Ed Woodward 2019 - Until all Arctic ice melts edition

[RedDevilRoshi]

We are quick enough to slate the manager and players when in reality this fraud is what is wrong with this club.

No ambition to build a squad that the manager wants that will one day see us start competing again for league titles and having an ambition to win the Champions League. It’s simply appease the sponsors so the money keeps coming in and the odd occasional top 4 finish is all that matters.

 

[Bestietom]

Woodward is THE man, and no one will change my mind. Everyone that talks about him inside the club say he is in charge of transfers. Look at the Paddy Crerand show and you will hear Macari, May, and whoever appears on it, talk of him being the one who does the negotiating. Judge is the Solicitor type, who signs the contracts off.

 

[romufc]

We are quick enough to slate the manager and players when in reality this fraud is what is wrong with this club.

No ambition to build a squad that the manager wants that will one day see us start competing again for league titles and having an ambition to win the Champions League. It’s simply appease the sponsors so the money keeps coming in and the odd occasional top 4 finish is all that matters.

I think this time around no one is slating the manager.

We can slate players all we like but in reality, you can't blame all of them in terms of:
1. Not having players for the position - RW / LW converted into RB/LB
2. Strikers converted into wingers
3. Playing players that don't perform.

It is the club's responsibility to get the right players to replace players. The reason we are in this position, we don't seem to replace players who have retired. We seem to think we can convert players.

A proper RB since Gary Neville.
CDM - Matic replaced Carrick who needs replacing himself
CM - Pogba has been the only player we have bought at the right age and fits what we need.
CB - I dont need to talk about this.

 

[Eric's Seagull]

That. And the future TV-rights in East Asia, China and even Africa. Which are not mature markets yet. There is the concept of an European Superleague as well.
If I would speculate I think that the Glazers see an enormous upside in the asset value of the club in the next 5-10 years. To get them to sell it would take an enormous offer that would have to be much larger than the current valuation.
And again: that does limit the prospective buyers.
EDIT
And if the Glazers would want to sell now they could just float their Class B shares at NYSE. It would not meet the Forbes valuation but they would prob get around 3bn. Which would be a disaster from all kind of perspectives.

I wasn't aware of the potential future tv rights deals in the countries that you mentioned. Regarding your point first point in bold, I hope the Glazer's are not here for the next 5-10 but I fear they will be around as long as they are still raking in lots of money. I agree with your second point in bold and and if the clubs value increases dramatically due to these future deals, I think it will be very hard to find a buyer who is willing to match their valuation of the club.

 

[7even]

Ed Woodward is from what I can see a typical “lame” CEO, someone who can’t take one single major decision without consulting the owners. Solskjær has knowledge and management skills but he isn’t “alpha” enough to take or challenge uncomfortable decisions.

So basically the owners take all the important decisions and when they don’t like the results they fire the manager.

 

[AshRK]

He's got until the end of the window to sort it. 2 weeks. Not to worry. Eddie will make a couple of last minute signings. Then, one of our brilliant Caf members will create a few hilarious jib-jab videos depicting Ed as the conquering hero and all will be forgiven. He'll have bought another year. How many "great" Eddie the hero videos have there been? All great but let's hope we'll won't be broken hearted by Christmas as another coach leaves.

This is actually a good point. No matter what happens in next 14 days, Woodward and his support staff have done a poor job.

 

[Bestietom]

This is actually a good point. No matter what happens in next 14 days, Woodward and his support staff have done a poor job.

He will blame it on Ole, if we don't make top 4.
Without anymore signings we won't make it.
Another manager gone then, and "The Rebuilding" starts again and again and again.

 

[Water Melon]

Let's wait till the transfer window closes. I am hoping that we are working on transfers, and I am absolutely sure Ed asks the Glazer's permission on how much to spend and on who. If we end up buying noone else and are out of title race early into the season, OT fans would need to start showing discontent openly. Some chants against the owners will create hell lot of negative publicity around the Board. "Love United, hate Glazers" being belted out by 70+ thousand fans will definetely not go unnoticed.

