Pandamninator

Of course. Bit silly of the Saudi's to be honest to not bribe our way to the title though.

Hot Take: Maybe Rafa knew what he was doing

Nah. Get him for half the price, stick him in the Eddie Howe Rehabilitation Centre for Depressed Assets and watch as he becomes Prime Maldini by November.

Golfmag wasn't it - he was saying for months, turned out he was a friend of Pardews agent.

Looking for more of those pinpoint, weak footed crosses from 40 yards away

I wouldn't even call it 5 on paper - no one who has spent more than 30 minutes watching Hall and Trippier would have them down as defensive fullbacks who treat the halfway line as if it was coated in asbestos.

Get rid, past it. Oh wait, this isn't FM.

"Real Gs move in silence like lasanga" Obviously not going to argue they have hit every mark and decision (though there is definitely more success than failures) - but 3 years on it is still refreshing to just have professionals in charge. The only time Ashley pulled this kind of move without it being leaked to the world was Kinnears 2nd stint.

Is that any different to San Siro, New York in the NFL and LA in the NBA where two franchises share the same stadium?

Ancelotti can't afford to be blowing leads when one of the most important managers England has ever had is available and looking for his next job.

PSG and Milan can breathe a sigh of relief that they are still at least 2 seasons away from having to face the might of Sunderland

Just the minor flaw in this theory that Joelinton is hardly going to be begging to sign for the same person who jerked him around at Newcastle.

Until we get dead pigeons piling up around the stadium again.

Was anyone ever able to validate the 40m figure (either in the accounts or sources)? To me it always seemed made up BS and on brand for Fatty to inflate how much we were spending. IIRC they did the same thing with Almiron when they screamed to the world that they had finally broken the Owen record and it came out in the wash that it was still below that figure (may be misremembering however).

My concern with Mitchell is he does seem to not last very long in any job, dating back to Southampton. I can understand the Spurs mess - has anyone in a Manager or Director role not fallen out with that twat Levy? But he burnt out fairly quickly at both Leipzig and Monaco. Edwards would be a dream, but he seems content building his own consultancy without any of the stress of being directly involved with running a club.

Not sure about here, but an NBA Exec lost his job after running 5 separate twitter accounts that spent two years leaking confidential contract, recruitment and medical information whilst lambasting his own teams players and the person he replaced. Oh, and getting into arguments about his shirt collars. https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/5/29/17406750/bryan-colangelo-philadelphia-76ers-twitter-joel-embiid-anonymous-markelle-fultz Is Beale married? Should just use the Colangelo defence.

Was referring more to him downloading or copying files to a personal device. That would be the first thing that would be picked up by any audit of his accounts and devices. Nothing stopping him acting on what he committed to memory come next July or whenever he finally starts the job, but he won't have access to the supporting data and analytics.

I highly doubt that. That would be an very easy check - and is a guaranteed injunction plus damages waiting to happen.

Definitely a pipe dream - Edwards even fobbed off a lucrative part time consulting gig with Liverpool, but what's the harm in speaking it into existence.

If he is spotted in the same county as a Manchester United employee the club will be the blower to both the Premier League and the lawyers. Just like any other corporate gardening leave case, all three parties will be very diligent. Obviously significantly higher stakes being Google/Uber and was absolutely blatant, but the Anthony Levandowski case is an extreme example of how that sort of stuff can escalate. Scouting knowledge and team processes are IP as well.

I dunno - FA, Brighton and now likely us all ended with extended periods of gardening leave. Whilst i'm sure he isn't a chancer who seeks it out, he probably doesn't mind the paid break to recharge either.

He has never been a Monchi/Campos type of Sporting Director - in all his roles he has been relatively hands off, never really been a scout and as has been mentioned a bazillion times the whole "spoke in the wheel" mantra is about being the guy who sits above the detail and makes sure everyone is talking and working in a consistent way. Closer to a Chief Operating Officer in the corporate world. Manchester United are meant to be bringing in a Director of Football along side Ashworth, and Man City have operated with a tandem working in the equivalent of Technical Director and Director of Football roles. If Howe has the final say and runs the scouting/transfers, than that would be by design rather than a power grab. If the club is worried about Howe stretching himself too thin, they would be well placed to replace Ashworth whilst also bringing in someone to sit above Nickson (or even promoting him).

Nah - stick on leave until June/July when it's too late for him to get anything serious done for the window and pocket the 15 million.

Considering we allegedly paid 2 million for him to save about 4 months of gardening leave, i'm not sure that would be a resounding triumph for Man Utd.

It was both - he resigned February 2022, served some gardening leave but not the full amount as we eventually reached an agreement. If that hadn't happened, he would've started November 2022 instead of May.