Ed Woodward 2019 - Until all Arctic ice melts edition

I see many people have already given up on Ole, even though changing managers at this stage would achieve nothing positive, especially because the root problem is Woodward and his masters. I don't believe Ole was happy with the club's lack of competency in shifting unwanted players. Nor do I believe Ole was happy with not signing a midfielder. Or another attacking player. He doesn't rock the boat. He's in his dream job. But he no doubt understands with his brain that the owners are a disaster. We have 4 midfielders of radically varying quality. Overloaded with unwanted centre backs, thin up front and on the wings. And the bench options are levels below in quality. There is no way any manager would be satisfied with these options given the alleged ambitions of the club and the significant expectations of the supporters.

Ole deserves criticism for a variety of things but the main issue at the club bar none is and will remain the owners and the incompetent hierarchy running the club.

You could say today was on the hierarchy, but that's no different to every other day of the last 6 and a half years.
 
Bastian said:
I see many people have already given up on Ole, even though changing managers at this stage would achieve nothing positive, especially because the root problem is Woodward and his masters. I don't believe Ole was happy with the club's lack of competency in shifting unwanted players. Nor do I believe Ole was happy with not signing a midfielder. Or another attacking player. He doesn't rock the boat. He's in his dream job. But he no doubt understands with his brain that the owners are a disaster. We have 4 midfielders of radically varying quality. Overloaded with unwanted centre backs, thin up front and on the wings. And the bench options are levels below in quality. There is no way any manager would be satisfied with these options given the alleged ambitions of the club and the significant expectations of the supporters.

Ole deserves criticism for a variety of things but the main issue at the club bar none is and will remain the owners and the incompetent hierarchy running the club.

You could say today was on the hierarchy, but that's no different to every other day of the last 6 and a half years.
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Very well said. People just expect ole to perform miracles and the moment we lose our first game he gets most of the blame. Ole is just a pawn in this mess, the real root will always be the upper management.
 
If the Glazers had any guts or fecking desire, they would have demoted this coward a long time ago.

Unfortunately they don't care.

We're stuck in a viscous cycle.
 
Ole is surely Ed's last chance. You cannot fail miserably with 3 managers in a row.
 
All the hooray Henry's out there supporting Teflon Ed fr this past transfer window, surely must be questioning the leg up they are giving to a person that does not understand football. He and the Glazers got what they always wanted, cash in for Laukaku and some signings to please the plebs without any real strengthening of the club.

We have to endure the nonsense that is Fernandes can't pass, no value and other media leaks as the club falls further behind with little intention to replace departed players in positions that were already weak.

Ole is in a very awkward position,he loves the club and would not want to be part of criticism that would bring more attention to the current disaster at Old Trafford.

Scouts seem to have no idea, and the idiot that is the DOF and CEO is there for one reason, to ensure value in the share market for the owners. Can't think of another club regarded as a power that would have tolerated the last 6 years of results, signings and manager appointments from Woody.

When I see the posts from Keefy and Johan on here, keep thinking that they could only be paid by Woody or are burner accounts. If they are genuine in their support, feel sad for them.
 
Relevated said:
Woodward is a scouser.
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Actually makes for a great conspiring theory. Scare Klopp away to Liverpool with the Disneyland pitch. Hire, extend then ignite the Jose nuke. Destroy United from within. The fatal bullet to hit this season when Liverpool win their first league in three decades.
 
2015/2016 Liverpool Lineup
1653878.jpg

Man Utd Lineup 2015/2016
1655496.jpg

You could add Martial in for Young and De Gea in for Romero to arrive at a more realistic lineup.


Those are the starting lineups when Klopp took over for Liverpool. Both teams in a very similar state but yet look at the progress Liverpool did. It really hurts. :( All the blame is on Woodward for this! He needs to go!
 
Woodward and the Glazers have left the club in a weak position. With a weak squad that any manager would struggle with.

When will people stop blaming the manager and start looking at the real problem?
 
Dear Ed,

Please sack OGS, after which please sack your self.

Yours in anticipation.
 
Woke up this morning and yesterday’s game popped back into my head. Disgusted but not overly surprised. It’s difficult to quantify/fathom just how poor Woodward has been. Then again, maybe it’s the owners simply dictating, I just don’t know.

