“If the job was easy I would not be here,” said Jose Mourinho last week. “You know that for me the jobs are not easy.”

That Mourinho became Manchester United manager (following a tortuous period of indecision by the Premier League club’s board) was because England’s largest football club was a mess. A club, in Mourinho’s own words, where “there was no evolution”, one that had “stopped in time”.

It remains in disorder, led by a board constantly caught between multiple stools. Eternally focused on the financial bottom line, yet besotted by the idea of super-stellar transfers. Aware of its failures in the most important domain for any football club, the pitch. Yet unwilling to properly devolve control to proven winners.

Take the issue of a director of football. In the aftermath of a summer transfer window that descended into a civil war between manager and board, United floated the idea of installing one.

The addition of technical director is a popular proposal with supporters disenchanted with progress since Ed Woodward’s assumed ultimate control of recruitment five years ago. Under the stewardship of an executive vice-chairman not adverse to boasting of his prowess in transfer negotiations, United have on the whole both bought and sold poorly. Woodward recently gained the soaring sobriquet, “A Specialist In Failure”.

Woodward, the reasoning goes, has proven himself highly proficient in growing the plc’s commercial revenues (though even these have stalled across the past two financial years). What he needs to do now is delegate recruitment decisions to a specialist. Someone who properly understands the market, who can identify and secure the right talent, then act as an additional bridge between board, manager and players.

Mourinho is not against the director of football idea in principle. He does, however, have understandable reservations about its implementation. When asked for his thoughts on the proposed role in a press conference ahead of a recent Champions League game against Juventus (whose sporting director Fabio Paratici has allowed himself to be linked with it), United’s manager evaded the question.

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“My thoughts are that I am not going to discuss with you the way that I think Manchester United should be organised,” Mourinho replied. “One thing is to compliment Juventus, and another is to give you my opinion on how Manchester United should or shouldn’t be organised at that level.”

A more enthusiastic response would have been presented as an endorsement of Paratici’s candidacy. What Mourinho would prefer, and needs, at United is reliable assistance in the transfer market. A man to alleviate some of the pressure of identifying new recruits, convincing Woodward and Co to fund deals for them, and to secure signatures. He would need someone highly skilled in the area. And someone he can trust.

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One such individual would be Luis Campos. Mourinho rates his compatriot’s judgment on players having hired him as a technical and talent scout at Real Madrid. When Mourinho left Madrid to return to the Premier League, Campos went to AS Monaco as technical director where he built the squad that took the Ligue 1 title off Paris Saint-Germain, reached the semi-final of the Champions League (eliminating Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City en route), and, according to vice-president Vadim Vasilyev, enabled the club to gross an unprecedented “€360million or thereabouts” in a single window.

Campos is currently in his second full season at Lille, constructing a squad of predominantly young talents bolstered by accomplished veterans such as Jose Fonte that has risen to second in the French championship. “Not everyone can be a good football player, nor a good doctor or engineer,” said Campos in a recent interview. “So not everyone can have this ability to identify good players who are able to join and form a good team. That comes not just from the choice of good players, but also from our ability to predict who will interact well with who. It’s like forming a jigsaw puzzle. The right pieces, in the right places.”

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Would Woodward appoint a man Mourinho trusts to such a key role? The Transfer Window understands Campos was proposed for the position last month. He has yet, however, to be interviewed. The latest word from the Old Trafford board is that the appointment of a director of football may have to be parked until Mourinho’s tenure as manager is over.

Caught between multiple stools? Unwilling to properly devolve control to proven winners? It’s the story of Woodward’s Manchester United writ large. Don’t expect that manager’s job to get easy time soon.