Manchester United beat Liverpool to grab a new director of football!

Manchester United have formally offered to satisfy Jason Wilcox's buy-out clause at Southampton to ensure he can join as director of football or technical director in the summer transfer window. Southampton, however, denied the existence of a termination clause and demanded higher compensation, otherwise Wakecox would have to "plant flowers" and take a year's gardening leave under the non-compete clause.

The British "Daily Mail" learned that Manchester United agreed to pay Southampton 12 months' salary to Wilcox as compensation, but the Championship club is impacting the critical moment of returning to the Premier League, and is not satisfied with the Red Devils poaching people at this time and asking for higher compensation, the Red Devils believe that it is an unrealistic demand, and the final agreement cannot be agreed.

Southampton boss Russell Martin angrily responded to the rumours after a 3-2 defeat to promotion rivals Ipswich: "I would say give me 10 minutes to overcome the disappointment of tonight's defeat and we'll talk about it later in the week and I'm sure I can give you more information. I haven't spoken to the club yet, I have a lot of feelings with Jason [Wilcox] and I'll talk to him afterwards. I just got a text saying that this game is still a good loss and that I'll let you know as soon as I get informed. 」

Manchester United, for their part, saw their approach to negotiating with Southampton through formal channels as a professional and respectful approach to their opponents, having negotiated for weeks before making a formal offer. Manchester United were interested in Wilcox back in February, but Southampton did not place him on official leave.

The 52-year-old technical director is also a former Premier League player and long-time fans will remember his time at Blackburn Rovers, who won the Premier League title over Manchester United, and Wilcox has since played for the likes of Leeds United and Leicester City.

After retiring as a player, Wilcox spent 11 years in the Manchester City youth system, the latter six years as youth director, with the likes of Phil Foden, Rico Lewis, Cole Palmer and Oscar Bobb all making it to the top during his tenure. Last year, he chose to leave Manchester City to join Southampton as director of football, a tenure he has only been in place for nine months.

However, Manchester United want to enlist him as director of football, replacing the current John Murtaugh, with Omar Bellada, who has already been confirmed as the new chief executive, and potentially new sporting director Dan Ashworth. However, only Berarda has confirmed that he can end his gardening leave by this summer, while the other two have been blocked by his old club. Newcastle United are demanding £20 million in compensation from Manchester United for Ashworth, otherwise he will have to spend more than a year on his back.

Manchester United find it difficult to reach an agreement with Newcastle and are keen to secure Wilcox to replace Ashworth in the summer transfer window.

Italian transfer expert Fabrizio Romano claims that Wilcox has resigned from Southampton and that Liverpool had previously negotiated compensation with the Saints, but Wilcox is determined to join Manchester United as part of INEOS' rebuilding plan. However, even so, if Southampton don't let up, he will have to take a 12-month sabbatical before he can return to football.

Manchester United still want to conclude talks amicably with Southampton, otherwise the club will have to do the transfer without a sporting director, a football director, either with Berada doing these jobs or continuing with Murtaugh.