Either way, until the structure at the top of the club changes, we won’t be seeing much in the way of titles.

The squad is so light with a season of potentially 50 games plus.
 
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In 17/18, we finished 19 points off 1st. Our answer that summer was to buy a player from the Ukranian league, a teenage right back, and Stoke's second choice keeper, and declining to buy Maguire at £70 million because it was too expensive for a player not deemed any better than the defenders we had.

In 18/19, thanks to that transfer policy, we played worse, sacked the manager, and ended up 32 points off 1st. Our answer this summer was to buy Maguire at £80 million (so more than we could have got him for last season), a right back with 1 years Premier League experience, and a player from a middle table Championship team. At the same time we sold our highest scoring striker over the last 2 seasons.

Given the last 2 summers transfer policy, did anyone really think the board expected us to challenge for anything this season/have a plan in place to make us a team to challenge for trophies?
 
Fluctuation0161 said:
Woodward and the Glazers have left the club in a weak position. With a weak squad that any manager would struggle with.

When will people stop blaming the manager and start looking at the real problem?
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At our club managers are hugely important to our transfer business so its impossible to absolve them of blame. Its been Ole's plan to focus on British talent for whatever reason. That sort of buffoonery is that of a club not looking to progress.

Of course Ed is the man that should shoulder the majority of the blame given he's the one making all the big decisions and he's failed us.
 
Even if Ole was any good as a manager, he has no chance with the current squad. Our attack has been weak for a while now and no real investment was made in that department. This season this will cost us big time.
 
JK-27 said:
In 17/18, we finished 19 points off 1st. Our answer that summer was to buy a player from the Ukranian league, a teenage right back, and Stoke's second choice keeper, and declining to buy Maguire at £70 million because it was too expensive for a player not deemed any better than the defenders we had.

In 18/19, thanks to that transfer policy, we played worse, sacked the manager, and ended up 32 points off 1st. Our answer this summer was to buy Maguire at £80 million (so more than we could have got him for last season), a right back with 1 years Premier League experience, and a player from a middle table Championship team. At the same time we sold our highest scoring striker over the last 2 seasons.

Given the last 2 summers transfer policy, did anyone really think the board expected us to challenge for anything this season/have a plan in place to make us a team to challenge for trophies?
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Yep.

It's a bizarre situation because some fans will openly defend this transfer policy as though as it's something more than cost-cutting. Woodward has done a Derren Brown-esque job here - he's force-fed mediocrity to the United fanbase but has somehow convinced the same fans to defend this to the hilt.

And yeah - when you downgrade your midfield and attack in the same summer, why be surprised that you struggle to create anything during games and look clueless going forward?
 
There no any plan, idea, nothing.
Is there any plan behind not backing Ole enough this summer? Give more chances to youth? Even if that's the plan which I doubt we still needed additions in midfield which is criminally thin.
So now we'll have to hope we'll get top 4 and if we don't Adidas will cut the funds. Maybe that will finally wake Ed up. But I doubt that also.
Even if we sack yet another manager the new manager will still be stuck with Ed and the completely shambolic state of the club.
 
Ed is culpable. Ole was not my first choice but when do we start blaming the person in charge of making all these horrible, horrible errors?

As we all know, the club loses money every time we miss out on the top 4, so the minimal spending we're doing, is an impact of this (I guess).

I'm sure the Glazer's know the club is losing value, are they just biding their time with Ed until someone like Edwin to become available?
 
Ban said:
There no any plan, idea, nothing.
Is there any plan behind not backing Ole enough this summer? Give more chances to youth? Even if that's the plan which I doubt we still needed additions in midfield which is criminally thin.
So now we'll have to hope we'll get top 4 and if we don't Adidas will cut the funds. Maybe that will finally wake Ed up. But I doubt that also.
Even if we sack yet another manager the new manager will still be stuck with Ed and the completely shambolic state of the club.
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Which serious manager is going to want to risk his reputation by coming in to work at Woodward's mercy given what the previous three have to say about him? If Ole fails and needs to get sacked I guarantee you it will get mercy with the likes of Neville, Scholes and Keane in the media around the inner workings at United. All that will work to scare off any potential manager and leave us attracting another clown or another chancer like a former player.