 

[Thisistheone]

I have stated repeatadly in this thread and others that the Mourinho appointment and the prolongation of his sontract something that Woodward can and should be criticised about.
At the same time I dont think I am overexaggerating if I say that 90 percent of the Caf was for the Mourinho appointment at the time.
Even I warmed to the idea and I detest Mourinho as a person and the type of football he represents.
Its being very retrospective to maul Woodward for that decision today IMO.
The prolongation is actually an interesting issue, that we will probably never know the truth about. If I would guess, I think Mourinho threatened to walk out of the club that coming summer for PSG without a prolongation. Our league position was quite OK then as were the results.
The club probably weighed up their options and took a decision that later would be proved wrong.
I dont believe that Woodward took this decision on his own either. It would have been vetted with the Board of Advisors, who I have always argued are the first people to be replaced if the club ever will be able to take a more progressive route.
I guess my point is either of these decisions are sackable offences in my world when it comes to Woodward. And they will absolute not be to the Glazers, which like it or not is the relevant question.

So you do agree that Woodward is involved pretty heavily in football matters then? If you consider hiring, sacking & extending contracts of managers heavily involved?

I don't care what 90% of the caf thought, we don't get paid millions to make these decisions. 90% of Liverpool fans and football fans in general thought Salah wasn't a great buy. Turns out the pro's at Liverpool were right.

Of course we're retrospective when it comes to football. How else do you judge history? Everyone thought Fergie was mad to sell Kanchelskis, Ince and Hughes in 1995 and not bring in anyone. He was proven right. Just like he was wrong to sell Stam. Woodward has been and will be judged on how his football decisions turn out. And so far since 2013 it's been a disaster.

 

[AshRK]

He will blame it on Ole, if we don't make top 4.
Without anymore signings we won't make it.
Another manager gone then, and "The Rebuilding" starts again and again and again.

Absolutely. It has been the rinse and repeat story and sadly some fans will also blame Ole and ask for his head. Woodward needs to show he is changing untill then no matter who we have as the manager they all will never perform to their ability.

 

[Bestietom]

So you do agree that Woodward is involved pretty heavily in football matters then? If you consider hiring, sacking & extending contracts of managers heavily involved?

I don't care what 90% of the caf thought, we don't get paid millions to make these decisions. 90% of Liverpool fans and football fans in general thought Salah wasn't a great buy. Turns out the pro's at Liverpool were right.

Of course we're retrospective when it comes to football. How else do you judge history? Everyone thought Fergie was mad to sell Kanchelskis, Ince and Hughes in 1995 and not bring in anyone. He was proven right. Just like he was wrong to sell Stam. Woodward has been and will be judged on how his football decisions turn out. And so far since 2013 it's been a disaster.

Agree. Of course Woodward is involved. Cannot understand anyone who defends him, especially when they change their mind every other post.

 

[Johan07]

So you do agree that Woodward is involved pretty heavily in football matters then? If you consider hiring, sacking & extending contracts of managers heavily involved?

I don't care what 90% of the caf thought, we don't get paid millions to make these decisions. 90% of Liverpool fans and football fans in general thought Salah wasn't a great buy. Turns out the pro's at Liverpool were right.

Of course we're retrospective when it comes to football. How else do you judge history? Everyone thought Fergie was mad to sell Kanchelskis, Ince and Hughes in 1995 and not bring in anyone. He was proven right. Just like he was wrong to sell Stam. Woodward has been and will be judged on how his football decisions turn out. And so far since 2013 it's been a disaster.

I think Woodward is very involved in strategic decisions for the company. And its what he should be held to account for.
In the same way as he is accountable for our IT, commercial, HR and PR departments. It does not mean that he actually works with that.
Footballing-wise thats how the scouting network is setup, how the youth setup works and also managerial appointments and the general wage budget.
I am not under the illusion that he works day-to-day with footballing decisions though, which is probably what separates me from most of the posters in this thread.

 

[AshRK]

I think Woodward is very involved in strategic decisions for the company. And its what he should be held to account for.
In the same way as he is accountable for our IT, commercial, HR and PR departments. It does not mean that he actually works with that.
Footballing-wise thats how the scouting network is setup, how the youth setup works and also managerial appointments and the general wage budget.
I am not under the illusion that he works day-to-day with footballing decisions though, which is probably what separates me from most of the posters in this thread.

