I came out well at least..
Ed Woodward 2019 - Until all Arctic ice melts edition
- Thread starter fallengt
- Start date
The Theresa May of Manchester United
Saying that the club is about as toxic as politics these days with too many focused of their own personal interests
Saying that the club is about as toxic as politics these days with too many focused of their own personal interests
Woody & Glazers need to stop taking us all for a ride. What a brain trust they are. Create a coherent structure and set the club up for success you snakes.
Other clubs are putting them to absolute shame. Liverpool were nowhere a few years ago and look what can be achieved when you have your heads out of your arse for one minute.
To go 6 years and counting in the wilderness with the revenues we have is a damning indictment on them.
Other clubs are putting them to absolute shame. Liverpool were nowhere a few years ago and look what can be achieved when you have your heads out of your arse for one minute.
To go 6 years and counting in the wilderness with the revenues we have is a damning indictment on them.
Woody got a free pass to take credit with our growing revenue by doing the bare minimum. Record breaking TV deals for the Premier League at a time when United were the main team to watch. I swear to God a bunch of monkies would have made as good or better deals. Chevy actually whores itself out for sponsorship. And would Adidas really have passed on taking over our shirts after a decade of Nike? It's catching up to him now...we're not the top grossing side in football and it's going to trend downward
This season catastrophic was entirely down to Ed. He either need to back or sack Jose in the summer before season start. But he did neither and only sacked Jose halfway through the season. By the time, our season already ended in December. He threw away one entire season due to his own bad planning. How bad a mistake he needs to make before he get sack?
He then appointed an interim manager in Ole without any signing in January just to get through the season without any real objective. Out of sudden, he appointed Ole permanent manager after 15 good games. Once he was appointed permanent manager our football went to shit again and we had one of the worst run in the club history. The football was dire and even worse than Moyes' football. Again this shows that Ed has no planning and make football decision like an amateur. Ed also has no gut to correct his mistake of appointing Ole. So we have to brace ourselves for another catastrophic season before he sacks Ole next season.
We are in such a dire state that the most important appointment in the football club was handled by someone with no planning and knowledge of football at all. I haven't even started on player recruitment. This is a joke. This is truly an adult fecking Disneyland.
He then appointed an interim manager in Ole without any signing in January just to get through the season without any real objective. Out of sudden, he appointed Ole permanent manager after 15 good games. Once he was appointed permanent manager our football went to shit again and we had one of the worst run in the club history. The football was dire and even worse than Moyes' football. Again this shows that Ed has no planning and make football decision like an amateur. Ed also has no gut to correct his mistake of appointing Ole. So we have to brace ourselves for another catastrophic season before he sacks Ole next season.
We are in such a dire state that the most important appointment in the football club was handled by someone with no planning and knowledge of football at all. I haven't even started on player recruitment. This is a joke. This is truly an adult fecking Disneyland.
Oh yes he has. We're Manchester United, the world's top companies were literally tripping over themselves to offer their partership. In this period of record-breaking TV deals, we're the club who has grown the least year on year, out of the top 6.
City have recently overtaken us as most valuable club. Our financial advantage diminishes by the day, to the point where it's not unlikely that Liverpool could overtake us in revenues if they keep up their trajectory. How many thought that possible 10 years ago?
Matchday and commercial revenues are flat for the last three years, annual wage bill increases are being paid for by regular increases in the Premier League/UEFA's TV deals.
If the TV deals stop growing, we're done. Another season like this one and the Adidas deal drops by 30%. Squad full of mediocre overpaid mercenaries. So we're not even getting what we paid for. Rotten club culture. Weird Disney land analogies.
Under-invests at a relative period of success last season. If he was as clever as he thinks, he would have gone all out last summer when players will have been interested to come. We could have nabbed Van Dijk ahead of Liverpool I'm sure.
I haven't even got to this season!
Now we're scrambling, trying to convince players to come when we have no leverage after a terrible season. He's a moron.
Genius, my arse.
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Why are people blaming Woodward for not signing Mane? iirc, we were linked with Mane in summer 2015 (when Soton and especially Koeman rejected our bid) and before January 2016 transfer window. Then at the end of 2015/16 season, Koeman left Soton and Mourinho took over from LVG, and Mourinho pursued Mkhitaryan and all the links to Mane stopped.