At a serious football club Woodward wouldn't survive Ole's fall because he will be his 3rd managerial pick that hasn't worked out. Not only that but that would be four managers with misgivings over Woodward's failings in the transfer market. Ole has enough standing within the club and the press that what happened this summer will be a topic for discussion when the time comes.
 
AneRu said:
Which serious manager is going to want to risk his reputation by coming in to work at Woodward's mercy given what the previous three have to say about him? If Ole fails and needs to get sacked I guarantee you it will get mercy with the likes of Neville, Scholes and Keane in the media around the inner workings at United. All that will work to scare off any potential manager and leave us attracting another clown or another chancer like a former player.

At a serious football club Woodward wouldn't survive Ole's fall because he will be his 3rd managerial pick that hasn't worked out. Not only that but that would be four managers with misgivings over Woodward's failings in the transfer market. Ole has enough standing within the club and the press that what happened this summer will be a topic for discussion when the time comes.
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Agreed completely. Ridiculous situation.
 
AneRu said:
Which serious manager is going to want to risk his reputation by coming in to work at Woodward's mercy given what the previous three have to say about him? If Ole fails and needs to get sacked I guarantee you it will get mercy with the likes of Neville, Scholes and Keane in the media around the inner workings at United. All that will work to scare off any potential manager and leave us attracting another clown or another chancer like a former player.

At a serious football club Woodward wouldn't survive Ole's fall because he will be his 3rd managerial pick that hasn't worked out. Not only that but that would be four managers with misgivings over Woodward's failings in the transfer market. Ole has enough standing within the club and the press that what happened this summer will be a topic for discussion when the time comes.
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Totally agree.

If one of the best managers in the World doesn't get the backing he needs from Woodward and the Glazers then no one will.

The sooner our fans realise the strategy is to get top 4 while spending minimum amounts the better. No ambition.
 
We can all piss and moan about the state of the team/club as a whole but what we must not forget is, ole's doing this job with his hands tied behind his back!.

Yes we can all critisize Ole's line-up's/selections.
Yes we can critisize the team in general.
Yes we can critisize the style of attacking options we have.

ole can ONLY work with what he has at his disposal.

This all leads back to the big man upstairs, Your's truly "Super Ed!".

To reiterate what most people have been saying, Where else in the world would a person so out of his depth at his job be kept in such a key position?.
 
JK-27 said:
In 17/18, we finished 19 points off 1st. Our answer that summer was to buy a player from the Ukranian league, a teenage right back, and Stoke's second choice keeper, and declining to buy Maguire at £70 million because it was too expensive for a player not deemed any better than the defenders we had.

In 18/19, thanks to that transfer policy, we played worse, sacked the manager, and ended up 32 points off 1st. Our answer this summer was to buy Maguire at £80 million (so more than we could have got him for last season), a right back with 1 years Premier League experience, and a player from a middle table Championship team. At the same time we sold our highest scoring striker over the last 2 seasons.

Given the last 2 summers transfer policy, did anyone really think the board expected us to challenge for anything this season/have a plan in place to make us a team to challenge for trophies?
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Good post. It seems a lot of people genuinely thought the youth players would be promoted and seamlessly fill the void left by Lukaku, Herrera, etc.
 
Replacing your only striker and two central midfielders for absolutely nobody. What could go wrong?
 
AneRu said:
Which serious manager is going to want to risk his reputation by coming in to work at Woodward's mercy given what the previous three have to say about him? If Ole fails and needs to get sacked I guarantee you it will get mercy with the likes of Neville, Scholes and Keane in the media around the inner workings at United. All that will work to scare off any potential manager and leave us attracting another clown or another chancer like a former player.

At a serious football club Woodward wouldn't survive Ole's fall because he will be his 3rd managerial pick that hasn't worked out. Not only that but that would be four managers with misgivings over Woodward's failings in the transfer market. Ole has enough standing within the club and the press that what happened this summer will be a topic for discussion when the time comes.
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Exactly. Heavy emphasis on the bolded part. Far too few posts address how much contempt Woodward will be held in within the profession.
 
