News: The OMT for the 1st Ever MUFC D.O.F

If United ends up appointing Woodward Yessir clowns, this place is going to meltdown.

 

Honestly, that would be a stroke of genius by that assclown Woodward. He would appease fans by hiring a DOF but still make all the decisions and make them take a backseat to him.

 

He head's up youth development at United I believe.

Not sure what that has to do with Fellaini, Valencia, Young or Sanchez, etc...

My point is I don't think you know shit about him or his philosophy. So, quit your preaching.

 

Exactly

 

Let me be clear. I don't give a ******** what his philosophy is for our middling academy when there are actual Directors of Football with brilliant records out there. I'm sorry. We don't have a savant on our books in this regard.

 

People and fans in general, contrary to popular belief are not that stupid and if Woodward does hire some yes man figurehead for the DoF role, there will be a massive uproar. Problem is, as loud as it may be, it wouldn't change anything in the end...
However as stated before, I genuinely believe that Woodward realizes the importance of this hire (especially being the first one in a brand new position) and he'll really look to get the best person possible.

 

Fella was a Moyes call, Val and Young were Fergie, Sanchez is the only possible Woodward purchase. So you're right. It doesn't come as fair criticism to pounce on an internal appointment while citing decisions across three different regimes.

 

But we've never been a club that signs big names as the primary focus of our ethos. We cultivate our own.

Ole is the first manager to have any sort of fan-supported success. Not Mourinho, not LvG, but one of our own.

I don't know if either are the right decisions, but I think the post-Fergie years have been wrought with one message: Bigger isn't necessarily better.

 

As I understand it, the point people are making is that by definition of being internal recruits (who currently therefore report to Woodward) and in all probability therefore also having no DoF experience, we would be clearly failing to meet some pretty basic criteria of what many of us would hope a DoF would bring.

 

Lets hope we go for proven rather than recruiting and upgrading within system.

 

My personal expectations we will go for an established person in that position simply comes from Woodward himself, if we're being honest, as he implied we would be going for one of the best there is. And given who we are and the means at our disposal, it's a goal we should be able to accomplish.
That being said, there are factors we need to take into consideration, especially availability and if somehow none of the top guys we are looking at don't appear to be available, then it's understandable that Woodward would be looking to go another way.
At the end of the day, whoever gets the job will get my support initially and as long as they prove effective in their duties, it will remain so. But I do believe that being the first time in quite a while we'll be getting someone in that role, I would like to see us make a splash and go for the tried and tested for the coming years at least.
The ultimate goal for me remains unchanged: and that is for United to follow the Bayern model where ex players from the club can end up occupying admin and executive positions with United.

 

The search for a DoF will not be easy.

http://www.espn.com/soccer/club/man...-a-director-of-football-will-be-far-from-easy

Always puzzled me as to why Michael Zorc's name was never even mentioned as one of the guys we are looking at. Was always my personal choice, even before we were on the hunt for a DoF (his track record at Dortmund speaks for itself).
Maybe he does not want to leave and that's fine then but an approach to gauge his interest couldn't hurt. We obviously could make it worth his while and eventhough, it's not always about money, but if we're to prize someone away from their current job, it is a factor that could come into play, in swaying someone our way.

 

Just another depressing day in our hunt for DoF ..

 

Some progress :/ ...

Jose Mourinho wasn’t the only problem at Manchester Utd, so it follows that Solskjaer can’t be the only solution. They still need a proper structure, and a DoF. They still don’t know what form that will take. https://t.co/YJWxrGRUds

— Rory Smith (@RorySmith) February 18, 2019

 

Really good article by Rory.

 

Im not a journalist but surely the word count could be cut by 25% at least?

 

It could be, but this wasn't a 'news' piece. It was an opinion/feature type article. With those types, the journalist will get direction from his editor on how much he wants (column inches) and what his should be. There might be a negotiation over it if the reporter feels he needs more space. I enjoyed it because so many of these articles tend to just be linking names out of nowhere. He gave his opinion, but didn't hide it behind a source.

 

So then after reading, how do we all feel about the next window?

 

I'd feel a lot better if we already had a DOF in place working with the scouting network and Ole to determine priorities and targets. But I feel confident we'll have money to spend.

 

If we are indeed determining how best to select the best fit for DoF and find out what a DoF looks like at United, I'm all for taking the time to do that.

We are in a unique situation because we have a CEO with no football background and we lost a bunch of institutional memory and we don't currently have a manager and our last real manager was years ago and he ran the entire club practically.

I think our next season will be a mixed bag if we don't sort out some recruitment, but I think we can expect Ole to make a fist of it, if he has a full preseason to work on ideas and fitness.

 

***Tumbleweed blows down the street***

At best, even if we hired someone tomorrow, we'll be giving them insufficient time to prepare for the summer window.

More likely is that we hire someone in the summer which means this summer's recruitment will be yet another Woody special which is a huge problem when we need to make a number of moves after we've effectively sat out the last two windows trying to get the manager situation sorted.

Even more likely still is that "director of football" is just a phrase Woody utters to placate the fans whenever his seat starts to get a little warm and he has no intention of willingly ceding a position he for all intents and purposes currently holds. It seems notable that as soon as we have any kind of uptick, all the DoF talk disappears. Unless Ole really is the new SAF (and it's about 10 years at a minimum too soon to say that) we still have serious longterm structural issues at the club.

 

The 'latest' on the DoF front (from the bookmakers perspective at least).

https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...ll-news/man-utd-director-of-football-16059663

Heard the names before, but honestly don't know much about either Marcel Bout or John Murtough (the fact that Canto is at 14/1 is just lol..).

Edit: A name that has been bandied about before and one I would be intrigued by is Jordi Cruyff. Perhaps not as sexy as others frequently mentioned, but he's got experience in the role, is an ex-player at the club and surely must have some connections with the Dutch market/pool of players.

 

United still on board with appointing a Director of Football, according to Skysports.

https://www.skysports.com/football/...rector-to-work-alongside-ole-gunnar-solskjaer

Good news that the DoF search hasn't gone cold, as feared recently. Let's get it done as it's a crucial part of the club moving forward in a more secure fashion. Question now is, who will Woodward turn to for the job?

 

I'll believe it when I see it.

 

Seems like (contrary to some earlier reports) Edwin would be open to coming to United as DoF according to this interview;

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/man-utd-legend-refuses-rule-14252143