Many posters also keep bringing up the alleged "Disneyland" remarks by Woodard as a reason why we didn't sign Klopp! We didn't get Klopp because when we tried to sign him in 2014, he was under contract with Dortmund and wanted to honor his contract. Liverpool got him in 2015 because he was available then after he left Dortmund. I'm sure the "Disneyland" comments played no role whatsoever in Klopp's decision to turn us down in 2014. It was just bad timing.
Many posters also keep bringing up the alleged "Disneyland" remarks by Woodard as a reason why we didn't sign Klopp! We didn't get Klopp because when we tried to sign him in 2014, he was under contract with Dortmund and wanted to honor his contract. Liverpool got him in 2015 because he was available then after he left Dortmund. I'm sure the "Disneyland" comments played no role whatsoever in Klopp's decision to turn us down in 2014. It was just bad timing.
Gold!
I love the "He needs another good season in the PL, before we consider him" or "He's good on his day, but he's Southampton quality, not good enough" comments.
Guy went to win CL, while we could've been out of EL had it not been for Ole's feel good factor.
Nail on the head. If anything, what transpired from last summer to end of this season completely lays bare reason why Woodward should not handle the football side of our business any longer.
The Disneyland is run better than our current shower of shit.
Dick'Ed kept briefing about hiring an experienced DoF to hiring someone "who knows the club" and finally settled for hiring nobody at all.
Everytime we lose, the cnut also plants briefings of false transfer news about us buying De Ligt, Neymar etc in the media to deflect.
Does anyone think he will change because of Liverpool and City being so successful? Not at all, watch him dither on.
Everytime we lose, the cnut also plants briefings of false transfer news about us buying De Ligt, Neymar etc in the media to deflect.
Does anyone think he will change because of Liverpool and City being so successful? Not at all, watch him dither on.
See poor Ed is still getting grief, well I suppose if you need to blame somebody....
I don't, I think people should actually do something instead of bumping a board thread every time our rivals win something. I could have told you which threads would be top of the list before I logged on last night.
I didn't see anyone complaining about the board when we were apparently trying to hijack the De Ligt deal.
United with Woody is like Microsoft with Steve Ballmer, whereas Liverpool with Klopp is like Apple with Steve Jobs.
The plucky underdog just keeps growing and eventually overtakes the stagnating behemoth, and nothing will change until Ed ”Zune” Woodward steps down.
The plucky underdog just keeps growing and eventually overtakes the stagnating behemoth, and nothing will change until Ed ”Zune” Woodward steps down.
Actually a good analogy. Leadership matters more then people think, Satya Nadella has come in and completely changed Microsoft's fortunes over the last 5 or so years by focusing heavily on the cloud and subscriptions.
Balmer was an idiot with no technical nuance and Microsoft suffered dearly for it. A series of bad decisions at the helm, can really see the similarity to Woodward. Unfortunately it seems like were destined to give Woodward and undesrvingly long reign too.
Also if Liverpool are Apple then City are Google.. outspending and dominating us in a whole host of areas (training facilities, spending, scouting, youth development, media production, even buying clubs in foreign leagues to develop players). All whilst we sit around and say that everything is fine.
Another similarity is that Ballmer had plenty of clueless sycophants due to Microsoft’s increased revenue in absolute terms under his reign, completely failing to put that growth into context. Microsoft would have grown with a monkey at the helm due to the underlying strengths of its core products that were already in place (Windows and the Office suite) and general market inflation, and that growth masked his incredible incompetence.
They could have grown so much more with someone who actually knew what he was doing.
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Nepotism and bias has been the bane of our club.
Ferguson favoring Moyes as his successor. The Glazers appointing their yes-man Woodward and giving him unquestioned power. Ole's rushed appointment based on sentiment alone. Ole's pandering to Rashford and Lingard just because they are academy products and "local".
The club is mired in the past and unable to bring in a truly meritocratic system which is simply digging us a bigger hole. In contrast, clubs like Liverpool and City, and even Chelsea are far more ruthless.
Ferguson favoring Moyes as his successor. The Glazers appointing their yes-man Woodward and giving him unquestioned power. Ole's rushed appointment based on sentiment alone. Ole's pandering to Rashford and Lingard just because they are academy products and "local".
