United View: United’s structural change-up

On November 15th it was announced that Richard Arnold would be stepping down as Manchester United’s Chief Executive.

With the speculated Sir Jim Ratcliffe takeover imminent, this could be the start of significant change in the club’s hierarchy.

Richard Arnold spent 16 years at Old Trafford, becoming CEO in February 2022, and taking over from Ed Woodward. Patrick Stewart – no, not the bloke from Star Trek – will take over as interim CEO.

Attention will now turn to his successor and with Ratcliffe’s takeover all but announced the apparent frontrunner for the role is Jean-Claude Blanc, the current CEO of INEOS Sport. The Frenchman also worked at Juventus, helping their resurgence following their relegation in 2006, along with 12 seasons at PSG.

For several years now, United have been poor in recruitment, overpaying for players and handing out big wages, making it hard to move on players or turn any profit from transfers. It’s not sustainable and has recently negatively affected United’s funds in the transfer market.

Perhaps the arrival of someone like Blanc could be a positive for the Reds. Someone external and hasn’t ever been in the bubble of Manchester United and possibly immune to the club’s seemingly never-ending run of bad decisions.

There is rumoured to be further reshuffling at Old Trafford, potentially in a new sporting director. Nothing has been confirmed but for me at least, I would like to see someone else be brought in for this role. John Murtough has spent big on several players who haven’t reached their expectations including Antony and Jadon Sancho.

Paul Mitchell who worked at Southampton and Spurs and Paolo Maldini former player and technical director at AC Milan, have been linked with the role. Again, someone not internal and with good experience would be a smart choice.

This behind-the-scenes tidy-up would be the first sign of improvement at Manchester United and hopefully provide Erik Ten Hag with a dependable team and structure that allows him to focus solely on the team.

Ten Hag has brought in or tried to sign players he’s familiar with from his time at Holland, but United need to try and buy someone who isn’t on the manager's speed dial. It was fine last season however now the club needs to develop its recruitment strategy.

That’s not to say that Ten Hag should have no input in transfers, I still think the club should look to sign players he considers key. It’s just that even managers like Pep don’t have a full say on player arrivals, for example, Jeremy Doku’s transfer to Manchester City in the summer.

Nothing has been confirmed though and until the arrival of Sir Jim Ratcliffe, it's unsure what will happen. I just find it unlikely that Ratcliffe would not bring in his people to run the footballing side of things at Manchester United.

United next play Everton on Sunday in the Premier League. The Toffee’s may be keen to win after being hit with a ten-point deduction after breaking financial regulations. Meanwhile, the Reds will be looking to keep pace with the league’s front runners.

United haven’t been great in recent games but they have been quietly picking up results, although a decent performance wouldn’t go amiss. A convincing win on Sunday could spark a boost in confidence before another tough set of fixtures.

There are ten games between now and the new year, plenty of chances to see a significant improvement for Ten Hag and his side. Hopefully, change will come both on and off the pitch.