United rule out Joyce return for U-23s role
UNITED will not be re-employing former Under-23 boss Warren Joyce as the Reds continue to search for a new reserve team manager.
The vacancy arose in the first week of November when the highlysuccessful Joyce left his role as Under-23 boss to take up the manager’s role at Wigan Athletic.
Academy director Nicky Butt was installed as his replacement on a temporary basis while United began the process of finding a new man.
Joyce, 52, was sacked at Wigan earlier this month after only 24 matches in charge. But the M.E.N. understands the Reds have decided not to go back for the man who brought them a string of reserve titles and prepared players like cur- rent first-teamers Marcus Rashford, Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard for the seniors.
United’s four-month search for Joyce’s replacement has made progress, with some candidates being interviewed for the job.
However, Butt said in January the Reds won’t be rushed and want to make certain they get the right man.
“It’s something we’re looking at and something we’ve got to get right,” he said.
“It’s a very important age group to manage and look after. It’s the last step into the first team or into different clubs to try to make a career. It’s important and we’re going through the process of having interviews. We don’t want to make it a rush job and get the wrong person in.”
Butt, however, doesn’t want the job himself on a permanent basis having been the interim manager. He said: “I am enjoying it but there’s a bigger job and a bigger picture with the club to do, right from the Under12s to the Under-23s, and it’s something I’m keen to get started again.”
United’s Under-23s have only three matches left in their Premier League 2 Division One campaign but are facing relegation as they sit eighth in the 12-team league, just three points off the bottom.
Ex-players such Paul Scholes and Phil Neville, Butt’s Class of ’92 mates, were initially touted as candidates, but the fact the search has gone on so long suggests United are ready to employ somebody from another club at the end of the season.
Back in September Kieran McKenna was identified as the new Under-18s manager and was lured from Tottenham as successor to Paul McGuinness, who left last season.
Butt has been in charge of a huge revamp of United’s academy since he was appointed to head-up the operation in February 2016 and has been part of the interview and recruitment process for the Under23s job.