Manchester United are in talks to offer Christopher Vivell a permanent position at the club.
INEOS have received a lot of criticism lately but one thing they have done well is update United’s football structure by hiring Omar Berrada as CEO from Manchester City and Jason Wilcox as technical director.
There was much shock when Dan Ashworth was sacked after only a few months in his role as sporting director and there has been much speculation over who will fill the role next.
United seem to be taking a different direction however as The Daily Mail report that they are in talks to make Vivell’s temporary role permanent.
He joined as recruitment director in the summer and it has been reported that he has highly impressed Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS in his role.
It was suggested that he may be in line for an extension to his deal and this now seems to be the case.
The Mail report that they understand that Vivell is “now in talks over taking up a permanent position at United. There is some optimism that an agreement can be reached with Vivell in the coming weeks.”
The former Chelsea employee has a strong reputation in the game and has been credited with the discovery of an impressive list of players such as Erling Haaland, Benjamin Sesko, Dayot Upamecano and Karim Adeyemi.
It has also been reported that United have taken the decision not to hire anybody new to specifically replace Ashworth and “instead, Wilcox – while maintaining the title of technical director – will assume an enhanced remit and will work closely alongside Berrada at the coalface of United’s daily operations.”
“Sir Dave Brailsford will represent the ownership to make up a three-man football leadership team.”
Chief operating officer Collette Roche will be handed extra responsibilities at the Carrington training centre to free up Wilcox to focus more on performance issues rather than logistics.
Moreover, it had been thought that Michael Appleton would be offered a role as loans manager but this is not the case and he is now looking at other managerial opportunities.
Michael Appleton won’t be rejoining Man Utd as loans manager after Dan Ashworth was sacked as sporting director. Appleton now looking at management opportunities #mufc
— Chris Wheeler (@ChrisWheelerDM) January 9, 2025
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Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
