‘Man United need top-five sporting director’

Manchester United need to hire a world-class sporting director to help turn the club’s fortunes around, according to Andy Mitten, editor of the club’s fanzine United We Stand.

Manchester United need to hire a world-class sporting director to help turn the club’s fortunes around, according to Andy Mitten, editor of the club’s fanzine United We Stand.

United are looking to implement structural changes in how the club is run after finishing sixth in the Premier League last season, 32 points behind champions Manchester City.

Sir Alex Ferguson has urged United to appoint Steve Walsh in a consultancy role but Sky Sports News understands the club’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward still favours bringing in a former United player for the role.

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Mitten believes the club need to bring someone with a proven track record of excellence as a sporting director.

“It has to be an excellent sporting director – someone who knows how to do that job better than anyone else, a top-five person in the world,” Mitten told Sky Sports News.

“These people tend to speak five languages. They tend to be football obsessives. They tend to know that there is a brilliant left-back at Palermo and know his agent and know a club has already been onto him. They have got a rich depth of knowledge.

“There are a lot of talented people at Manchester United on the recruitment side. There are a lot of people with world-class CVs but the end result is that players are coming in and it is not gelling.

“Sixth is not good enough. It was good to get to that Barcelona but we were totally outclassed against Barcelona.”