Scouting director Steve Brown is leaving Manchester United at the end of June. The announcement came after the club announced on Monday that extensive cost-cutting measures would lead to job cuts.
The cost-cutting measures at Manchester United continue. According to The Athletic, the head of the scouting department, Steve Brown, has sent an email to his own scouts announcing his departure at the end of June. The 42-year-old was offered another position by technical director Jason Wilcox and Christopher Vivell, the director of recruitment, but Brown declined due to his professional experience.
Brown has been in office since 2016 and was a key figure in the introduction of a new scouting system and the restructuring of the team. In addition, the Englishman was directly involved in the selection of transfer targets in his position and was a driving force at United, especially during the Erik Ten Hag era.
Further job cuts are imminent
The announcement came after the club, under shareholder Sir Jim Ratcliffe, announced further staff cuts of 150 to 200 employees last week. This is said to include some of the 80 scouts, whose number Ratcliffe considers far too high, according to British media reports.
Since December last year, Ratcliffe, billionaire and founder of the chemical company INEOS, has been the largest minority shareholder after the US Glazer family, with around 27.7 percent, and controller of the Red Devils’ football business. The club from the port city has been making losses for five years, and last summer up to 250 jobs were cut off the pitch, including icons of days gone by such as Sir Alex Ferguson, who will have to vacate his post as club ambassador in the summer. Ratcliffe himself had also recently criticized the club’s transfer policy.
Manchester United cannot hope for big revenues in the league for the time being. With five matchdays to go, the club is in 15th place in the table and far from the top European spots. The next chance to break free is on Sunday (3 p.m.) at AFC Bournemouth. The last chance for further income and European competition currently lies in the Europa League, where they face Athletic Bilbao in the semi-finals on Thursday (9 p.m.).
