Manchester United make Farrell their first Head of Culture
Written by
Ian Westbrook
July 30, 2025
Michael Farrell has been promoted by Manchester United to become their first Head of Football Culture and Development.
Farrell has been at Old Trafford for almost 10 years and it has not been revealed yet what his specific responsibilities will be in his new role.
United have also promoted Dan Ransom, who joined the club in 2016, into the role of Academy Head of Psychology and Performance Lifestyle.
The moves come amidst a raft of changes at Old Trafford, which have seen up to 200 people facing redundancy, following on from 250 in the summer of 2024.
Several staff left the club at the end of June, including First Team Fitness Coach Paolo Gaudino, Emerging Talent Lead Scout David Harrison and Head of Safeguarding Joanna Madyarchyk among others.
They follow other long-serving staff who departed earlier in the year.
Farrell successful at Wigan RL
Farrell, who started his time at United as Academy Performance Consultant for three years, then spent four-and-a-half years as Head of Academy Performance before becoming Head of Player Wellbeing in February 2023.
He has experience in the field of culture and development, having worked for Preston North End, Oxford United, Wigan Warriors rugby league club and Sale Sharks rugby union club as a Culture and Performance Consultant and for Bury and the Wales national rugby league team as a Performance Consultant.
At Preston he advised on and implemented a high performance structure in the performance team and observed coaching practices, while at Oxford he helped to introduce an efficient performance department, including sports science, strength and conditioning and performance analysis and psychology.
During his 10-and-a-half years working in rugby league at Wigan, he developed and implemented performance strategies “to help the management team create a winning culture and improve performance to help the club back to the top of the sport”.
His work appears to have paid off as in that time, the Warriors won the Super League twice, the Grand Final twice, two World Club Final titles and two Challenge Cups.
Like Farrell, Ransom also worked for Sale Sharks, where he was Performance Psychology Consultant for five years.
He did this alongside his work with United, who he joined in July 2016 as Academy Psychologist. In October 2020, he was promoted to Lead Academy Psychologist – a role he held until this new move.
Ransom has also worked for Hull City and West Bromwich Albion.
TGG Members: Manchester United staff profiles
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