Tell us then what exactly does he do and why he has so much influence on the footballing matters. You seem to know all the goings on.
Ed Woodward 2019 - Until all Arctic ice melts edition
- Thread starter fallengt
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Tell us then what exactly does he do and why he has so much influence on the footballing matters. You seem to know all the goings on.
He is the vice chairman and like pretty much all of them, he is supposed to oversee and delegate. Ultimately he is responsible for everyone but he doesn't do everyone's job.
Well, simple; because he does not. Jeez.
Woodward is responsible for the finances of the club and the one thing you can put on him is the yearly wage budget. Even if he probably just signs of on what the financial department presents to him.
Do you have any concrete evidence of Woodward involving himself in footablling matters or do you just read the Sun every Sunday?
Woodward is the CEO of a NYSEC listed billion dollar company. 50 percent of his work is probably with regulatory and investor related matters that he is obliged to do if nothing else by NYSEC rules. The other 50 percent is overseeing the daily operations of the entire company. That involves the financial, marketing, sponsoring, HR, IR, IT and operative (footballing side) departments. This idea that he is personally carrying out or getting involved in either of those departmets other than overseeing it and being reported to is ridiculous to be honest.
You don't have to be smart mate. I know of what a CEO is supposed to do but to me Woodward seems more than just a CEO and is the Glazers right hand man.
He thinks more about.-
Strategies to grow profitability, that enhance the Glazers, who take large amounts of Money from this club.
He has a big say in who to choose for all Jobs, including the DOF, Manager, and Staff, who all have to answer to him and please the Glazers.
That is the truth of the matter, and what you try to shove down my throat won't change my opinion. So if you cannot be civil and answer properly don't answer at all.
NO I don't read the SUN.
That's your View and if you think that he doesn't get involved in Football matters that he knows nothing about, then you should ask Van Gaal or Mourinho. I prefer not to argue this point with You.
This summer is eerily similar to last summer. No clear targets in June, no whispers or murmurs of anything. It's almost as if we've learnt nothing from last season's clusterfeck.
I've got that sinking feeling that the club heirarchy are going to purposely screw over the manager. Only this time it won't be deserved...
I've got that sinking feeling that the club heirarchy are going to purposely screw over the manager. Only this time it won't be deserved...
Well, you are completely right so far. That is maybe his most important task. But you cant say just the Glazers anymore. He is obliged to do so towards the OWNERS of the club. Which is not just the Glazers anymore. United is a listed company on NYSEC and we have shareholders from all over the world today. I am one. Its towards all of them/us that he has his legal obligations. He does not have any such obligations towards the fans, even if those more often or not go hand in hand. And its not really true that the dividends to the owners has risen compared to when United was a plc in the UK either if you look at percentage of profit being taken as dividends.
I'm not trying to say that the fans can influence the owners into selling the club short term and that we will have any power into who the next owner will be. The Glazers will sell to the highest bidder, regardless if that is the Saudis or Chinese or someone that performs a leveraged takeover. We are more likely to influence the Norwegian pensionfund to try to buy a big stake in the club, than forcing the Glazers to sell due to pressure from the fans...
What I tried to state was that getting owners that wanted to win, or at least understood that the club could be financially viable and still be able to challenge for major trophies as a real possibility, would fix the fundamental issue at the club: It is a football club where football is not the main concern.
Having a wage/turnover ratio at 50% should be enough for the club to challenge, but the issue is the way the money has been spent. And given the lack of transparency with who makes what decision at the club, blaming it solely on Woodward or the managers is similar to shooting with limited sight on the target. For all we know, the Glazers could be micromanaging Woodward and stoping him from making smart decisions. Or Woodward could be making all the decisions on his own, with no influence from the owners. Or the managers could have free reign over all football related decisions.
Matt Judge 
My CEO usually sends a guy over to negotiate a deal within the limits of what he said to him. If anything goes different, he has to contact him.
But, yeah, Judge is the one to blame for transfer fees and dealings.
