Manchester United are in the midst of a systematic shakedown after Sir Jim Ratcliffe took over sporting control of the club after acquiring 25% of the club’s shares on Christmas Eve last year.
The British Billionaire, a childhood fan of the Red Devils, is planning to change things around at the upper-management level after seeing standards drop within the club.
United stunned a lot of fans and pundits recently by managing to basically steal away Manchester City’s CFO Omar Berrada to become their next CEO in the Ratcliffe era. But that is seemingly the start of broader changes that could be implemented at Old Trafford.
The Red Devils are reportedly also in the lookout for a new director of football and a recruitment specialist to fix their transfer philosophy – after the club has wasted big money on underperforming players for so many years now.
Amid the search for these individuals, some believe that there is an ideal option open for United to pounce on and appoint as their new recruitment head.
This is German Marco Neppe, who is poised to end his acclaimed stint as a scout and technical director for Bayern Munich.
Indeed, Neppe is set to leave the club he joined in 2014 as a 27-year-old, after prematurely ending his professional football career which saw him mostly play in the lower divisions of German football. Despite that, he has developed an impressive CV when it comes to scouting and recruitment.
That is because the 37-year-old is known to have played a major role in helping the Bavarians sign the likes of Harry Kane from Tottenham Hotspur and Kim Min-jae from Napoli earlier in this season.
Not just that, but Neppe was also influential in scouting and bringing players like Jamal Musiala and Alphonso Davies to the German giants after taking over as the head of their scouting department in 2017.
The 37-year-old only got to work a few years as Bayern’s technical director and is now ready to leave for a new journey in his career.
He has gained a reputation for having an eye for quality young talents and identifying their potential before they start blossoming, which is the kind of profile that United can definitely do with.
A lot of Manchester United supporters believe that he can be a right fit for their club and end their recruitment issues, and are also confident that the tiing of his departure means that Sir Jim is looking to appoint him in a role.
Not only that, but outlets like the Manchester Evening News also believe that Neppe can be the ideal person for this new era at Old Trafford.
With that being said, there are no major indications of whether the Red Devils will even be making a move for him. They have not shown any reported interest yet and for now, AS Roma are reportedly looking to hire Neppe in an executive role.
However, Manchester United’s appointment of Berrera as their new CEO also came out of nowhere and there was no real speculation about it before the announcement was made either.
Jim Ratcliffe & co have proven themselves capable of pulling off cheeky coups out of nowhere and the Red Devils faithful would hope they can do something similar with Neppe.