Man United 'lining up Everton's Brands' to be their first director of football

Marcel Brands 'is a leading candidate to become Manchester United's first director of football'.

The Dutchman, 58, currently fulfils the same role at Everton and has been praised for his recruitment of James Rodriguez, Allan and Abdoulaye Doucoure last summer.

His contract with the Goodison Park club expires at the end of the season with Italian club Roma also interested in his services.

According to The Sun, Brands is now being linked with a newly-created director of football post at United and would find an offer hard to refuse.

Brands, who enjoyed a long playing career in the Dutch leagues, had been director of football at RKC Waalwijk, AZ Alkmaar and PSV Eindhoven before joining Everton in 2018.

Since then, he has revamped the club's recruitment policy after a number of questionable moves in the transfer market.

United have been considering creating a director of football role for some time following their own recruitment problems under executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward.

They have been criticised this year for failing to land prime targets Erling Haaland and Jadon Sancho, both of Borussia Dortmund, then signing the ageing striker Edinson Cavani close to deadline day.

That came off the back of a number of expensive failures in the market under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's three predecessors as manager since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement in 2013.

Angel Di Maria, Alexis Sanchez and Morgan Schneiderlin are just three of the players signed at great expense only to flop at Old Trafford.