The club is mired in the past and unable to bring in a truly meritocratic system which is simply digging us a bigger hole. In contrast, clubs like Liverpool and City, and even Chelsea are far more ruthless.
Apologies about the RVP one.
As you can see though, Ed has routinely broken records in terms of expenditure, not that you disagree. I find it ridiculous when folks complain about our spend myself.
He openly admitted to turning us down. Not much you can do when turned down is there?
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Standard from our lot these days, revisionist nonsense from most.
I recall most rating Rashford & Martial more highly than Sterling & Mane in 2016.
Two years of zero development from a past it coach like Jose and its a complete 180 from our 2 and sees Mane & Sterling as 2 of the best wide attackers in the league.
So you think that we should have sacked LVG during summer 2015 and go strongly after Klopp? That's what I thought at the time since I believed that LVG had done his job but it wasn't a popular idea, at all.
Hostility is going to be too much for him to continue given we have another poor season. Liverpool winning CL basically was worst possible thing for him to happen, no room for mistake now.
In Fergie’s last season we were 28 points ahead of Liverpool, six years on (the length of time we decided to give to David fecking Moyes) they’re 31 points ahead of us with another Champions League. The rest of the available trophies swept up by our local rivals.
Meanwhile we’re heading into another season without CL football with a bloody shirt with the times of our winning goals in 99 printed on it.
We’ve still no director of football despite one promised for about six months, despite the transfer window now being open and the start of the pre season one month away.
It’d be fecking hilarious if it wasn’t so awful.
The only consistent factors during this slide into oblivion have been Woodward and the Glazers.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Ole steps down of his own accord this season when he realises he’s fighting an unwinnable battle to save this club.
Meanwhile we’re heading into another season without CL football with a bloody shirt with the times of our winning goals in 99 printed on it.
We’ve still no director of football despite one promised for about six months, despite the transfer window now being open and the start of the pre season one month away.
It’d be fecking hilarious if it wasn’t so awful.
The only consistent factors during this slide into oblivion have been Woodward and the Glazers.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Ole steps down of his own accord this season when he realises he’s fighting an unwinnable battle to save this club.
At the end of the day Woodward is still only an employee at Manchester United.
The real problem is the Glazer family who are keeping him in his job. They are the ones that have the final say over every decision made at the club, and they should be coming under the spotlight, not Woodward.
The real problem is the Glazer family who are keeping him in his job. They are the ones that have the final say over every decision made at the club, and they should be coming under the spotlight, not Woodward.
If the Glazers or Ed truly care about the club and have any sense of pride, this season must surely be the catalyst for some serious changes to the club on and off the pitch.
Ed Woodward has to take the lion's share of the blame, but the blame lies on the Glazers as well and everyone involved in decision making at board room level. If they maintain the same course, it proves definitively that the money is all that matters for them. Unfortunately, I don't see positive signs that this change is coming any time soon.
Ed Woodward has to take the lion's share of the blame, but the blame lies on the Glazers as well and everyone involved in decision making at board room level. If they maintain the same course, it proves definitively that the money is all that matters for them. Unfortunately, I don't see positive signs that this change is coming any time soon.
Would something like a Saudi takeover be the only thing that will upright our current downward trajectory if nothing changes with Woodward and Glazers?
Christ, this is depressing to imagine. This must be what United fans went through in the 70s and 80s.
Christ, this is depressing to imagine. This must be what United fans went through in the 70s and 80s.
They brought in the right payers where they needed improvement with the most expensive being their CB and this has proved to be a winner for them.
I love the argument how most of people were also behind LVG, Jose and now Ole decision.
Yep, I want that CEO of the biggest club in the world thinks like 95% of the folks here. That's how best CEO's do their job, make decisions that every regular person would do.
Yep, I want that CEO of the biggest club in the world thinks like 95% of the folks here. That's how best CEO's do their job, make decisions that every regular person would do.
But yet he still gets the blame. Some need to look in the mirror and realise they would do a crap job too. But they won’t come to that conclusion, they’ll just criticise him instead. For making the same decisions they begged for.
You got it wrong. I am, like most people here, absolutely not capable to be the CEO of Manchester United.
And I really don't think that the very best CEO will come up with the decisions I would go at the time. It is a poor excuse for him imo.
