Man Utd’s Master Plan
Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward is facing the most critical stage of his reign as he aims to complete an overhaul of the club in time to mount a title challenge next season.
Woodward has outlined a pivotal few months at Old Trafford when he aims to appoint a permanent manager and a director of football, as well as secure the long-term future of David de Gea.
The full cost of sacking Jose Mourinho was revealed on Thursday when United’s quarterly accounts confirmed a compensation package of £19.6m.
Standard Sport understands Mourinho received £15m in severance, with £4.6m spread among his backroom staff and further National Insurance payments.
His departure enabled Woodward to step up his search for a long-awaited director of football - but also left him on the hunt for a fourth permanent manager in six years.
He is under increasing pressure to get the next one right, with Mourinho’s pay-out underlining the heavy cost of failure.
United still reported record revenues of £208m in their latest quarterly results and profits of £44m.
But United’s listing fortunes on the pitch and Woodward’s track record of managerial failures have placed him under intense scrutiny from supporters.
Mauricio Pochettino has long-been his first choice to take over at the end of the season – but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s outstanding start as interim has made him a leading contender. Max Allegri, Diego Simeone and Zinedine Zidane are all under consideration too as United conduct an extensive and thorough process. Defeat to Paris Saint Germain on Tuesday was the first for Solskjaer – and with games coming up against Chelsea and Liverpool, this period could be telling in terms of his chances of seeing off the challenge of Pochettino.
Woodward refuses to back himself into a corner amid suggestions the Norwegian had already been given the job.
Despite congratulating Solskjaer for “reviving the performances of the team” – he added: “We communicated around December time about what we were doing, placing Ole in place as caretaker.
“The next communication with regards to this will be when we have something to announce regarding the manager.
“We’re not going to give updates part way through.”
Ideally United would want a director of football to be part of the process of identifying the next manager – but there is an acceptance that’s unlikely to be the case, with that role still to be filled. Mourinho’s reluctance to work with such an appointment caused United’s search to stall, but Woodward insists the modernising of the club’s football operations has been ongoing.
He added: “We’ve done a lot of changes within the football side in the last four or five years, in particular around the academy, where we’ve materially increased investment and we’re seeing the quality of that now coming on.
“On the football side, we’ve invested around the recruitment side, the player care side, continued investment with facilities, medical and sports science, so the evolution is continuing.
“It’s not necessarily that visible to the outside and, in some respects, you get a multi-year return later on rather than an immediate impact.
“But in regards to the overall structure, we are looking at that (the head of football role) and ways we can make it stronger and it is something we’ll do on a continual basis.”