Then who should be responsible for our failings? If you say the manager then what you are saying is manager should complete the deals and also have a plan for the club which is too much to ask from a manager. There must be someone who should be accountable and from what we see and read it seems it is Woodward who is in charge for most of the footballing decisions so why shouldn't he be blamed.

 

[Bestietom]

Absolutely. It has been the rinse and repeat story and sadly some fans will also blame Ole and ask for his head. Woodward needs to show he is changing untill then no matter who we have as the manager they all will never perform to their ability.

We will be lucky to get anyone to take the job on these conditions. Woodword must step back and give full responsibility to a DOF that knows this game inside out. Until then, we will not progress.

 

[M Bison]

Its a wonder the Glazers don't appoint some of the resident Caf members to the job as CEO, given how easy it is to get the deals over the line

 

[Johan07]

Then who should be responsible for our failings? If you say the manager then what you are saying is manager should complete the deals and also have a plan for the club which is too much to ask from a manager. There must be someone who should be accountable and from what we see and read it seems it is Woodward who is in charge for most of the footballing decisions so why shouldn't he be blamed.

Accountability is something different than responsibility in my book.
Woodward is the CEO and basically accountable for the decision on who is manager as well as what food is served in the cantina in Carrington. And everything inbetween as well.
It does not mean that he actually decides on this weeks menu or actually works with footballing matters on a daily basis.

 

[Eric's Seagull]

Absolutely. It has been the rinse and repeat story and sadly some fans will also blame Ole and ask for his head. Woodward needs to show he is changing untill then no matter who we have as the manager they all will never perform to their ability.

Agree with all your post. I would be very unhappy if Ole got the blame for Woody not giving him a good enough platform to build from to succedd here. I've said it before that I think Woody will try to make Ole his scapegoat, which in my opinion is a terrible thing to do.

 

[Johan07]

Then who should be responsible for our failings? If you say the manager then what you are saying is manager should complete the deals and also have a plan for the club which is too much to ask from a manager. There must be someone who should be accountable and from what we see and read it seems it is Woodward who is in charge for most of the footballing decisions so why shouldn't he be blamed.

I also think it extremely weird needing to play the blame game instead of actually discussing concrete realistic options for the club. The Arsenal fan clubs letter to Kroenke was excellent IMO.
In this thread its just "Woodward and Glazers out" without any alternatives and the appreciation of the fact that neither the Glazers or Woodward are going anywhere soon.
A more constructive discussion would be preferrable to me but I realise that its as much of a unicorn as some United-benefactor shelling out billions of dollars to buy the club and "making it great again".

 

[Eric's Seagull]

He will blame it on Ole, if we don't make top 4.
Without anymore signings we won't make it.
Another manager gone then, and "The Rebuilding" starts again and again and again.

Agree with all your post but the bit in bold is what particularly concerns me as this is what I've been thinking for a while. Appalling thing for Woody to do in my opinion.

 

[AshRK]

Accountability is something different than responsibility in my book.
Woodward is the CEO and basically accountable for the decision on who is manager as well as what food is served in the cantina in Carrington. And everything inbetween as well.
It does not mean that he actually decides on this weeks menu or actually works with footballing matters on a daily basis.

I also think it extremely weird needing to play the blame game instead of actually discussing concrete realistic options for the club. The Arsenal fan clubs letter to Kroenke was excellent IMO.
In this thread its just "Woodward and Glazers out" without any alternatives and the appreciation of the fact that neither the Glazers or Woodward are going anywhere soon.
A more constructive discussion would be preferrable to me but I realise that its as much of a unicorn as some United-benefactor shelling out billions of dollars to buy the club and "making it great again".

Accountable /Responsible/liable/answerable, let us not spend time focusing on words. You didn't answer my question who should be "accountable" then. For such a big Club there must be someone who has to be held "accountable". If it was 2014 and we had one bad season then fair enough Woodward cannot be held "accountable". But it has been 6 years and we have not acted like a big club. We should be there with the likes of Madrid and Barca or where Man city are right now but we have regressed. SO for sure something is going wrong. If not woodward then who? Don't you think maybe time has come to change the structure.

