Who is Christopher Vivell And How He Can Give Man Utd That Edge

It can be hard to keep up with everything surrounding Manchester United right now.

The changes are coming thick and thin.

From the huge bombshell that up to 250 staff were being made redundant, to a compensation agreement finally being reached for Dan Ashworth. It’s all happening at this football club.

The days of the slow unorganised structure at United are gone, with INEOS looking to create efficiency throughout.

With all this news, you can be forgiven for letting the arrival of Christopher Vivell slip your mind.

A name well known in footballing circles but not to everyone.

While bringing in Ashworth is game-changing for United, the capture of Vivell’s knowledge could be just as crucial, if not more…

Who is Christopher Vivell

Vivell is a German technical director with a vast knowledge of the European markets.

He initially started out in Germany for Hoffenheim’s youth side, as a video analyst and scout.

He quickly built his way up to first team level working on the same roles.

In November 2015, he was snapped up by RB Salzburg to be the head of scouting there.

15 months later, he also became sports coordinator at Salzburg.

In August 2020, Vivell moved across to parent club RB Leipzig, (Both clubs are owned by Red Bull).

He joined as a technical director and also became a squad planner the following year.

A fallout between Leipzig’s chief executive Oliver Mintzlaff led to Vivell’s sacking.

Mintzlaff claimed he had lost trust in the German director and so a relationship couldn’t continue.

Despite this, Mintzlaff did praise Vivell’s work.

He said: “Chris has certainly done a great job over the last two years, but in the end, things didn’t fit anymore.”

A few months later, Vivell was brought in as a technical director at Chelsea. He replaced Petr Cech.

But just eight months later and the German had left the west London club.

Chelsea decided to restructure the club’s recruitment. Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart were made co-sporting directors. Vivell decided to leave because of this and was put on gardening leave due to no clear role at the club.

A year later and United have snapped the German up on a short-term deal.

He’s been brought in initially to help United with the summer transfer window to ‘lend expertise around player recruitment and talent ID.’ However, he could still become a long-term employee of the club.

Vivell’s Best and Worst Signings

His history is clear, but who has Vivell signed? What is his legacy so far?

Successes

Erling Haaland: The biggest name on this list. Vivell saw the potential of the Norwegian and signed him from Molde for just £7m. The rest is history.

Dayot Upamecano: Vivell signed Upamecano from the second tier of French football for just £2.2m. He’s since gone on to make a £37m move to Bayern Munich.

Josko Gvardiol: Vivell signed Gvardiol for Leipzig for just £16m. He shone in the 2022 World Cup for Croatia and has since earned a £77m move to Manchester City. This made him the most expensive defender ever. Gvardiol is now widely regarded as one of the best in the Premier League and arguably the world.

Karim Adeyemi: Vivell spent £8m on a then 16-year-old Adeyemi. This was risky but once again paid off with the youngster making a £33m move to Borussia Dortmund.

Benjamin Sesko: Vivell brought the talented striker over from Salzburg to Leipzig where he’s attracted the attention of various huge clubs like Arsenal and United.

Dominik Szboszlai: Like Sesko, Vivell signed the Hungarian from Salzburg and took him to Germany. Szoboszlai quickly impressed and earnt a £60m to Liverpool.

Failures

Mykhailo Mudryk: One of Vivell’s worst signings. While at Chelsea, he was involved in hijacking Arsenal’s deal for the Ukrainian. He signed for £62m in a deal which could rise to £89m in bonuses. But since joining Chelsea, Mudryk has struggled massively and hasn’t warranted his huge transfer fee.

Enzo Fernandes: It could be deemed harsh to put him in this list but the jury is still out over his £106.8m move to Chelsea. While he has impressed, and some would definitely say it has been a success, for the price tag he needs to do a bit more.

What Christopher Vivell Will Bring to Manchester United

While Ashworth and Jason Wilcox bring major expertise in English football recruitment, they don’t have as great a knowledge worldwide. Thus, Vivell brings a huge span of intelligence from around the globe. For years United have just bought the ready-made superstars like Paul Pogba or Jadon Sancho for ridiculous sums but through Vivell, they can spot these wonderkids and sign them early. This will save United hundreds of millions of pounds while making similar through sales or player contributions.

Since Ten Hag’s arrival, United have been subject to criticism around their Dutch-heavy approach to recruitment. Ten Hag has brought in or looked to sign several players that he had formally managed or had seen play. This was effective with the capture of Lisandro Martinez but has also failed on the £81.3m deal for Antony. With the more streamlined approach to recruitment combined with Vivell’s expertise, United can avoid falling into traps like this.

Furthermore, United have struggled massively to tap into the South American markets and so the addition of Vivell could help improve this. Countries like Brazil and Argentina have a reputation for producing superstars, so Vivell could be influential to United in acquiring these talents early in their careers.

As well as this, Vivell can spot what United need right away. The German can recommend players that will strengthen the first eleven immediately. Due to his time at Salzburg and Leipzig, he’s incredibly financially astute, so will be aware of what is a good deal for United and what’s not. While this sounds simple, this was one of the major downfalls of the club in the last decade, consistently overpaying or not being willing to spend when it’s actually worth it.

Ultimately the capture of Vivell is an incredibly exciting one for United fans. While it’s only a short-term deal, his wealth of knowledge will be invaluable and can help improve United’s recruitment tenfold.

This deal cannot be underestimated. INEOS has made another clever move.

After the lack of faith in him at Chelsea, now what remains to be seen is whether his recommendations are trusted…