Ruben Amorim put it so simply this week: “The economic situation means that we have to sell to buy new players”. Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the INEOS gang have set in motion a cost-cutting programme that affects the whole organisation. Now there are reports of the next cut that will bring big changes for United as a club.
Last summer, 250 employees at the club were fired, Sir Alex Ferguson was also removed from the salary budget as the club’s ambassador. This week came the news that between 100 and 200 new positions in the club will be removed. According to The Observer, a very special department, some would call it the spinal cord of Man United as a club, will be affected.
The scouting department consists of 80 employees, the English media claims Ratcliffe will make significant spending cuts in this department. The plan is to bring in Chelsea’s technical director Christopher Vivell as the new boss and carry out a restructuring. Here, the number of scouts will be cut and the department will be steered more towards data-driven assessment of players around the world, a tool that is used successfully at several other clubs.
United’s scouts are tasked with finding the right talent for the academy and first team. Since 1937, the department has made sure to provide United with legends such as George Best, Bobby Charlton, David Beckham and Ryan Giggs. A major modernisation and streamlining will now be carried out.
Surely high time for modernization, the danger is that Manchester United gets rid of expertise and history that takes away the foundation of the club. A foundation that, after all, has made Manchester United one of the world’s biggest clubs.
