Manchester United’s transfer deals have been criticized as “chaotic” by insiders at the club, according to a new report.
The club have just one recognized striker on the books and are struggling to recruit more this month, with no funds available following a summer overspend.
According to The Athletic, director of football John Murtough and head of recruiting Steve Brown are running a system based on a database created by Murtough called “TrackerMan”, which contains information on cumulative players from United’s network of 140 scouts. .
The implication of the report is that this system has been largely ineffective. The club recently (October 2021) appointed a data analyst, Dominic Jordan, to modernize things, although the appointment was criticized due to his lack of football experience, having come from the fashion industry.
“Murtough and Brown are convinced that United are better equipped to make good decisions than at any time since Ferguson,” says reporter Laurie Whitwell.
“Athletic have spoken with former employees who would challenge that claim, and during the summer window of last year, the club’s business hit chaos.”
Whitwell says that while the five stars signed in the summer (Casemiro, Antony, Tyrell Malacia, Lisandro Martínez and Christian Eriksen) have done well, “the cost of recruiting that quintet exceeded the original plan to such an extent that the budget for this month has United just looking at loan deals.”
United were slow to operate last summer, which “major figures” suggest was partly because the club were unable to tell potential signings who would be manager until the end of April.
But time was also lost in the pursuit of Frenkie de Jong from Barcelona, which took up most of the summer.
In fact, Whitwell claims that the season had already started before meetings were called to come up with a list of alternatives.
“Multiple senior figures at Old Trafford felt that the club should have gone from [De Jong] before,” the report continues.
It was only after United’s opening day humiliation at the hands of Brighton that the recruiting team decided to act. A long meeting was held in Carrington “to assess the options” and Casemiro was identified as the main target.
“People working in other areas of football found it surprising that such important decisions were made at United after the season started,” the reporter says.
Another reason for the club’s ineptitude in dealing with transfers is club owner Joel Glazer’s insistence on micromanaging everything and signing off on “all expenses, even the minimum fees.” This is something Whitwell has mentioned numerous times before. He adds that waiting for Glazer’s approval is “a time-consuming aspect of recruiting to navigate.”
One agent is quoted as describing United’s decision-makers as “scaly”, adding that “no one makes a decision unless everyone agrees”.
“An EFL club owner inquiring about United player loans was surprised by the amount of time it took on what seemed like small-time deals for a club of its size,” adds Whitwell.
The journalist also reports that when a good scouting job is done, it tends to get lost in the system and good leads are lost entirely. One such example relates to a Champions League winner “who is considered one of the best in the world.”
“Dozens of reports have been made at United about him since he was 13 years old, the constant message is that the club must sign him. No one in Carrington responded by email or phone until the player joined another big European club years later,” Whitwell writes.
The report even claims that former manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer signed Amad Diallo without even seeing him play, believing he was being signed by the academy, when in fact he was bought as a first-team addition.
There is a sense throughout the article that current manager Erik Ten Hag is receiving a great deal of power now in the hiring process and that is helping to focus the effort.
However, there is also some concern that if the Dutchman were to move, the club would be left with a group of players with a very particular profile who might not fit into any other manager’s system.
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