 300K++ again. There should be alternative choice that ETH say ok as well. DoF must find the right player and also shape the direction of club not to be cash cow for incoming players.
 
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