A Sticker's Worth 500 Words

Mat Jolin-Beech takes us back to the ongoing psychodrama that is Manchester United with this post on a solid midfielder who followed up his 342 appearances for the Red Devils by entering the Byzantine world of the club’s backroom staff. Unlike his hard work and efficiency on the pitch it’s less obvious what he’s up to these days. Perhaps Mat has solved the riddle. One lunch break at work, scrolling though YouTube to pass the time, coupled to my pesto pasta salad, a theme cropped up from the INEOS revolution hopefully taking place at Old Trafford. The role of the imminent director of football , and how the club can conform to, and thrive within, the FFP (or whatever they will be called with the shakeup and alignment to European regulations – Brexit, what Brexit?) was something kept coming up. One key theme within this was the role of the academy to produce players for the team, but also players that can be sold for, under FFP rules, pure profit. Players like John O’Shea , Phil Neville,