Manchester United must hire a top-five sporting director as soon as possible, according to the editor of the club's fanzine United We Stand.

Ed Woodward has expressed his desire to hire a former player to fulfil the role, while legendary manager Alex Ferguson wants to see Steve Walsh employed in a consultancy role.

According to Mitten, a candidate with experience should take top priority.

"It has to be an excellent sporting director - someone who knows how to do that job better than anyone else, a top-five person in the world," Mitten told Sky Sports.

"These people tend to speak five languages. They tend to be football obsessives. They tend to know that there is a brilliant left-back at Palermo and know his agent and know a club has already been onto him. They have got a rich depth of knowledge.

"There are a lot of talented people at Manchester United on the recruitment side. There are a lot of people with world-class CVs but the end result is that players are coming in and it is not gelling.

"Sixth is not good enough. It was good to get to that Barcelona but we were totally outclassed against Barcelona."