It is "not just a new first-team manager" that ManU will be making a decision on this summer, according to Andy Mitten of ESPN.com. If Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer keeps winning games, the club will not "have far to look." Yet the search for its first sporting director, someone independent of any manager, is "different and will be far from straightforward." For a start, ManU's eventual sporting director will not "be a buffer" between Exec Vice-Chair Ed Woodward and the manager, but "rather someone who will work alongside any manager and Woodward." Various names and options have been looked at internally and externally, though the sporting director is reportedly "unlikely to be Paul Mitchell, the Mancunian who was at Tottenham and who has been linked to the job." The club is "calm about the search" as it looks at what it wants from this position, one that, as Arsène Wenger pointed out last year, is "without any clear job description." ManU will look at how these operate at different clubs, as well as "what kinds of remits and roles they have" (ESPN.com, 2/13).
