Man Utd draw up four-man shortlist for Director of Football role

Manchester United have four names in their sights after drawing up a shortlist for their newly-created director of football role.

A difficult summer has seen the club miss out on a plethora of targets, with United boss Jose Mourinho seeing a host of central defensive targets fail to arrive at Old Trafford. The likes of Toby Alderweireld and Diego Godin were among those targeted – but ultimately it proved a miserable summer for the club – as the duo, for various reasons, ended up staying at their respective clubs.

In fact, only Fred, Diogo Dalot and Lee Grant were added to the first-team ranks at United, as target after target slipped through the net.

With executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward regularly clashing with Mourinho over targets, the club now intends to appoint a middle man between the two in a new director of football, with the Independent writing that the new role will be “seen as one of the most important appointments in the club’s history”.

And according to the report, United have ‘started preliminary work’ to fill the vacancy – and the club have four names in mind.

It’s suggested United have already ‘sounded out’ Roma’s Monchi and Fabio Paratici of Juventus for the job and are ‘currently viewed as the most desired options’.

Both would be difficult to bring to Old Trafford however, so the Independent also claims former goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, now at Ajax, is ‘viewed favourably’.

The final candidate in the mix is Domenico Teti, who works as the sporting director at Serie B side Novara. Teti is ‘highly respected’ in his native Italy, with one of his most notable successes being that of Mauro Icardo, who he brought from Barcelona B to Sampdoria.

Mourinho was asked for his observations about United’s lack of signings after Friday evening’s 2-1 win over Leicester at Old Trafford and the manager was his usual cutting self, saying: “It will be a difficult season for everybody, not just for us. I had my plans for many months and I find myself with the market closed in a situation I did not think I would be in. It’s the last time I speak about it. It’s over, the market is closed.

“That’s football management. I think football is changing and managers should be called head coaches.”

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