English giants Manchester United have appointed John Murtough as football director and Darren Fletcher as technical director
Manchester United finally ended their search for a football director and settled on the internal promotion of John Murtough. Murtough (middle) joined United in 2013
Manchester United have finally appointed a football director in John Murtough, with Darren Fletcher installed as the technical director.
Murtough was brought to Manchester United in November 2013 by then-manager David Moyes, having worked with Moyes at Everton, and became the club’s head of football development in 2016.
The Manchester Evening News understands Murtough introduced himself as United’s ‘director of football’ when he oversaw the recruitment of the women’s team in 2018.
Murtough will have overall leadership and responsibility for operations and strategy across the United’s men’s and women’s teams, as well as the academy.
The Liverpudlian was involved in United’s overhaul of the academy and recruitment department. Murtough met Alexis Sanchez at Manchester Airport prior to his signing in January 2018 and drove Alex Telles to United’s Carrington training complex in October. Murtough also chaperoned €10million teenage signing Hannibal Mejbri at United’s 2019 friendly with Kristiansund in Norway.
Murtough will work with United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on a day-to-day basis regarding recruitment ‘to ensure that the first team has the best-in-class operational support it needs to succeed’.
United manager Solskjaer will continue to have an influential role in the recruitment process and Matt Judge, the transfer negotiator who previously occupied the title of ‘head of corporate development’, is now the director of football negotiations.
Judge has known the United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward since they met at the University of Bristol.
