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Former Manchester United youth player Michael Appleton could return to the club in the latest staff shakeup under Ineos.
Since the chemicals company has gained control of sporting decision-making, they have completely revamped the staff structure.
Famous names like Omar Berrada, Dan Ashworth, and Jason Wilcox have all been brought into the sporting side to try to undo years of poor decisions made by Ed Woodward and Richard Arnold.
The Red Devils have also taken a scalpel knife to their coaching team this season, with Rene Hake, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Jelle ten Rouwelaar all joining in the summer.
The Daily Mail now report that Sir Jim Ratcliffe could be making another alteration through former player Michael Appleton, who came through the United ranks in the mid-1990s and made two appearances for the first team before being sold to Preston North End in 1997.
Last month, the paper revealed “that Michael Appleton wasn’t going to be United’s new loans manager after all, but it appears that might not be the end of the matter.”
It was reported in July that Appleton was set to take the role, but it was relayed here in September that he had rejected the position in the summer.
“Speculation has swirled” on whether the former player would take the job, but “the 48-year-old was spotted sitting alongside United’s new sporting director Dan Ashworth and technical director Jason Wilcox at Salford City’s Peninsula Stadium last week.”
This hardly seemed like a coincidence as they watched the Under-21s play out a hard-fought 1-1 draw with Hertha Berlin in the Premier League International Cup.
“It has re-ignited talk that Appleton may indeed be appointed in the near future to oversee United’s young players who go out on loan to other clubs or possibly in another role at the club.”
The Red Devils have spent years making the wrong decisions on where to send players. Alvaro Fernandez Carreras at Preston and Amad Diallo at Sunderland are two of the only clear and obvious success stories.
With United enjoying immense success at the youth level, the Red Devils must make the right choices in the coming years to carefully nurture the plethora of talent they currently find.