Manchester United’s leading candidates for new director of football role

Jose Mourinho signalled change was afoot following United’s 2-1 win Over Leicester on Friday, suggesting he should be referred to as a ‘head coach’ as opposed to ‘manager’.

His comments came after a summer of discontent at Old Trafford, with reports of a fallout between the United boss and executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward as United failed to land Harry Maguire among several transfer targets.

According to the Independent, Roma’s Monchi and Juventus’ Fabio Paratici are viewed as United’s two most-wanted for the director role, with former United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar also being mooted due to his work at Ajax.

Monchi only left Sevilla in 2017, and followed up a successful stint in Spain with a run to the Champions League semi-finals as Roma’s sporting director.

This recent switch makes Mochi “hugely difficult to extract”, the Independent writes, while Paratici will be hard to convince with the Serie A champions recently welcoming Cristiano Ronaldo to their ranks.

However, United will reportedly undergo an extensive amount of interviews for what is deemed one of the most sought-after jobs in football, as well as one of the toughest, as the club look to forge a sustainable model in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era.