Darren Fletcher joins Man Utd as first team coach

Former Manchester United midfielder Darren Fletcher has rejoined the club as a first team coach.

After leaving United the Scotland international joined Stoke City before moving to West Bromwich Albion.

He had been at United with the under-16 side but has now been promoted to join assistant managers Mike Phelan and Michael Carrick, who he can hardly be worse that.

Fletcher said: “I’m delighted to be back and excited to work with the staff: Ole, Kieran [McKenna], Carras [Michael Carrick], Mike Phelan and the rest of the coaches; the players, you know some fantastic players to work with at the beginning of my coaching journey.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity and I’m just delighted to finally be in today, my first day in a new job today. I spoke to Ole a couple of weeks ago and it’s finally getting things sorted to come in today.

“It’s been a unique experience. I’ve been a player but now I’m on the side, on the coaching staff, so it’s a little bit different. I’m buzzing and cannot wait to get started.”

The club have also appointed Robin Sadler as the head of rehabilitation and physiotherapy, given the dreadful run of injuries that the team have had for the past 15 years. Somebody should probably have looked into that before then, but perhaps Sadler has some idea about what has gone wrong.

The club put out a challengingly dull statement that went like this:

“This is a new position that will oversee service provision for first-team, Academy and Women’s teams.

“Robin’s most recent role was head physiotherapist at Derby County after previously working at Manchester City for 17 years, in the Academy and first-team medical departments.

“All in the coaching and football medicine & science departments at Manchester United look forward to working with him.”