Omar Berrada's crucial transfer role made clear as Manchester United CEO explains ‘five-year vision’
21.01.2024 - 10:43
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Manchester United fans will be hoping that their new chief executive Omar Berrada will be able to have as significant an influence over successful player transfer negotiations as he did at Manchester City.
The Red Devils have pulled off the biggest of surprise January transfers by convincing the highly-respected Berrada to leave his post as chief football operations officer at their Manchester rivals to cross the city and become Old Trafford's new CEO.
The Paris-born Moroccan national becomes the first major arrival at United following billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe's 25 per cent acquisition of the club and is a clear statement of intent.
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Berrada replaces Richard Arnold who departed after the investment deal was agreed with Ratcliffe's company INEOS. United will be confident that their new man can bring with him greater, more sustained success in the transfer market after proving his worth over several years with rivals City.
The 46-year-old's key involvement with player negotiations is perfectly illustrated in the Manchester City documentary All or Nothing on Prime Video. A section in episode four shows how Berrada was front an centre in the January transfer deadline day capture of central defender Aymeric Laporte in 2018.
The fly-on-the-wall documentary follows Berrada as he takes an early morning flight to Madrid before transferring to Bilbao to secure a last-minute deal to bring City's target back to England.
"Whenever we do planning for the squad, we have a three, four, five-year vision of what we want the squad to look like," Berrada told the cameras.
"What we decided to do was to bring the