Think outside the box, bold decisions, taking risks, long term thinking... Nope.
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I remember the 70's and 80's and when we were relegated. Yes these times feel just as bad, but give Ole an Phelan a chance to get rid of the deadwood and bring in their own players, then Judge.
Fergie had a huge job when he came in 1986 getting rid of the deadwood, but he DONE it and we blossomed.
If there's a better manager available, you should make the move.
Why not? The football side of things is the easy bit. It didn’t take a genius to realise Liverpool needed a keeper and a defender. The CEO’s only job is the pick the right manager.. the rest realise on the manager as far as I’m concerned.
That's my belief, people generally don't like it and I understand but from the club point of view managers aren't all that different from players, if you can upgrade a position and need to sell/fire the current holder of that position then do it. The last pages are the demonstration of it, in football you will be blamed anyway, if Woodward had fired LVG in 2015 he would have been criticized at first and called an embarrassment but people would have ignored it later, just like people forgot that SAF was appointed in November 86 and that someone had to be sacked for that to happen, the reality is that ultimately if you are successful no one cares about how you got the job, people are still claiming that United don't sack managers that it's the history of the club but it's not true and not how we got our greatest manager.
That applies to Ole, depending on what happens in the incoming weeks regarding managers, someone interesting may be available and we should think about it, we should ask ourselves if Ole is the ideal incumbent, as Ole should do with every single players in the team.
To be clear, I'm not suggesting to get rid of managers at the first opportunity and ignore long term plans but that it should never be a taboo and that plans can and should be altered if it's meant to aim higher.
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And yet we've a supporter base blaming our dog shit football and on field problems directly on the CEO!
Highly, highly doubt our supporter base were calling for Edwards head during our rough patches of the 70s & 80s! In fact, I know we weren't instead there was banners flown calling for Fergies head saying his time was up in 1989.
As for Liverpool, they've had decades of mismanagement, even in recent memory with Gillet and Hicks and even Fenway sports started poorly and its literally in the last 2-3 seasons they've shot up the table.
I can't. The same people are the massive hypocrites who abuse and throw our players under the bus.
And I fully agree with your post. They're both employees of the club, we pay managers and players extremely well for their service - and if we believe we can do better with someone else, you need to make the move.
Woodward's unwilling to accept that hes out of his depth on the footballing side which is why we dont have a DOF and even if we get one it seems like its a ceremonial role. It seems to me that he (and by extension the club) has earned a reputation as a chump among executives and agents who constantly use the club or overcharge on average players.
Unfortunately his reign will only be threatened if we start losing money and the Glazers either replace him or sell the club.
Unfortunately his reign will only be threatened if we start losing money and the Glazers either replace him or sell the club.
Who told you that it was a thing? Woodward isn't the one identifying players, he doesn't negotiate transfers or wages and many clubs have been looking for a DOF for a longer time than United as an example Chelsea and Lyon, it's not actually that easy to find someone most clubs take a long time to do it.
No, the argument is the revisionism that people have here.
It's like when we hired Ole, people were completely onboard his train- he understands United, he has learnt from SAF, previous job does not matter as the expectation was different and so was the team quality.
Now, we've changed tune to- He's inexperienced at the top, stuck in the past, we are obsessed with romanticism, etc.
True. But Barcelona and Madrid are built on nepotism and bias - check out their managerial history for clear proof - the last manager at Madrid to have no links to them is Ancelotti, and at Barca it's even worse (I think, not certain). Liverpool for many years after their League titles dried up were the same - Souness, Roy Evans and Dalglish show this. And it's easier not to be as run on nepotism and nostalgia when you have the more modest history of Man City and Chelsea (although Chelsea are genuinely ruthless).
I remember mods literally locking threads voicing concerns about Ole and actively shaming anyone who wasn’t fully onboard the ”Ole at the wheel” train. So you can’t really blame ordinary Caf members too much when the discourse was being actively herded to a certain consensus.
He's had plenty of chances to
The posting in threads criticising the board and Woodward has been pretty consistent.
The nature of a forum means that current events are going to influence what gets bumped to the top. It doesn't make the criticisms any less valid. Especially in the context of 6 years of failure and Woodward's consistent gross mismanagement.
Agree that our fans should do more to put pressure on Woodward and the Glazer's though.