Manchester United are looking to finalise an appointment which will show how far the club has come. The sporting director role was not one Manchester United took particularly seriously under Ed Woodward. It took until 2021 to promote John Murtough into a similar role, who now looks set to be replaced. Gary Neville this past weekend described it as a mixture of ‘negligence’ and ‘madness’ that a club of United’s size had never appointed a figure with experience into a role like this. But perhaps it could have been worse? Back in 2019, Sky Sports reported Ed Woodward was holding talks with Rio Fe…