Yea and it feels like they have resigned us to just be in the 4-7 fight annually. If there was a year to invest it was this one. Not having a proper team around Pogba in midfield likely means that he is leaving next summer. He has ambitions and I can’t blame him. The problem is he is the only one to get a big fee. De Gea will likely leave next summer on a free and would have financial incentive to do so. So now we need to spend big money on a keeper, three starting midfield options AT LEAST, a winger and a striker. But only funds we would recoup are for Pogba. They clearly have a net spend target that is less than $90M so it will be more backing of the youth. Them not putting up the funds this summer does not bode well considering the spend requirement will be even greater next summer.

Honestly Woodward should be fired for just the players who have left and the fees recouped or not gotten at all for them. The glazers aren’t going anywhere. Billionaires don’t give up toys because the masses want them to. So we should really put our attention into Woodward out. It’s not perfect but it’s a start.
 
I’ll start by saying I am as anti-Glazer and as anti-Ed as anybody on this forum. I am also holding them SOLELY responsible for our current fall from grace

However

I believe the Summer transfer window was EXACTLY what we needed. Here’s why -

- We bought a proper CB who will improve our defence for years to come

- We bought a proper RB who will nail down that position for years to come

- We got rid of players who were not really Utd players and freed up wages

Now people will be saying “but...but....net spend, not enough signings...blah blah blah” BUT what people have to appreciate is that we are not playing Football Manager here. In real life, it’s a difficult and time consuming process to both BUY and SELL players.

Every time we bring a player in who turns out to be wrong for the club, it not only wastes money but crucially it wastes TIME.

These people clamouring for Bruno Fernandes, Lo Celso, Ndombele, Icardi etc...etc....what do you REALLY know about those players? How many of us on this forum have watched those players in great detail? Are they REALLY Man Utd players? Think....would SAF have signed those kind of players? I suspect not. Every year we get linked with a whole host of exotic sounding signings and this forum becomes obsessed with them, every year since SAF we’ve signed mediocre players from La Liga, the Bundesliga, the Portuguese leagues, the Eredivisie and Serie A and every year we are instantly shocked to find that actually when they start playing football for real, they are not that good at it!

I don’t believe the club now have an “English” policy. I believe they have started to do what they should have been doing ten years ago and going back to SAFs tried and tested policy of buying up the best young(ish) players in the PL because they are a KNOWN QUANTITY. You pay a premium for a reason. It’s because you know they can handle the PL, it’s been proven and that adds to their value to other PL clubs. Is the PL better than La Liga or the Bundesliga or Serie A? Not necessarily, but it IS different and it DOES take different types in different teams to succeed in these leagues.

So my point is this....I liked the last window. Did we solve all of our problems? Absolutely not. But where we ever going to? Absolutely not. There is no quick fix and that’s on Ed and the Glazers. But now is the time for clear thinking. To pursue a winning strategy. Not just to do exactly what we have done for the last 6/7 years and throw good money after bad. It just doesn’t work. We need two good “banker” signings, ideally from the PL, every summer window with a couple of Dan James’ style gambles here and there.

Write off the next couple of seasons. It’s going to be painful whilst we transition....but it needs to be done
 
It’s time we started seriously looking into if he’s a closet Liverpool fan.
 
Lentwood said:
I’ll start by saying I am as anti-Glazer and as anti-Ed as anybody on this forum. I am also holding them SOLELY responsible for our current fall from grace

However

I believe the Summer transfer window was EXACTLY what we needed. Here’s why -

- We bought a proper CB who will improve our defence for years to come

- We bought a proper RB who will nail down that position for years to come

- We got rid of players who were not really Utd players and freed up wages

Now people will be saying “but...but....net spend, not enough signings...blah blah blah” BUT what people have to appreciate is that we are not playing Football Manager here. In real life, it’s a difficult and time consuming process to both BUY and SELL players.

Every time we bring a player in who turns out to be wrong for the club, it not only wastes money but crucially it wastes TIME.

These people clamouring for Bruno Fernandes, Lo Celso, Ndombele, Icardi etc...etc....what do you REALLY know about those players? How many of us on this forum have watched those players in great detail? Are they REALLY Man Utd players? Think....would SAF have signed those kind of players? I suspect not. Every year we get linked with a whole host of exotic sounding signings and this forum becomes obsessed with them, every year since SAF we’ve signed mediocre players from La Liga, the Bundesliga, the Portuguese leagues, the Eredivisie and Serie A and every year we are instantly shocked to find that actually when they start playing football for real, they are not that good at it!

