Trying to identify the problems at United is like trying to nail jelly to a tree. Everyone's talking about the players, Ten Hag, and the Glazers. ALL valid points btw. But if we're talking about what's rotten in the club, what's affecting the culture within the club, then John Murtough and his role as DoF HAS to be mentioned far more, by the fans and by those in the media. Way I see it, the CEO (Arnold) and DoF (Murtough) along with other heirarchy should decide on the ethos and direction of the club, then hire a manager (Ten Hag) who fits that philosophy, and together they implement that from top to bottom within the club with ultimate control lying with the CEO and DoF. So if we and the media are scrutinizing the recruitment then why lay the blame at Ten Hag? I don't. Murtough should be making those decisions because it's precisely his role to do so. If he then passes that on to Ten Hag, what the fck do you expect him to do but to pick the players he wants? And this is part of the problem of the culture within the club. No one takes responsibility, and guess what, that filters all the way down to the players. I'll explain it further (and why I think Murtough deserves hot coals under his feet, or even shown the door). A search for a DoF was started while Mourhino was manager. It took two and a half years, and after all that search the best we could come up with was the internal promotion of John Murtough from the role of "football development" to DoF with little or no experience of the role. After two and a half years, in March 2021, that was the best we could find? Why? It was a “jobs for the boys” appointment by Woodward. His close mate and a "yes man" to ensure "more of the same" with no real change which is what Woody wanted. Under Woodward as CEO, he held the reigns of recruitment, and with zero experience he recruited very badly and we underachieved. In that time, despite everyone and his wife saying Woody was a big part of the problem and needed to fck off, instead we saw manager after manager being sacked but not him. Now we have Murtough, and once again the spotlight will be on sacking the manager. The problem as far as recruitment, contract extensions, and sales lies with the CEO and the DoF, and until we address that you can sack manager after manager, we'll find ourselves in the same position over and over again. Yes there are other problems, but the big underlying one for me is this. I can give clear examples of his fck ups btw but won't waste time posting those. And interestingly Ten Hag has hinted the same, suggesting maybe he's having to bear the responsibility of recruitment because Murtough aint up to the task. Here's him suggesting we need a better DoF back in May. https://thepeoplesperson.com/2023/0...t-yet-he-needs-a-director-of-football-263597/ And apparently in this article from just 2 weeks ago, if INEOS gain 25% share then Murtough is out the door and Paul Mitchell is "top of the list" to replace him. https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/...place-john-murtough-director-football-2692825
I made this point long ago that ETH shouldn’t simply be bringing the players that he wants. That there needed to be an oversight. Manny at the time felt that the club needed to simply just back the manager regardless. But this model is not sustainable from the simple perspective that a manager shouldn’t have to bring in his own players to create a winning team. This is not a FIFA game! In the real world, the director of football model is how organizations recruit. A manager can recommend people, not he doesn’t have get final say. Hence the rounds of interviews with other CEOs functional managers. Every time you allow a manager to simply bring in their own people, mediocrity invariably kicks in from nepotism. It’s a bs model! I don’t remember who mentioned the Sancho situation shouldn’t have been between ETH and Sancho. It should have been between the club and Sancho. Personal egos are now getting destroyed at the team’s expense. This is another example of the lack of structure. I like ETH but the pressure of all the football functions falling on him has not been helpful. Hopefully the INEOS 25% kicks on to allow us a reset of all football operations. We should leave the Glazers discussions aside because there’s not much anyone can do about it and it is simply muddling the water on the footballing front which just should never get this bad regardless of who owns controlling shares.
How can we leave the Glazers aside? It's them who employ these people. Or should. Ergo, they are the problem and will remain so until they **** off.
Yeah, but they aren’t going anywhere. So, why continue to use that as a prerequisite for success? For all intents and purposes, the CEO has far more role at the club than the owners. So when it comes to footballing matters, it’s a red herring to revert to it as we struggle on the pitch.
I think one thing it shows is that remnants of Woodward's era still exist. i.e. Murtough. The way things are done are virtually the same as ever. Clueless twonks making stupid decisions. If you're the owner AND a football person then you should be identifying this and taking steps. THIS is hopefully where INEOS/Ratcliffe come in and be more hands on. Hopefully.
