Manchester United would like a director of football or sporting director. Call it what you will. The club are acutely aware of the need for someone to fulfil the role and have been planning for it, what it will entail and considering how they can make it work for a long time. Now they need to act..

They are one of the biggest clubs in world football and it is anachronistic that they are so out of step with their rivals especially considering the hundreds of millions they have invested in the transfer market with such little return.

The key question for United is this: do they have a manager in Jose Mourinho who would accept such a structure? And, it is understood, given some of the soundings they have made, would who ever they want to hire want to work with him? That is the nub.

It is an issue that goes to the heart of United and where they are going and, by extension, goes to the heart of whether Mourinho should remain as their manager. They stand accused, after the debacle of a defeat away to Liverpool, of lacking direction, identity and, even, soul.

That may be a bit over-the-top given it is only the football operation which is, frankly, a mess but that is a big ‘only’. The football should be the most important part which opens up the accusations of where the priorities lie for the owners, the Glazer family, and the executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward. At the very least what United certainly need, to borrow a word from Gary Neville, is a “reset”.