LIVERPOOL top dog Peter Moore has had a dig at Manchester United chief executive Ed Woodward – claiming he will not “interfere” with the Reds’ transfer plans.
Moore revealed he does not expect to bring in a director of football at Anfield, and is happy not to get involved in the recruitment of new signings.
Woodward, on the other hand, deals with all of the comings and goings at Old Trafford – and has been hugely criticised for doing so.
The likes of United legends Gary Neville and Roy Keane have savaged Woodward for the club’s transfer policy over the last five years.
The most damaging decision was not signings a striker before selling Romelu Lukaku to Inter Milan for 73million, while allowing Alexis Sanchez to leave on a season-long loan.
This was compounded by a two-month injury to Anthony Martial, one of the few remaining strikers at Old Trafford.
Moore told the New York Times: “Theres a difference between dabbling and interfering.
“You dont want me doing that stuff.
“The modern game of football still has CEOs running football clubs and also doing the transfer business and negotiating with agents.
Thats not how I believe a modern club should work.”
Moore, appointed by Anfield’s American owners in 2017 to replace Ian Ayre, is happy to get on with other decision-making.
He said: “My view is theres 24 hours in a day, and if youre flying to Santiago for three days thats what Ian did, and thats fine, we were organised differently then whos looking after everything else thats going on. I stay out of the way.
“I dont know nor do I need to know who we are looking at.
I need to know whether were going to get the next sponsorship deal that were looking for.
“I need to know whether our relationship with Liverpool City Council is on a good footing so we continue to build the commercial elements of things.
“I need to know whether our community teams are taking care of the people of Liverpool. I need to know whether our legal, HR, comms teams are doing well. I run the business.
“There are times when the fan in me comes through. And I have to slap that down.
Woodward operates in a similar capacity to Tottenham’s Daniel Levy, overseeing all transfer policy, taking that role away from the team manager.
Anfield operates a transfer committee and has done so since the days of Brendan Rodgers’ time as manager, not that Moore will get involved in that.
WOODWARD’S TRANSFER ROLE AT UNITED
Woodward gave an insight into his United role earlier this year.
He might have the overall say but he was quick to point out Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s role in where he feels the side needs strengthening.
Woodward said: “The manager sits down in September – so Ole has already done this for the next cycle – and told the experts the positions that he wants to recruit in and the characteristics relating to those players.”
“The decisions related to recruitment are all taken by football experts. My involvement is signing off the money.
“The manager has a veto on a player – we would never sign a player the manager wouldn’t want because he wouldn’t play him. But we also feel the recruitment department, the football experts, should have a veto too.
“I don’t get involved in recruitment like people think I do. There’s a myth that I look at YouTube and choose players. I don’t. Having an eye for players is an art. I have no interest in doing that.
“Where I get involved is that I have to sign off the money, yet when you have target one, two or three from your process I feel fine going after the No 1 target and, if it’s not to be him, then number two or three.”
