Inside story of Jose Mourinho's Man United mess
Premier League
By
Mirror
| Dec 26, 2018
Manchester United will not be splashing the cash in the transfer market next month.
Stand-in boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was asked to work with the £500million squad placed at his disposal when he agreed to take over from Jose Mourinho.
And unless United are decimated by long-term injuries over the hectic Christmas and new year period they will not be opening the chequebook for new players.
The Old Trafford club believes Mourinho failed to get the most out of a squad that already includes £89m Paul Pogba, £75m Romelu Lukaku and £52m Fred.
They see no value in more big-money signings when they are planning to appoint a new manager at the end of the season.
Tottenham’s Mauricio Pochettino has been identified as the man they want – and United will not be deterred by the £40m compensation package they will have to pay to land the Argentine.
The Reds are also looking to bring in the club’s first director of football to avoid the kind of chaos over player recruitment that undermined Mourinho’s relationship with executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward.
Paul Mitchell, who worked with Pochettino at Southampton and briefly at Spurs, is regarded as the outstanding candidate to fill that role.
Born in the United heartland of Salford, the 37-year-old is currently the head of recruitment at German Bundesliga side RB Leipzig.
Real Madrid also covet Pochettino, so Woodward has told the club’s scouting department to identify other potential new managers.
Matt Judge – the club’s head of corporate development – will liaise with scouting chiefs to ensure that Woodward has an extensive list of potential managers to choose from should Pochettino slip the net.
United bosses will gather insight from ‘football’ people at the club regarding the appointment. Sir Alex Ferguson will be consulted as will Academy boss Nicky Butt.
Stand-in boss Solskjaer and his assistant will also be asked for their thoughts on the squad once they have worked with the players for a few months.
Woodward is also likely to speak to senior players in a bid to ensure that his fourth managerial appointment can bring the club out of Ferguson’s imposing shadow.
United’s scouting network has come under scrutiny following Mourinho’s departure. The club now have 60 scouts at their disposal around the world.
But chief scout Jim Lawlor and head of development John Murtough were marginalised by Mourinho during his two-and-a-half year reign in Manchester.
The Portuguese preferred to use his own trusted network of scouts and agents when it came to recruiting players.
That led to a difference of opinion on the players Mourinho felt were required and those the United board were willing to buy.
An Old Trafford insider said: “The club has a vast army of scouts, but they were frustrated by Mourinho’s refusal to listen.”
One of Solskjaer’s main tasks is to reopen the pathway for homegrown players into the first team.
Mourinho handed six Academy graduates their first-team debuts. But he was unable to shake off the suspicion that he wasn’t fully committed to helping young talent to progress.
When a coveted schoolboy player visited United’s Carrington training ground recently, Mourinho was asked if he would spend a few minutes talking to the youngster and his parents. “I’ll speak to them if they are still here at 4.30pm,” was the manager’s response - despite that fact it was nine o’clock in the morning.
Ferguson became a master of mounting charm offensives to snatch young players out of the grasp of rivals.
Now Solskjaer will tap into the expertise of Academy chief Butt to gauge whether highly-rated youngsters like Angel Gomes, Mason Greenwood, Tahith Chong, James Garner, Josh Bohui, Aidan Barlow and Ro-Shaun Williams are ready to be unleashed at senior level.
Solskjaer said: “Young players will definitely get a chance – that is a big part of this job.
“It’s part of the tradition and history of the club to give young players a chance. I will speak to Nicky Butt because he will know who is ready and at some point in the new year it will happen.”