Also I am not saying Glazer should go or Woodward should go , that is too good to happen. SO why not hire someone (DoF or Technical director or whatever they are called, again words are not important) who can take footballing decision and Woodward control other things which he is good at. Won't that make everyone's life easier. Of course that might not work and we may continue to go down but at least try something different.

 

[Bestietom]

Accountable /Responsible/liable/answerable, let us not spend time focusing on words. You didn't answer my question who should be "accountable" then. For such a big Club there must be someone who has to be held "accountable". If it was 2014 and we had one bad season then fair enough Woodward cannot be held "accountable". But it has been 6 years and we have not acted like a big club. We should be there with the likes of Madrid and Barca or where Man city are right now but we have regressed. SO for sure something is going wrong. If not woodward then who? Don't you think maybe time has come to change the structure.

Also I am not saying Glazer should go or Woodward should go , that is too good to happen. SO why not hire someone (DoF or Technical director or whatever they are called, again words are not important) who can take footballing decision and Woodward control other things which he is good at. Won't that make everyone's life easier. Of course that might not work and we may continue to go down but at least try something different.

Agree, we have regressed in last 6 years, and it is shown by the the kind of players we have here, the ones that don't want to come here, and the world class ones that want to leave.
We have quite a few who are not good enough for Man. Utd., and we need to get rid of this deadwood and bring in GOOD players who are fit to wear the jersey.

 

[Johan07]

Accountable /Responsible/liable/answerable, let us not spend time focusing on words. You didn't answer my question who should be "accountable" then. For such a big Club there must be someone who has to be held "accountable". If it was 2014 and we had one bad season then fair enough Woodward cannot be held "accountable". But it has been 6 years and we have not acted like a big club. We should be there with the likes of Madrid and Barca or where Man city are right now but we have regressed. SO for sure something is going wrong. If not woodward then who? Don't you think maybe time has come to change the structure.

Also I am not saying Glazer should go or Woodward should go , that is too good to happen. SO why not hire someone (DoF or Technical director or whatever they are called, again words are not important) who can take footballing decision and Woodward control other things which he is good at. Won't that make everyone's life easier. Of course that might not work and we may continue to go down but at least try something different.

I would prefer that the club would appoint a technical director or even more a DoF if one with the latter title means someone that would be responsible for the entire footballing setup at the club long-term. Thats my opinion but not our tradition though, and a hard habit to break.
It would not mean anything for Woodward´s role though. It would still be exactly the same and his "influence" would not be less.

 

[Johan07]

Accountable /Responsible/liable/answerable, let us not spend time focusing on words. You didn't answer my question who should be "accountable" then. For such a big Club there must be someone who has to be held "accountable". If it was 2014 and we had one bad season then fair enough Woodward cannot be held "accountable". But it has been 6 years and we have not acted like a big club. We should be there with the likes of Madrid and Barca or where Man city are right now but we have regressed. SO for sure something is going wrong. If not woodward then who? Don't you think maybe time has come to change the structure.

Also I am not saying Glazer should go or Woodward should go , that is too good to happen. SO why not hire someone (DoF or Technical director or whatever they are called, again words are not important) who can take footballing decision and Woodward control other things which he is good at. Won't that make everyone's life easier. Of course that might not work and we may continue to go down but at least try something different.

I actually did. I dont think the question is relevant to begin with. We should be looking forward, not focusing on placing blame. But thats my opinion.

 

[downunder red]

They are never going to hire a DOF because he would want to spend money on new players and the parasites (Glaziers) would not like that.

 

[romufc]

Accountable /Responsible/liable/answerable, let us not spend time focusing on words. You didn't answer my question who should be "accountable" then. For such a big Club there must be someone who has to be held "accountable". If it was 2014 and we had one bad season then fair enough Woodward cannot be held "accountable". But it has been 6 years and we have not acted like a big club. We should be there with the likes of Madrid and Barca or where Man city are right now but we have regressed. SO for sure something is going wrong. If not woodward then who? Don't you think maybe time has come to change the structure.

Also I am not saying Glazer should go or Woodward should go , that is too good to happen. SO why not hire someone (DoF or Technical director or whatever they are called, again words are not important) who can take footballing decision and Woodward control other things which he is good at. Won't that make everyone's life easier. Of course that might not work and we may continue to go down but at least try something different.

