United to add 40 scouts to network

THE root-and-branch revamp of Manchester United’s scouting system will see up to 40 appointments around the globe in an initiative started by executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward.

The wholesale changes from the tight-knit Sir Alex Ferguson era will see the academy and first- team talent identification operations merged to create a more efficient approach in order to attract the best prospects in world football.

Sports headhunters Nolan Partners are working with United in recruiting fresh scouts in every territory. Dutchman Henny de Regt has already been brought in to work with head of youth recruitment Derek Langley, while chief scout Jim Lawlor has been given admin support so he can concentrate fully on finding players.

United want to keep a greatly expanded scouting system in place whoever replaces current manager Louis van Gaal, so avoiding David Moyes’s predicament of finding there was no accessible database of potential players when he took over from Ferguson.

CHELSEA captain John Terry, despite all his off-field incidents, is especially popular with the girls in the academy teams and their parents. The girls’ sides used to be the poor relations at Chelsea’s Cobham training ground, being based away from the facilities in the main complex. But since Terry’s daughter Summer started playing for Chelsea girls two years ago, Terry (right) has ensured parents have access to teas and coffees while watching training and all girls receive packed lunches after matches. THE battle between Paul Nicholls and Willie Mullins to be champion jump trainer helped demonstrate the poor prize-money in the sport. Nicholls retained his title with his horses winning £2,439,563. But that amount is around what it is understood owner Rich Ricci spends on his racing operation every year, while JP McManus is believed to spend four times that annually on his 300-plus horses. Effectively, big owners Ricci, McManus, Michael O’Leary and Graham Wylie bankroll jump racing and can never hope to recoup their expenditure.

LONDON marathon commentator John Inverdale, who makes his fair share of bloomers on air in his role as sports broadcaster, used former 10,000m world record-holder David Bedford as an example of a veteran athlete still running despite not having had all the advantages for his physical conditioning from advances in shoe technology. This is the same David Bedford who can now only walk having had a full knee replacement in 2013.