It’s all a bit double Dutch for Manchester United so far this summer. Ruud van Nistelrooy and Rene Hake being lined up to join the coaching staff and Matthijs de Ligt and Joshua Zirkzee leading targets to reinforce the two priority areas in Erik ten Hag’s first-team squad.
If De Ligt was to join from Bayern Munich and Zirkzee from Bologna it would take the number of players of Dutch origin, or who have played in the Eredivisie, to nine, although that includes Donny van de Beek, who is peripheral to this squad at best. It wouldn’t exactly give the impression of United moving away from a transfer strategy dictated by the manager.
That is the situation Sir Jim Ratcliffe was keen to avoid when Ineos got the keys to Old Trafford. Speaking in February, he explained his desire to revamp the football structure at the club and get away from a model that hands so much power to the manager.
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“What you need are the foundations to be in a good place for Manchester United to be successful, which means that, from our point of view anyway, you need the right organisational structure,” Ratcliffe said.
“Which means not having a coach reporting to the chief executive, for instance, which is what they’ve got at the moment. You need the right organisation structure and that’s not going to be too complicated.”
That structure is pretty much in place now. Dan Ashworth leads it as the sporting director, reporting to a chief executive, which for now is Jean-Claude Blanc but will be Omar Berrada from July 13. Below Ashworth is technical director Jason Wilcox, while Christopher Vivell is also set to take up a narrower recruitment role.
With Ashworth having started work after an end to four months of negotiations with Newcastle, United can begin to redraw their structure when it comes to decisions around transfers. The idea will be to give Ten Hag less power than he has had in his first two summer windows.
Under the Glazer regime, with a chief executive focused on commercial success in Richard Arnold and football director John Murtough, Ten Hag guided the decision-making and took on a bigger role when it came to transfers, with United restructuring their scouting and recruitment operation.
There have been hits and misses for Ten Hag in the market, but Ashworh has a reputation for shrewd recruitment and will take on a major role, although as sporting director his job is far more wide-reaching than just transfers. At Brighton, he was technical director and let head of recruitment Paul Winstanley generally guide the way on deals.
Ashworth had his say, however, and in a December 2020 interview with Traning Ground Guru, he explained how a collaborative approach was required, which would still give Ten Hag a say now, even if his power is ever-so-slightly reduced when he signs a new contract.
“If I sign a player that Graham [Potter] doesn’t like or want, it’s a drastic waste of resources. Ultimately, Graham has got to pick 11 players that he thinks will give him the best chance of winning,” Ashworth said.
“If he doesn’t rate the attributes in a player that I do, then we are going to invest a transfer fee, salary and agent’s fee for a player that Graham doesn’t rate or want and who is unlikely to play.
“So how do we work here? Well, we agree the areas of the pitch that Graham wants to improve. Our first port of call is ‘what have we already got in the system?’ There have been times when Graham has said: ‘I’d rather work with what we’ve got and make them better than sign a player for the sake of it.’
“But if we haven’t got that position in the U23s or out on loan then we need to go into the market.”
Ashworth used the example of Potter wanting a more physical striker and deciding to pursue Danny Welbeck for the role. This summer Ten Hag wants a central defender and a striker as a priority and in the case of De Ligt, there is an obvious connection to use there. He is someone the United manager wants and has a good relationship with.
Ashworth will use his own instincts and contacts as well, however. He did just that when using his time with England and getting to know Tariq Lamptey through the age-group sides. With Reece James blocking his path at Chelsea, he saw the young right-back as a realistic target for Brighton and he has excelled at the Amex.