That's fair enough but if Murtough is not competent enough to do the job and is simply passing that responsibility onto the manager you can't then blame the manager for making those choices. I guarantee Ten Hag had a DoF choosing the right players to bring in for what he needed at Ajax. And I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if Ten Hag hasn't gone with that fall-back position of going with those players as a result because who else would he go with, he's not a fcking scout is he? You end up going with what you know.
This is where the role of a manager should be focused on building a system that becomes the basis for an identifiable playing culture comes into play. That system must be tuned for the EPL, not the Dutch league. Therefore, it is dangerous to simply rely on ex-players that the manager knows from a limited league like the Dutch league. The Director of Football, along with the Scouts, should be working with the manager beyond his old club and league to identify talents that will fit into the new system, look into the youth team (as ETH has done), and bring in those that will augment existing players. From the transfers that we've made, I don't think anyone even asked the question of how the players will fit into a system.
The current hierarchy are just the same Woodward yes men with new job titles just to appease us fans. We need an experienced DoF - Van der Sar would be the ideal candidate as he knows both the club and ETH. Whether he would consider the role after his family's recent issues is quite another thing.
If it's not VDS, then what do you know of Paul Mitchell? And there's also Michael Edwards who was at Livpl and recruited well tbf.
Man United chief John Murtough expects to be part of Ineos era despite doubts over long-term future Football director hoping to make additions of his own to United's existing recruitment team as part of major changes to the scouting set-up. If this waste of space is still in charge of recruitment if/when INEOS come in then we're going nowhere.
I don’t think Ratcliffe would allow him to stay if he’s simply not up to the task. It could be a structural process problem as opposed to simply binning everyone.
Called it... A cycle is repeating itself again: We've seen it with Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Coaches and managers aren't the heads of recruitment. They lean towards certain players they may have worked with before, and they try to merge them into a team with players that another manager has signed. The players then don't look like they fit together, the atmosphere becomes a bit toxic, there's a fall-out or two, then the manager starts to come under a bit of pressure. And then usually, they get sacked. I've been here so many times over the past six, seven, eight years - and it's happening again before our eyes. "There's a lack of leadership and structure above him. I know people say, 'you can't blame the Glazers' - yes, you can! Because it's 10 years of failure and miserable recruitment. It comes down to the fact that they've not got a sporting director, a proper head of recruitment in place. That's why this happens. It's because ultimately managers and coaches look above them and see they haven't got anyone to help them so they might as well try to do it themselves. It all comes down to leadership. If it happened once, you might think 'fair enough' but this has happened five times in 10 years. https://www.skysports.com/football/...ing-him-would-solve-nothing-says-gary-neville Which is why I don't blame Ten Hag for the signings made, no matter how much the ignorant ABU pundits like to spin it and stick the boot in
What’s the point of having a director of football and allowing the manager to have the final say/bring in his own players? What’s the point of having a director of football and appointing managers like Jose Mourinho and Ten Hag? You need head coaches for that role who are happy being handed the squad of players and moulding them into a team that matches the club ethos. The director of football should be identifying footballers to suit a certain style of play that will go with an identity that is trying to be created. If a head coach fails, not a problem, no need for an overhaul of players, just bring in the next head coach that can work within the constraints that is set for them.
Exactly Not just allowing btw, pretty much absolving all responsibility for players to buy onto the manager.
At least there appears to be a shake up in the offing. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68044768 The club needs to be better run, a change is good. Right?
I hope so Chief. At first I was a bit concerned as I saw he was a commercial director and I thought, oh fck no, not again. But having read up more about him, he's very much a football man and seems like a very good appointment. Apparently we're looking to hire Dan Ashworth as Sporting Director and Paul Mitchell as Head of Recruitment. If we manage that I think it's the best bit of business we've done in years!
This will help transform how football on field operations is executed. The manager will need to become more of a coach who will work with set of players given to him. It will remove that layer of pressure on the manager having to worry about “his” players. They will effectively all become his players. And if one manager leaves, we wouldn’t need to replace the whole team again.
