Chelsea set to appoint Man United’s American media chief who was blasted by Gary Neville for ‘creating robots on and off the pitch’
- American Phil Lynch handed in his resignation at Old Trafford last month
- Pundit Gary Neville accused Lynch of creating ‘robots’ at Manchester United
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Phil Lynch, Manchester United’s media chief criticized by Gary Neville, is joining the American revolution at Chelsea.
The ex-Old Trafford defender was accused by the ex-United defender of ‘creating robots off the pitch’ after a video emerged in 2021 in which he explained how the club works with players on social media.
Mail Sport understands that American Lynch, who resigned at Old Trafford last month, will take on the role of global head of digital for BlueCo, the US consortium that took over Chelsea in 2022 and which also owns Strasbourg in France.
It is believed he will focus primarily on Stamford Bridge, becoming the first director to move between the clubs since CEO Peter Kenyon made the move in 2003.
Lynch’s departure is not believed to be linked to the arrival of Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS at United after they acquired a 25 percent stake in the Premier League giants and pledged to make on-pitch performance a priority to make.
Man United media chief Phil Lynch (above) has resigned to join Chelsea
The American opened up about the methods the club is using with players on social media in 2021
Gary Neville was unimpressed with what he heard and told Lynch to ‘take the f@@k away’
However, his departure will give Ratcliffe and the newcomers the opportunity to restructure a key part of United’s operation, should they choose to do so.
During his time as media CEO, Lynch was responsible for all of United’s output, including MUTV, the club’s TV channel, app and social media channels.
After overseeing substantial growth following his arrival in 2017, he transitioned into a new role as CEO of digital products and experiences, with a focus on NFTs, crypto and emerging digital engagement tools.
He becomes the latest American to join co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali at Stamford Bridge. The duo have also brought in CEO Chris Jurasek and Tottenham commercial boss Todd Kline.
During the public firestorm of 2021, Lynch, a former Sony executive, explained how United tried to influence fans’ opinions of its players.
āWe generate a fan sentiment graph twice a day for all our players,ā he explained. ‘We have certain thresholds that alert us when we see fan sentiment going one way – whether that’s a personal issue, a performance issue on the pitch, and when that happens we start individually with the player and his team work to try to counter this. that story a little bit.’
Lynch becomes the latest American to join co-owners Todd Boehly (above) and Behdad Eghbali at Stamford Bridge
That was the reason for former captain Neville to observe: ‘Creating robots on and off the field! Get the hell away from them. It’s a football club. He makes fan checking sound like he’s trying to win a general election!’.
It will be interesting to see how long it takes for Lynch to arrive in West London. He still works at United and is on a period of gardening leave.
As has been reported, United are currently in a standoff with Newcastle over the situation with sporting director-in-waiting Dan Ashworth, who wants to move from the North East to Old Trafford.
Omar Berrada, who joins United from City, is expected to arrive in the summer following ‘mature talks’ between the two rivals.