Well it is clear someone above Ole calling the shots is accountable. Ed is the CEO and the man we see but there is a team behind him. We need to start with the root of the problem, the scouts have had a shocker recently in Fred, Sanchez, Baily etc. They need to be held accountable for suggesting these signings first.

Secondly, Ed Woodward also has to be held accountable, now this doesn't mean he has to be sacked as he does a good job on the commercial side. So what should happen IMO is, someone needs to say to Ed, look 6 years of failure is not good enough, you will still be CEO but we are taking footballing decisions out of your hands.

Appoint a DoF, who will be accountable for the manager, style of play, and transfers. They will need to discuss with Ed season targets, budgets etc. Even if you give the DoF 150m budget to spend, I am sure he will look to spent that money wisely because if success doesn't come, heads will roll.

At the moment, there is no consequence to failure because there is no one being held accountable.

 

[He'sRaldo]

I know how it works the cycle

- no important signings
- no results
- blame the manager
- sack the manager
- start again

Moyes, Van Gaal, Mourinho

This hasn't been the cycle, especially not the "no signings" part.

 

[AshRK]

I would prefer that the club would appoint a technical director or even more a DoF if one with the latter title means someone that would be responsible for the entire footballing setup at the club long-term. Thats my opinion but not our tradition though, and a hard habit to break.
It would not mean anything for Woodward´s role though. It would still be exactly the same and his "influence" would not be less.

Maybe, Woodward still remains the most powerful guy within the club but atleast we will have someone who knows about footballing side too. Maybe that is the issue we are having right now. Woodward has too much things to focus on and he is not able to do everything by himself. Maybe a person who knows about football can do a better job.

I actually did. I dont think the question is relevant to begin with. We should be looking forward, not focusing on placing blame. But thats my opinion.

Ofcourse it is relevant. We as a club have regressed so we have a right to question the people who are in charge of the mess. Isn't it how it works at every major organisation. If 4 or 5 managers have failed in their tasks then surely the question has to be asked to the director of the company.

 

[romufc]

Ofcourse it is relevant. We as a club have regressed so we have a right to question the people who are in charge of the mess. Isn't it how it works at every major organisation. If 4 or 5 managers have failed in their tasks then surely the question has to be asked to the director of the company.

Isn't that the reason they are paid the big bucks? the role comes with some sort of accountability?

 

[Wednesday at Stoke]

They are never going to hire a DOF because he would want to spend money on new players and the parasites (Glaziers) would not like that.

FFS, stop this lazy bullshit. The club has spent shit tons of money since Fergie left. They broke the bank for Di Maria, Lukaku and Pogba and they've paid a fortune in wages to everyone from Rooney to Sanchez and now De Gea. Even average players like Shaw have been on really good money.

The money has never been an issue, chronic mismanagement from a footballing administration perspective has always been the main culprit.

If the Glazers were half as tight as Kroenke, the fenway sports group or Daniel Levy, there would be fecking self immolations in front of OT.

 

[AshRK]

Well it is clear someone above Ole calling the shots is accountable. Ed is the CEO and the man we see but there is a team behind him. We need to start with the root of the problem, the scouts have had a shocker recently in Fred, Sanchez, Baily etc. They need to be held accountable for suggesting these signings first.

Secondly, Ed Woodward also has to be held accountable, now this doesn't mean he has to be sacked as he does a good job on the commercial side. So what should happen IMO is, someone needs to say to Ed, look 6 years of failure is not good enough, you will still be CEO but we are taking footballing decisions out of your hands.

Appoint a DoF, who will be accountable for the manager, style of play, and transfers. They will need to discuss with Ed season targets, budgets etc. Even if you give the DoF 150m budget to spend, I am sure he will look to spent that money wisely because if success doesn't come, heads will roll.

At the moment, there is no consequence to failure because there is no one being held accountable.

And that's what top clubs do. Just blaming and sacking manager every season won't do any good. We might win some trophies here and there but for a long term success we definitely need a full proof plan. What next after Ole, who are the players that would suit us. These are the players we should target. I bet city would already have planned who to go next after Pep leaves. We need to have a proper structure so that future manager and players join us for footballing reasons and not because we pay them good wages.

