Long post incoming
Problem I see is that the Glazers know nothing about football and as business owners they probably just look at the figures and think everything is ok.
The problem is the lack of footballing men at the club making the right decisions, which starts at Woodward, Judge in the middle and ends at Woodward.
These two run things at United and have absolutely no knowledge about football.
For all the hate the Glazers get, we've spent money, plenty of it, paid wages, more than any club in the world, but we're still fighting to hold onto our best players, challenging for nothing and cant even get into the Champions League consistently.
Lets start with the managers.... Moyes, LVG, Mourinho and now Ole... Not one of these managers share a similar style of tactic. Such a short sighted, quick fix, throw money at it scheme that is destined to fail each time.
On top of that, you're throwing Di Maria into a very possession based LvG setup, Throwing Pogba into a defensive Mourinho set up and as for Ole, I'm unsure what his setup is yet.
Now onto the players.
For the majority, I'd say all the players we've bought over the last 6 years, the fans have been excited with. Di Maria, Depay (bigger ceiling than Sterling), Pogba etc, before we've signed them, we've for the majority wanted them. I'd say the two who really split opinions were Lukaku and Fellaini.
So us as fans were happy with the managerial appointments in majority and the same with the signings ( Clearly my opinion, but I've been here and I've seen the reactions, we wanted this. Even Mourinho was probably a fan majority appointment)
So when it comes down to it, we're no better than Woodward in that sense.
Why has it gone so wrong?
Woodward knows best, just like we think we do, and we don't, just like he doesn't.
We need some actual football men to put some foundations in place.
Lets find an identity, lets only appoint coaches that fit that identity, then we can put the players in place.
Right now it's a lot of square pegs in round holes and it's been like this for such a long time. So many of our signings post Fergie have come and gone, while Fergies players are still here.
We're probably going to lose Pogba this summer, a massive talent, who clearly wants away. I'm not going to defend him as he's been nothing but a hindrance to us since rejoining, but if we were more successful, we wouldn't be in this situation, so I can totally understand why he wants to leave. Roles reversed and he was at a side struggling while we were top of the pile, we'd be saying he needs to be at a better club etc...
On to the contracts. Some of the reported wages we are paying players is absolutely scandalous.
Sanchez - 350k
Martial - 200k
Shaw - 150-200k
Young - 120k
To name a few...
No wonder anybody who wants to sign for us takes us to the cleaners.
Martial has done nothing to deserve them wages, neither has Shaw.
But what have these two got in common...? We let them run their contracts down to the very last year at which point they hold all the cards in negotiating. Same is happening with De Gea now.
But why shouldn't De Gea force a big wage packet, considering Sanchez is on them wages? De Gea has been one of our best player for years, so if Sanchez deserves 350k, De Gea deserves more....
We're an absolute farce at the moment. Players coming in use us for big wages. Other clubs are willing to hold out knowing we'll eventually cave and pay way over market value. We really need to sort this out.
We could potentially lose Pogba for around 120m while signing Maguire for 90m... (I know nothing is confirmed on either, but look at them figures....)
Rather than signing Maguire for 80m (lets meet in the middle)
Lets find players ourselves...
Even though we're not challenging for anything right now, getting top 4 with Arsenals lack of funds and Chelsea definitely going backwards as a team with the transfer ban, should be one of the easier top 4 pushes for a while.
It means we have a season to bed players in. Lets take a chance on some players. Rather Maguire for the price quote, lets see if we can find a gem. We have so many scouts doing so many things, surely we know names.
Hell, I could load up Football Manager and get a rough idea of players, the game has been proven over and over when it comes to young talent actually forging out exceptional careers, so why does one of the biggest clubs get it so damn wrong, so often.
It starts and stops with Woodward. He needs to hand over the footballing side of things to an established DoF. One who has a clear vision, knows football and knows how to negotiate with clubs and players.
What we don't need is this committee of Ferdinand, Fletcher etc (Although even them rumors have no blown away)
Rather than direct the hate towards the Glazers... Ed Woodward needs his hand forcing.... Whether it's social media, or at the stadium, he needs to know, he cannot run this club the way its operating.