{"id":559416,"date":"2020-07-23T17:15:21","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T21:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/?p=559416"},"modified":"2020-07-23T17:15:21","modified_gmt":"2020-07-23T21:15:21","slug":"manchester-united-director-of-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/07\/23\/manchester-united-director-of-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester United Are Back in for a Director of Football"},"content":{"rendered":"

The appointment of a director of football is back on the agenda for Manchester United<\/a> executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward, the Telegraph’s Mike McGrath reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Almost two years have passed since initial plans to appoint a head of football<\/a> were put in place. However, Woodward eventually opted against an appointment, perhaps temporarily.<\/p>\n

Once again, it is reported<\/a> that Manchester United will be looking to fill the position.<\/p>\n

Manchester United Are Back in for a Director of Football<\/h2>\n

The Candidates<\/h3>\n

Manchester United are looking to appoint a director of football for the first time in its history.<\/p>\n

Andrea Berta, who is currently the sporting director at Atletico Madrid<\/a>, is among the names who are suggested and could be tempted to take the prestigious role. Juventus’ Fabio Paratici and Antero Henrique, formerly of Paris Saint-Germain are named<\/a> as highly-rated potential candidates.<\/p>\n

Henrique is said to have<\/a> played a key role in the signing of Bruno Fernandes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ed Woodward has yet to start the process of shortlisting candidates. His priority has been overseeing the completion of the 2019\/20 season and dealing with the financial impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on the football club.<\/p>\n

He’s added the search for a director of football onto his agenda for the summer.<\/p>\n

Not Looking for Traditional Sporting Director<\/h3>\n

While Woodward is yet to begin listing candidates, he has outlined the criteria for the role.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for anyone expecting an appointment to be the start of drastic measures at Old Trafford, it will not be the case.<\/p>\n

Manchester United are happy with the current transfer strategy – which has overseen the additions of Aaron Wan-Bissaka<\/a>, Bruno Fernandes, Daniel James<\/a>, Harry Maguire<\/a>, and Odion Ighalo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Whoever arrives at Old Trafford will join the current structure, instead of reshaping it.<\/p>\n

It may even be the case that United enlist the job title<\/a> as ‘technical director’, with less emphasis on the footballing side.<\/p>\n

Working Alongside Solskjaer and Co<\/h3>\n

United have taken it upon themselves to have a unique transfer strategy.<\/p>\n

Most Premier League<\/a> clubs have elected to have a director of football, however, the Red Devils have a team of people involved, as opposed to having one man delegate the play style and recruitment for the club.<\/p>\n

The new director of football will work with the current set-up.<\/p>\n

This includes manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, his team of coaches, scouts, data analysts, and Matt Judge, who is United’s chief transfer negotiator.<\/p>\n

Manchester United face a challenge to find a good fit for that group.<\/p>\n

Right Direction<\/h3>\n

12 months ago, the club were crying out for something different in the recruitment department. However, the last two windows have been a success. It’s hard to blame the club for wanting to enhance that work, over dismantling it.<\/p>\n

It will only be known if they are right through the performance on the pitch. A title challenge will be expected sooner rather than later. A challenge itself will not be enough. Trophies will have to come along the way too.<\/p>\n

It’s time Manchester United start matching their reputation and they will hope they are going the right way about it.<\/p>\n

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Main Photo<\/p>\n

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The appointment of a director of football is back on the agenda for Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward, the Telegraph’s Mike McGrath reports. Almost two years have passed since initial plans to appoint a head of football were put in place. However, Woodward eventually opted against an appointment, perhaps temporarily. Once again, it is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3469,"featured_media":559426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,2,30,3],"tags":[1201,36,3197,40,136],"class_list":["post-559416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-featured","category-news","category-premier-league","tag-ed-woodward","tag-manchester-united","tag-ole-gunnar-solskjaer","tag-premier-league","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Jordan Hackett, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3469"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}