 

[He'sRaldo]

FFS, stop this lazy bullshit. The club has spent shit tons of money since Fergie left. They broke the bank for Di Maria, Lukaku and Pogba and they've paid a fortune in wages to everyone from Rooney to Sanchez and now De Gea. Even average players like Shaw have been on really good money.

The money has never been an issue, chronic mismanagement from a footballing administration perspective has always been the main culprit.

If the Glazers were half as tight as Kroenke, the fenway sports group or Daniel Levy, there would be fecking self immolations in front of OT.

Exactly. Single most frustrating thing in this thread, these lazy clichés.

 

[AshRK]

FFS, stop this lazy bullshit. The club has spent shit tons of money since Fergie left. They broke the bank for Di Maria, Lukaku and Pogba and they've paid a fortune in wages to everyone from Rooney to Sanchez and now De Gea. Even average players like Shaw have been on really good money.

The money has never been an issue, chronic mismanagement from a footballing administration perspective has always been the main culprit.

If the Glazers were half as tight as Kroenke, the fenway sports group or Daniel Levy, there would be fecking self immolations in front of OT.

Good point. The real issue is mismanagement and not lack of money spent, although we could do with a bit more spending for this summer.

 

[romufc]

And that's what top clubs do. Just blaming and sacking manager every season won't do any good. We might win some trophies here and there but for a long term success we definitely need a full proof plan. What next after Ole, who are the players that would suit us. These are the players we should target. I bet city would already have planned who to go next after Pep leaves. We need to have a proper structure so that future manager and players join us for footballing reasons and not because we pay them good wages.

Agreed, this is why Ed Woodwad has to let go and get a DoF already. If someone tells me that there is no one interested, they can give me reasons why.

This is Manutd, if your the DoF at this club, you will have agents calling you, a bigger pool of managers and players to chose from.

 

[Johan07]

FFS, stop this lazy bullshit. The club has spent shit tons of money since Fergie left. They broke the bank for Di Maria, Lukaku and Pogba and they've paid a fortune in wages to everyone from Rooney to Sanchez and now De Gea. Even average players like Shaw have been on really good money.

The money has never been an issue, chronic mismanagement from a footballing administration perspective has always been the main culprit.

If the Glazers were half as tight as Kroenke, the fenway sports group or Daniel Levy, there would be fecking self immolations in front of OT.

I shoud just copy this post and cut down on my time on the Caf so, so much.

 

[fallengt]

I actually did. I dont think the question is relevant to begin with. We should be looking forward, not focusing on placing blame. But thats my opinion.

No the question is indeed relevant. To fix the issue you must first admit there's one and begin to 'Richard Feynman' it . That's the very first step

Don't dodge the question. If no one identifies where the root cause of our problem, how are we supposed to fix it? "Looking forward" is not the real answer.

The fact is club has been going around circle for the past 6 years. It means they keep doing the same stuff and expecting different results. That's not looking forward , that's just pure stupidity.

 

[Denis79]

FFS, stop this lazy bullshit. The club has spent shit tons of money since Fergie left. They broke the bank for Di Maria, Lukaku and Pogba and they've paid a fortune in wages to everyone from Rooney to Sanchez and now De Gea. Even average players like Shaw have been on really good money.

The money has never been an issue, chronic mismanagement from a footballing administration perspective has always been the main culprit.

If the Glazers were half as tight as Kroenke, the fenway sports group or Daniel Levy, there would be fecking self immolations in front of OT.

You fail to see that they put us in this position. They didn't take over the club when SAF left, you know that right? They bought a club that would evolve to the 2008 CL winners, they didn't build it. In fact they dismantled it and destroyed our domination. For the initial 8 years of their lovely rule we had a net spend of 150M which equals to 19M/ year. SAF went on and on about there being "no value in the transfer market", what it really meant was that he didn't have the funds to replace ageing or sold players with footballers of equal quality. Before the Glazer take-over in 2005 SAF had no problems breaking transfer records and was always after the next big player, that stopped with the Glazers.