I don’t believe the club now have an “English” policy. I believe they have started to do what they should have been doing ten years ago and going back to SAFs tried and tested policy of buying up the best young(ish) players in the PL because they are a KNOWN QUANTITY. You pay a premium for a reason. It’s because you know they can handle the PL, it’s been proven and that adds to their value to other PL clubs. Is the PL better than La Liga or the Bundesliga or Serie A? Not necessarily, but it IS different and it DOES take different types in different teams to succeed in these leagues.

So my point is this....I liked the last window. Did we solve all of our problems? Absolutely not. But where we ever going to? Absolutely not. There is no quick fix and that’s on Ed and the Glazers. But now is the time for clear thinking. To pursue a winning strategy. Not just to do exactly what we have done for the last 6/7 years and throw good money after bad. It just doesn’t work. We need two good “banker” signings, ideally from the PL, every summer window with a couple of Dan James’ style gambles here and there.

Write off the next couple of seasons. It’s going to be painful whilst we transition....but it needs to be done
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Trouble is we are always going to be in transition unless we get lucky. Next year if we miss out on top 4 because we couldnt get a single midfielder in what do you think happens?

1) We lose Pogba
2) We lose de Gea
3) No top class players want to come to us as we don't have CL... again, we have seen this year how no CL affects our recruitment.

The only way around that would be to have, from nowhere, a bunch of world class players come through from the youth all at once.
 
Not to be controversial, but anyone on here, actually any United fan infact, that goes to the games this season and doesn’t protest should be ashamed of themselves.

The club is being ran by absolute clowns and nearly every fan at Old Trafford just lets them get on with it.

I won’t be attending any games or putting any more money into the club. I usually attend about 10 games a season, buy the home and away shirt every season, subscribe to MUTV etc. Not anymore.
 
Redcy said:
Trouble is we are always going to be in transition unless we get lucky. Next year if we miss out on top 4 because we couldnt get a single midfielder in what do you think happens?

1) We lose Pogba
2) We lose de Gea
3) No top class players want to come to us as we don't have CL... again, we have seen this year how no CL affects our recruitment.

The only way around that would be to have, from nowhere, a bunch of world class players come through from the youth all at once.
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No we won't - we've seemingly been in transition continuously post SAF for two reasons;

1) SAF/Glazers/Woodward allowing our squad to decline without refreshing it between 2008-2014
2) Terrible recruitment of players caused mainly by 'quick fix' approach to signings, constantly changing managers and lack of leadership from the top

My point is that we can't do anything about 1) now so forget that, it's gone. No point moaning about it anymore.

Point 2 IS something we can do something about and as I say in my post above, I can see signs that we HAVE had some kind of post-Jose/Sanchez epiphany whereby Ed and the Glazers have realised that we can't fix this by throwing cash at mercenaries, we need a strategic, long-term approach to transfers.

If you need an example of this, Google 'Michael Edwards, Liverpool' and read up on exactly how our biggest rivals turned around a quarter of a century's worth of decline in two/three seasons
 
Ban said:
There no any plan, idea, nothing.
Is there any plan behind not backing Ole enough this summer? Give more chances to youth? Even if that's the plan which I doubt we still needed additions in midfield which is criminally thin.
So now we'll have to hope we'll get top 4 and if we don't Adidas will cut the funds. Maybe that will finally wake Ed up. But I doubt that also.
Even if we sack yet another manager the new manager will still be stuck with Ed and the completely shambolic state of the club.
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Our business smells of Mr. Mamic. :smirk:, it's like he's lurking behind the scenes.

Jokes aside I agree with you, the people in charge of this club are aimless when it comes to the footballing side. If this goes south, they'll blame Ole and we'll restart another rebuild.
 
Denis79 said:
Our business smells of Mr. Mamic. :smirk:, it's like he's lurking behind the scenes.

Jokes aside I agree with you, the people in charge of this club are aimless when it comes to the footballing side. If this goes south, they'll blame Ole and we'll restart another rebuild.
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I hope it doesn't smell like that. :D

Yup and they'll have another fairytale to cover themselves up.
 
Shane88 said:
At what point will Old Trafford actually start becoming aggressive to this feckwit?
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Not until Ole is under serious serious pressure (like we're languishing in 10th or worse) or if he sacks him.
 
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