Woodward Reveals United's Scouting Process

Executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward has outlined the scouting process at Manchester United and detailed how the club conducts its incoming transfer business.

Woodward has overseen deals to acquire Matteo Darmian, Memphis Depay, Morgan Schneiderlin and Bastian Schweinsteiger this summer and the work to identify targets clearly takes some time. Admitting it is a "relentless" pursuit of fresh talent, he reveals a shortlist is drawn up for each position targeted.

When asked to detail the process involved, he said in an extensive and exclusive interview with MUTV: "It’s actually fairly straightforward. We have a global scouting network that’s all over many countries and key markets from a football perspective. The scouts are watching matches and we have a huge amount of data we purchase and a pyramid approach in terms of delivering that information to our chief scout and his team who are assessing it.

"So we’re always able to look at a position and have our view in terms of the list of targets that we think will suit Manchester United and help our team. That list is then discussed with Louis [van Gaal] and his staff and there’s a process of further analysis done.

"Once Louis sets his targets – and I think it’s always important to have more than one target for each position, because you have to accept that sometimes you may not get your first choice for whatever reason, so let’s plan ahead and look at two and three – then all I do is go and negotiate the deals with the club and the player. It’s straightforward, although it may not be easy in terms of negotiations."

Once the transfer deadline has passed at the end of August, work will already start on assessing potential targets for 2016. The planning is clearly fundamental to ensuring United have a squad capable of competing for top honours.

"It’s really September," Woodward replied, when asked when the whole process starts. "Once the window closes, your scouts are then starting to look at the key areas where you think you may have a weakness and the whole process starts. The manager will have had four more months of working with the squad [by January] and have had much better visibility of who the ins and outs should be, but the work has to have started to get them.

"Yes, essentially there is [a physical list of names] because we track everything. That's what the scouting team does. It's relentless because you're immediately focused on the next [signing]. To that extent, I am completely aligned with the fans. When we tell them we’ve signed a player, there is a moment of happiness but then it’s about who’s next.

"There is a lot of work involved in terms of negotiations and that is time-consuming, so I prefer to look back at it at the end of the window, see the players on the pitch and see how they’ve been blended into the squad."