You don’t get much for NOK 4 billion at the moment. The six most expensive purchases for Manchester United under coach Erik ten Hag have in total cost more than this, according to the website Transfermarkt. When the team lined up for the key match against Copenhagen on Wednesday, two of them were on the field. Two others were injured. Two sat on the bench. United lost 4–3, are now last in the group in the Champions League, and are in 8th place in the Premier League. For so much money, it has been a meager catch. But then United don’t throw the net very far either. Lion and lamb The six big purchases under Ten Hag can be divided into three categories: 1) Players Ten Hag trained in Ajax (2017-2022): – Lisandro Martínez – André Onana – Antony 2) Players represented by Ten Hag’s agent, Kees Vos: – Rasmus Højlund 3) Players sold by other big clubs: – Casemiro – Mason Mount Only Martínez has been a clear success. Mount wears out the bench, Casemiro has been taken off at half-time two games in a row, Højlund is a lion in the Champions League and a lamb in the Premier League. And Antony? The less said there, the better. DOESN’T FLAP: Antony hasn’t gotten much time on the field this season. Photo: DARREN STAPLES / AFP But the special thing is where these names come from. United is one of the world’s richest clubs, with scouts all over the globe. Nevertheless, 66.7 percent of the large purchases are picked from Ten Hag’s contact list. Gold in France Even the exceptions come from teams that United have dealt with before. Casemiro? He was brought in from Real Madrid, who in the last decade have also sold them Raphaël Varane and Ángel Di María. Mount? Straight from Chelsea, who have already given them Nemanja Matic and Juan Mata. All are established names that the sellers wanted to get money for while they could. A LOT OF DESPAIR: Mason Mount was brought in from Chelsea this summer. Photo: RUSSELL CHEYNE / Reuters The rivals are looking much harder. Often they have one market they know particularly well: Germany (Liverpool), Italy (Tottenham), Brazil (Arsenal). And Manchester City finds gold everywhere. This summer they bought Jérémy Doku, a young winger from French Rennes who scored four goals against Bournemouth last weekend – and scored one himself. Afterwards, coach Pep Guardiola praised his sporting director, Txiki Begiristain, for finding Doku. Here the colleagues had delivered. United will have 140 scouts worldwide. Are any of them at work? Phone to Florida From the outside, the entire recruitment process at United has seemed chaotic. For 10 years scouts have come and gone. In 2019, United said they had analyzed 804 right-backs, before settling on Crystal Palace’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka. They hired their first head of statistics as late as October 2021, more than a decade after their rivals had started with formulas and numbers. In an industry where teams must react quickly, according to the website The Athletic, all purchases must be approved by chairman Joel Glazer, who lives in Florida – 700 miles away and five hours behind. But if nothing else, United used to be creative. Under vice-president Ed Woodward, they traded in Portugal, Spain and Italy. Now the head of sports is John Murtough, who became director of football in March 2021. It hasn’t gone very well. The boys from the neighborhood Under him, United have brought in the six expensive players mentioned above, plus Varane, Jadon Sancho and Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo ended up at war with the club, and Sancho is now frozen out of the A team. JUST TOUCH: Former Manchester United player Cristiano Ronaldo despairs during a match for the Red Devils last year. Photo: PHIL NOBLE / Reuters And what else? Murtough came to United from Everton together with David Moyes in 2013, and has never worked outside England, so United do not have a country they know particularly well. So he has mostly taken names from his own English neighbourhood: Christian Eriksen (Brentford), Johnny Evans (Leicester), Martin Dúbravka (Newcastle). Beyond that, Ten Hag has taken control. Tyrell Malacia came from Dutch Feyenoord. And the loan of Sofyan Amrabat? Agent Kees Vos was involved there. Call those you know. Murtough did the same with his first coach. In November 2021, he needed a replacement for Ole Gunnar Solskjær. Certainly, he interviewed several, before choosing Ralf Rangnick, who was not even working as a coach at the time, but as head of sporting development at Lokomotiv Moscow. Murtough himself had visited Rangnick when the German coached RB Leipzig in 2019, and had been impressed. He went for someone he knew. In other words, one of the grayest coaches United has had. Old heroes This tendency has permeated United for 10 years. The world is big, but you must hire acquaintances and old heroes at the cost of life and death. Solskjær has been one of them, Ronaldo another. On the list of assistant coaches we find two former United players: Ryan Giggs and Michael Carrick. Now the role belongs to Steve McClaren, who used to be Alex Ferguson’s assistant. The technical director is Darren Fletcher, again a former player. Phil Neville has been part of the coaching staff. The head of the academy used to be Nicky Butt. 2014: Ryan Giggs (from left), Phil Neville and David Moyes from their time in the Manchester United coaching staff. Photo: EDDIE KEOGH / Reuters And then we have Murtough, who was previously the club’s “head of football development”. In 2021, United could try almost any sporting director. Everyone wants to be part of this commercial beast, this fabled institution. And United can pay for themselves. They could bring in someone who had held this role before. Someone with a long CV, heavy experience and great success at another club. But United took a quick look around and found that the best candidate was Murtough, who happened to already be working for them. New colleagues Such moves do not lay the foundation for a culture packed with expertise. When Ten Hag was interviewed for the job, he reportedly told Murtough that United’s sporting organization was miserable. Maybe he still doesn’t trust the internal recruitment. Perhaps he feels that it is better to fix things himself. When four out of six big signings are names Ten Hag himself knows, it does not say much about those who are actually paid to find players. It’s a bad sign when the coach has so much power. In any case, Ten Hag may soon have new colleagues. Everyone is waiting for businessman Jim Ratcliffe to buy up 25 percent of the shares in United. Ratcliffe only does so if he can determine the sporting strategy. It’s no wonder he wants his own people in.
ttn-69
Erik ten Hag has too much power – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcast schedule