My CEO usually sends a guy over to negotiate a deal within the limits of what he said to him. If anything goes different, he has to contact him.
But, yeah, Judge is the one to blame for transfer fees and dealings.
I agree on that the structure on the footballing side of things could do well with a change and I am in principle for an appointment of a DoF. I dont think it will make that big of a difference that other people does.
What I dont agree upon is this idea that how we move forward should be governed by accountability first. Sure, Woodward was ultimately responsible for the appointment of our three last managers. Do I think he did not took major advice from other big players at the club. No.
Is there a realistic prospect of change in ownership in the next 5 years. Probably not. Which means that Woodward is here to stay because fact is that the CEO is the right hand of the owners. And from a corporate perspective it has to be so. Therefore its unrealistic to ask for Woodward´s head. The worst thing that could happen is if the club´s owners and the CEO do not have faith in each other. Look at Gazidis latter years in Arsenal. It would be a disaster. We need to accept that the CEO will always have to be the owner´s man. Anything else is unrealistic.
United now needs continuity, to let the new scouting system set and the improved youth setup as well. This will not be anything less than a three year project and god help us if we would be the subject of a leveraged takeover anytime under that period. Thats why I am happy with the Glazers. Could they be better as owners? Maybe. But dear God it can get so much worse also. An ownership change is the last thing we need at this moment IMO.
The problem is playing the blame game to begin with. There is plenty to be shared tbf. But if you have to blame someone as things stand now at the club; the footballing decisions are all on the three managers we have had since SAF and before OGS. They have taken the final decison about whether prolonging a contract or not. Take Fellaini as an example. Im sure Matt Judge did his best in the negotiations with Fellas agent. When they agreed on what they could agree upon that was taken back to Mourinho for a decsion. Do you want to prolong with Fellaini at this term and for these wages/sign-on fee. The total cost will be X and that will be X less that you can spend on other players this summer. Or we can say no and you have more space for other players.Matt Judge
My CEO usually sends a guy over to negotiate a deal within the limits of what he said to him. If anything goes different, he has to contact him.
But, yeah, Judge is the one to blame for transfer fees and dealings.
No one can convince me that the final decision about agreeing to a negotiated transfer or signing has rested with anyone other than the manager, regardless of who has been doing the actual negotiations.
So, if you have 3 or maybe 4 bad decisions in terms of managers, but you give them all the power who is to blame then? Probably the people who put such structure in place imo.
And top it all you hire managers who have absolutely different philosophies.
1. DoF: Dependent on what his/her authority is and the person appointed. If he/she is given "free reign" and operating within the current budget(50% ratio) and on average £100m net spend each season, and we appoint a person with experience in rebuilding squads, creating structure and got contacts with previous clubs: I'm all for it. On the other hand, if we are to appoint someone without experience and contacts, and work within our less than successful recruitementstructure.... Then, you are not setting up the DoF to succeed
2. Accountability and transparency: Most businesses have understood the importance of transparency towards customers. Not all things should be shared, but a minimum of transparency and accountability would be an improvement. Creates trust, is a sign of confidence in the product and the processes to create that product/service. Most elements from the normal business world are relatable for a football club, especially a big club.
3. Only way Woodward goes is if the owners go. I'm not disagreeing on that. The problem for us is that the owners do not give a rats ass about football. And one could think that in their eyes, being successful on and off the pitch are mutually exclusive.
4. Continuity? I hope you are right, and that this will work out. Personally, I think we are in the same cycle again. The only way for us to become successful with the current ownership and seemingly non-functional footballing structure, is for the club to appoint a manager+coaching staff that does not mainly rely on transfers to improve the team and coach the team into playing modern football (High press and retain possession). So, basically Pochettino and his gang.
Woodward doesn't get involved in football matters? "Watch this space..."
LVG was dreadful at the end of his time here but he's absolutely right about Woodward.
If he is not building or implementing a strategy for success at the club then he is not doing his job. This defence of him is ridiculous. The buck stops with him and the Glazers.
