Former Manchester United head of recruitment Derek Langley has spilled the beans on United’s shambolic recruitment policy and said the club missed out on two of Ajax’s top talents before they made their debuts, Matthijs De Ligt and Frenkie De Jong.
Langley says United turned down the chance to sign the young players and his relationship with Ed Woodward broke down. He told the MEN:
“Players that they turned down? Matthijs de Ligt. We had God knows how many reports on Matthijs de Ligt. Frenkie de Jong and all these players now are sort of around Europe. Dayot Upamecano, who is now at Red Bull Leipzig, was another.
"This was one of the reasons why I had a meeting with Ed Woodward and I told him that I wasn't convinced with the competency of certain people at the club. I told Ed Woodward quite straight: 'If you think I'm going to sit here and just tell you what you want to hear, I'm not that man because I'm going to tell you exactly how I see it'.
"I think it was possibly part of my downfall as to why seven months down the line I was removed because I wouldn't tow the line in relation to telling them exactly what I thought.
"It's one of them things in football - you come to accept it. Manchester United thanked me for the time I spent there and the players I'd taken in, but ultimately we could have been so much better if people had listened."
Langley did bring in plenty of talent into the club however including Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard, Gerard Pique, Danny Welbeck, Tom Cleverley, Giuseppe Rossi and Adnan Januzaj. But this really is a missed opportunity for United who are now chasing a top-class centre-back, what they would give for De Ligt at the club now.