By the time Moyes took over SAF had left a squad with an average age of 29.2, not because he was sentimental but because he never was given the funds to replace them with young players of equal quality, 19M/year is peanuts, especially if your aim is to be a top club in the world. While we spent 150M for 8 years rivals like City and Chelsea spent close to 600M each, even Liverpool outspent us by 100M, other top european clubs like Barca and Real Madrid outspent us in a similar fashion to City and Chelsea. Top young players went left and right but never to us during this period.

So their neglect of maintaining a already top club in Europe put us here, they dug the hole and we sunk, by the time of Moyes departure we had a complete rebuild on our hands because of them, it was was never going to be easy to rebuild every single part of the team. Blame the managers if you want but you're the lazy one if you do.

 

[7even]

From the outside it looks like Woodward has serious problems to co operate and build long term relationships with his managers.

It doesn’t matter if it was Moyes, Van Gaal or Mourinho, it all ended in a total breakdown regarding communication and trust. One breakdown doesn’t mean much but when three managers in a row end their stints with us on bad terms something is seriously wrong.

 

[Johan07]

You fail to see that they put us in this position. They didn't take over the club when SAF left, you know that right? They bought a club that would evolve to the 2008 CL winners, they didn't build it. In fact they dismantled it and destroyed our domination. For the initial 8 years of their lovely rule we had a net spend of 150M which equals to 19M/ year. SAF went on and on about there being "no value in the transfer market", what it really meant was that he didn't have the funds to replace ageing or sold players with footballers of equal quality. Before the Glazer take-over in 2005 SAF had no problems breaking transfer records and was always after the next big player, that stopped with the Glazers.

By the time Moyes took over SAF had left a squad with an average age of 29.2, not because he was sentimental but because he never was given the funds to replace them with young players of equal quality, 19M/year is peanuts, especially if your aim is to be a top club in the world. While we spent 150M for 8 years rivals like City and Chelsea spent close to 600M each, even Liverpool outspent us by 100M, other top european clubs like Barca and Real Madrid outspent us in a similar fashion to City and Chelsea. Top young players went left and right but never to us during this period.

So their neglect of maintaining a already top club in Europe put us here, they dug the hole and we sunk, by the time of Moyes departure we had a complete rebuild on our hands because of them, it was was never going to be easy to rebuild every single part of the team. Blame the managers if you want but you're the lazy one if you do.

This is like the biggest revision of history ever. A football team has a longetivity of maybe 3-4 years. Then you have to rebuild.
City is going to realise that very soon IMO.
What Sir Alex was great at was that he could rebuild a team while still winning.
Its not the norm though, its an anomaly.
We were winning shit for over ten years after the Glazers took over the club and we even did under LvG and Mourinho. The squad in 2004 was gone by 2008 more or less.

 

[Denis79]

This is like the biggest revision of history ever. A football team has a longetivity of maybe 3-4 years. Then you have to rebuild.
City is going to realise that very soon IMO.
What Sir Alex was great at was that he could rebuild a team while still winning.
Its not the norm though, its an anomaly.
We were winning shit for over ten years after the Glazers took over the club and we even did under LvG and Mourinho. The squad in 2004 was gone by 2008 more or less.

Because of a spine that was in place before the take-over. Rio, Vidic, Scholes, Evra, Giggs, Rooney etc etc, They were the ones winning, not the 19M net spend. SAF never ever rebuilt anything after their take-over and the 2008 team but papered over cracks with inferior players. SAF was a brilliant coach who did magic considering the lack of support he had from the board. He tried hard to find the next gem, the next Ronaldo, buy cheap and develop, he had no choice since he never had the funds to buy young upcomming stars.

Find it interesting that you are deflecting the fact that our rivals outspent us during this period, since you love using the net spend argument post Moyes defending them.

 

[Kemizee]

Still can't see us challenging for the league this season with the current team. I know that's our aim I just don't think the current squad is good enough. We'd be lucky to get top 6 with our side right now. Hopefully we get Maguire and 5 others in before the deadline. Otherwise we risk losing our top 10 status in the coming years.

Whose aim? Yours, the coach, our fans or the Glazers? Because I am definitely sure not everyone's aim is the same.