There will be another new face at Carrington next month as part of the restructuring that has taken place behind the scenes at Manchester United.

David Harrison has been appointed as director of football operations and joins from Everton after nearly 28 years working on Merseyside.

His role will be to ensure that all the moving parts of United’s football department — the men’s, women’s and academy teams — run smoothly. And despite the job title being similar to that of football director John Murtough, ‘operations’ is very much the key word.

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It is a role focused on logistics and organisational matters rather than transfers, recruitment or wider strategy. Harrison will oversee the administrative side of United’s football department, with his responsibilities including the arrangement of travel and accommodation for matches.

Harrison starts work in March and will replace Alan Dawson, who departs after spending a little over a decade at Old Trafford.

Dawson joined United in 2012 as the club’s commercial operations director, after serving as a squadron leader in the Royal Air Force and receiving an MBE in the Queen’s 2010 birthday honours.

Dawson will only officially leave his post in July, allowing for a period of transition, but Harrison will be assuming responsibility as United’s new director of football operations from his first day on the job.

Born in Bury, Harrison began his career in Old Trafford’s ticket office but left to manage the same department at Everton in 1995. After a short spell as assistant secretary, he spent 18 years as club secretary before being promoted to director of football operations.

Although outsiders may look at Everton’s myriad difficulties and question whether this is the time to go headhunting at Goodison Park, Harrison’s loss will be keenly felt.

Harrison was a popular figure at Everton, one that was highly thought of and who commanded respect throughout the club, not only because of his longevity.

At a club that has experienced its fair share of crises in recent times, Harrison was viewed as a steady pair of hands who could be trusted to get a job done, the type of character that the club desperately needs right now.

This opinion was shared not only by the club’s hierarchy but also the nine managers that Harrison worked with during his long stretch of service.

It was also the opinion of Murtough, who struck up a close working relationship with Harrison during their time together at Everton. Harrison will be reporting directly to Murtough in his new role.

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This reputation as a competent and reliable operator meant that his responsibilities quickly became broader than that of a typical club secretary and stretched beyond the day-to-day management of the club’s operations.

Harrison was trusted at Everton to work closely on transfer business, particularly the preparing and arranging of contracts for new signings.

This even led him to become something of a cult figure among the club’s supporters for regularly appearing in photographs alongside new arrivals while they penned their deals, earning him the nickname “Contract Dave”.

Harrison did more than just pose for photographs though, often accompanying the club’s top decision-makers on trips to meet and negotiate with targets across Europe.

One memorable example came during the 2008 summer window, hours before the deadline, when — as told by former Everton physio Mick Rathbone in his autobiography — Harrison and David Moyes had to dash through Luton Airport and across the runway tarmac, “papers flying everywhere”, to board a private jet to Brussels and complete the signing of Marouane Fellaini.

During Moyes’ time in charge, Everton had a much better reputation when it came to their transfer dealings than they do now. Fellaini was just one success. Tim Cahill, Leighton Baines, Seamus Coleman were among many others.

And back then, while chairman Bill Kenwright would often negotiate the broad parameters of a deal, it would be left to Harrison to iron out the finer contractual details.

This experience meant that, following the departure of Marcel Brands from Goodison Park in December 2021, Harrison was trusted to step into the void and assume some of the former director of football’s responsibilities while Everton found Brands’ permanent replacement.

Despite his previous in the art of transfer deals, Harrison’s new role at United will not involve recruitment responsibilities. His remit will instead be much broader, albeit similar to his day-to-day work on operations at Everton — taking in everyday administrative tasks such as managing security arrangements on away trips.

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From his base at Carrington, Harrison will oversee everything from what food is served in the canteen to the allocation of parking spaces at United’s training ground.

Managing travel arrangements is another significant part of the role, especially during the typically hectic festive period. Harrison spoke to The Athletic on exactly that subject in November 2019, ahead of an especially busy period when Everton faced nine games in the space of just 32 days.

“Our preparations start in pre-season,” he said. “The minute the fixture list comes out, we will look to secure the best hotels we can get for the team for each of those fixtures.

“Invariably, those hotels will be picked based on distance to the stadium. You have to be sensible and realistic as to where you pick the hotel. It’s what’s best in terms of preparation and travel for the game.”

A director of football operations has to think of practically every possibility and eventuality, right down to whether or not noisy Christmas parties are being held where they plan to stay. “We do tend to check what the hotel has got on and where the dining room is going to be in relation to events in the hotel,” Harrison said.

Harrison is the latest new face to join a department that has seen a significant turnover in staff since Murtough’s appointment as football director almost two years ago.

At the end of last season, Andy O’Boyle was appointed as United’s deputy football director to assist Murtough in leading the club’s wider football strategy.

O’Boyle’s job title is not totally dissimilar from Harrison’s but there is a clear and simple distinction to be made — whereas O’Boyle is focused on everything to do with matters ‘on the grass’ at both Old Trafford and Carrington, Harrison will be concerned with everything ‘off the grass’.

Other new arrivals since Murtough became football director include Dominic Jordan, United’s first director of data science, with statistical analysis now playing a greater role in United’s recruitment following criticism for falling behind rivals.

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The standard of facilities at Carrington has also come under scrutiny in recent years but Mags Mernagh, who designed and led the project to build Leicester City’s new, state-of-the-art training ground, was hired last year as the programme director for the upgrade and redevelopment of United’s training base.

And last October, Polly Bancroft joined in the newly-created role of head of women’s football to lead the strategy behind Marc Skinner’s Women’s Super League title contenders.

Whereas even senior figures at United would admit that the club’s previous structure led by former executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward from the club’s London offices was suboptimal, Harrison’s appointment is viewed as the latest in a gradual restructuring off-the-pitch which is already beginning to influence results on it.

(Header Photo by Tony McArdle/Everton FC via Getty Images)