Sam Tighe May 14, 2026, 05:00 AM ET Close Sam is a writer, broadcaster and podcaster for ESPN. He will write on the Premier League, scouting and transfers. Football clubs across the world, at all levels, invest heavily in player recruitment. They assemble entire teams of backroom scouts and analysts -- some, like Chelsea, even employ multiple sporting directors -- who work around the year to produce transfer shortlists for every position. But when it comes to hiring a new manager or head coach, there is no such framework. Decisions on those appointments are often made by a handful of people at the top of a club: an example is Manchester United 's leadership duo of Omar Berrada and Jason Wilcox, who picked Rúben Amorim to succeed Erik ten Hag and are now mulling the prospect of giving Michael Carrick the job full time.…