This would revolutionise how things work at Old Trafford.
There has been much talk of Jose Mourinho’s precarious position at Manchester United over the past few weeks, and the likelihood of a certain Zinedine Zidane replacing him at the club. Although a significant section of the fanbase would welcome such a move, there is a growing concern that the mere replacement of a head coach would hardly solve the more deep-lying problems within the organisation as a whole.
But according to reports in Italy, namely via Corriere dello Sport, there could be far greater changes afoot.
They report that former Chelsea boss Antonio Conte is a serious candidate to replace Mourinho, and perhaps more intriguingly, he would be joined at the club by Beppe Marotta, who will soon be relinquishing his role as CEO at Juventus.
Conte and Marotta have shared glory in Turin, and the idea would be to replicate that success at Old Trafford.
This would obviously have ramifications for Ed Woodward in his current role as executive vice-chairman, but there have been reports that he is increasingly happy to move away from the football side of things to focus on his more obvious strengths of running the business end.
A new Director of Football role had been mooted as a possible solution, but Marotta’s recruitment would be a neat alternative, with his expertise always being more football-focused.
Whether such a radical change ends up being implemented remains to be seen, but it’s certainly come from left-field and makes a great deal of sense.