Neither LVG nor Mou said anything specific about this supposed meddling, though.
He's not a "football man", we all know that. LVG resents him for the way he was fired (rightly so), Mou didn't like the fact that he wasn't provided with certain players he wanted. None of that amounts to actual meddling of the sort people imply.
He's not a "football man", we all know that. LVG resents him for the way he was fired (rightly so), Mou didn't like the fact that he wasn't provided with certain players he wanted. None of that amounts to actual meddling of the sort people imply.
At this point you have to question the motivation and reasons for those who are still persistent on defending him. Like seriously ? Do people realize our situation ? 6 seasons, 4 managers, going from bad to worse every year but people defending the one running the football side.
He runs the club (badly) yes he is meddling. But it will get a lot worse, and by the start of next season many more fans will begin to see through him.
Running the club badly doesn't amount to meddling, though.
People are accusing him of having brought in players behind the manager's back, and of having vetoed players based on his own football know-how (or lack thereof).
But I've never seen anything substantial to back this up.
He is the Glazer's fall guy. He does their dirty work and we all fall for the distraction. He is expendable but really it is the Glazer's we must fight. Green and gold till the club is sold. None of this bargain basement second division stuff, if we had invested continually throughout the last ten years we would be fine.
Fair enough about the speculative reports of a veto, my bad you win. However, top clubs dont fail to sign ALL of their targets like we did with a CB last year. As the person in charge of running the club he bares responsibility for that whether he tried to make the signings himself or it was one of his underlings. If its the former then hes incompetent and out of his depth, if its the latter then he has the wrong people under him and should take action. Either way it comes down to him when it comes to transfers, wage bill and appointing the manager, all of which we have done very poorly over the past six seasons.
I've lost the will to care about Woodward's incompetence anymore, it's not going to change anytime soon. He would not cede power to a DoF and the Glazers will not get rid of him nor will they sell the club. He is going to be here for a long time.
Yeah we should get "football men" like Van Gaal involved.
That 1 shot a game football was immense
I kind of agree with the sentiment, my guess is that it's a combination of his own shortcomings in terms of building a structure that will allow the club to not entirely rely on a couple of people and his inability to identify the people that complement him. I consider that he is responsible but I refuse to let people like Mourinho and LVG act as if they weren't themselves responsible for their own failings, the faults are shared even if Woodward as the CEO is ultimately responsible for everyone.
Yeah we should get "football men" like Van Gaal involved.
That 1 shot a game football was immense
Are you really defending Woodward? Have you not seen enough?
He gets plenty of stick, but can't have a dinosaur like Van Gaal sticking the boot in!
With all respect, van Gaal is far more qualified than Woodward.
20 years ago yes, these days I'd actually debate that.
No one should absolve LVG and Mourinho of their responsibility they fecked up on the field and their signings have largely failed. That said, you can see issues with the management of the club when you go from having LVG as manager to Mourinho. They have completely different philosophies, I remember how when Mourinho first came he said something to the effect that their philosophies were basically the opposite. You cant do a 180 in the way you want the team to play and expect results.
There is no clear direction for the club I cant tell you what the "United Way" is anymore because of the way the club has been run. We were not prepared for Fergie and Gill leaving at the same time but its been six years and we are still clueless. Woodward is still clueless.
Well you are free to your own opinion. I think you are terribly wrong though.
As a CEO? Van Gaal is totally incompetent and he couldn't purchase a player to save his life, his track record is terrible from Barcelona to Bayern. LVG has been good at one thing, coach young players that the clubs imposed on him, otherwise he is bad with old players and at judging players that he doesn't have on the training pitch.
How many think Falcao and De Maria were more marketing ideas than who van Gaal wanted?
In terms of having a clue about football.
Not sure if this is the place to discuss Pogba's wanting to leave for Real.
But if Woodward is holding out for just cash at 180 million or whatever, then I am in agreement, instead of accepting Real's washed up players.
But if Woodward is holding out for just cash at 180 million or whatever, then I am in agreement, instead of accepting Real's washed up players.