Man Utd set to appoint Director of Football (when hell freezes over)

Status
Not open for further replies.
Cassidy said:
Yes it was panic and nothing to do with the manager wanting to assess players in pre season. The 2 players we signed before that were not players already lined up before the manager came. You just have an agenda and sre unable to be objective
Click to expand...

Assessing. :lol:

We entered the first matches of the seasons without signing anyone. We weren't even linked to anyone. All the 4 signings of Rojo, ADM, Blind and Falcao came after the shite starts in the league and league cup that we paniced and we decided to buy.

You just want to defend everyone in the club and lay the full blame on managers. Everyone is great and doing their job, it's just the devil managers, LVG and Mourinho, letting them down, poor Ed.
 
Ah, the old we dropped points so lets bump the Woodward thread again and blame him. The players are not good enough. How about we all turn our attentions away from the CEO and the manager and start to actually hold the players accountable for their shiteness and crappy attitude. How many points have we dropped now against promoted teams in the last 12 months.
 
Jose's signings arent exactly pulling up trees or fitting a pattern so far.

And he has spend.loads just like Lvg.
 
red4ever 79 said:
Ah, the old we dropped points so lets bump the Woodward thread again and blame him. The players are not good enough. How about we all turn our attentions away from the CEO and the manager and start to actually hold the players accountable for their shiteness and crappy attitude. How many points have we dropped now against promoted teams in the last 12 months.
Click to expand...

The players have to fit in a philosophy and some pattern of play and be motivated. And it is the job of manager to do that.

Freaking midfield of Cleverley and Carrick won us the league at a canter. We have gone on long runs with makeshift cbs and cms and won.

See Liverpool. Freaking James Milner and Henderson has been the best midfield in the league so far while Hyped Matic, Pogba and Fred are struggling
 
FromTheBench said:
The players have to fit in a philosophy and some pattern of play and be motivated. And it is the job of manager to do that.

Freaking midfield of Cleverley and Carrick won us the league at a canter. We have gone on long runs with makeshift cbs and cms and won.

See Liverpool. Freaking James Milner and Henderson has been the best midfield in the league so far while Hyped Matic, Pogba and Fred are struggling
Click to expand...

I would agree to a certain extent, and please dont assume I am in the Mourinho in camp. Sooner he goes the better. My point is these players are not performing and should be held accountable. I am not interested to see this social media bollocks of players coming out after the game and apologizing.
 
Casanova85 said:
I can't believe some folks still say we didn't/don't need Willian...
Click to expand...

Five goals a season Willian on a fat contract for what purpose? We wouldn't be better off with him.

Atleast Perisic was better, though he was for the LW. In retrospect, we should have signed Perisic instead of Sanchez perhaps.
 
Kapardin said:
Five goals a season Willian on a fat contract for what purpose? We wouldn't be better off with him.

Atleast Perisic was better, though he was for the LW. In retrospect, we should have signed Perisic instead of Sanchez perhaps.
Click to expand...

I presume the theory behind the pursuits of Perisic/Willian was not so much about what they'd contribute individually in terms of numbers, but rather that having a direct, pacey player out wide would stretch the opposition and open up spaces for Pogba, Sanchez, Mata, Lingard, Martial etc etc to operate in. Mourinho has nearly always had one of these direct players in his sides.

Essentially, it was about balancing the side a little more. As things stand, we're too narrow, too predictable and too easy to defend against.
 
Infra-red said:
I presume the theory behind the pursuits of Perisic/Willian was not so much about what they'd contribute individually in terms of numbers, but rather that having a direct, pacey player out wide would stretch the opposition and open up spaces for Pogba, Sanchez, Mata, Lingard, Martial etc etc to operate in. Mourinho has nearly always had one of these direct players in his sides.

Essentially, it was about balancing the side a little more. As things stand, we're too narrow, too predictable and too easy to defend against.
Click to expand...

In theory, that's fine. But players like Martial, Lingard, Sanchez and Mata are already not prolific and miss chances even when they get spaces. We have seen this time and again, we miss even basic one-on-ones with the GK. It is partly due to their limitations and partly due to a lack of proper coaching.

So if we get a non-scoring winger, the burden of scoring will still be on Lukaku and perhaps Pogba as there's no guarantee the others will finish their chances.
 
Kapardin said:
In theory, that's fine. But players like Martial, Lingard, Sanchez and Mata are already not prolific and miss chances even when they get spaces. We have seen this time and again, we miss even basic one-on-ones with the GK. It is partly due to their limitations and partly due to a lack of proper coaching.

So if we get a non-scoring winger, the burden of scoring will still be on Lukaku and perhaps Pogba as there's no guarantee the others will finish their chances.
Click to expand...

We should wait, with Utd's money, till a sure thing shows up? Who would that be exactly?

Ah well, we (Ed) through this year away by not refreshing the team in the summer. Maybe Varane will be available next year......(and Bale).
 
steffyr2 said:
We should wait, with Utd's money, till a sure thing shows up? Who would that be exactly?

Ah well, we (Ed) through this year away by not refreshing the team in the summer. Maybe Varane will be available next year......(and Bale).
Click to expand...

No, but a competent manager or scout should suggest better alternatives than Willian.

Ed was not wrong to veto the signing but was at fault for leaving it at that and not setting up a structure to help the manager with feasible alternatives. It doesn't have to be Willian or bust.
 
Kapardin said:
In theory, that's fine. But players like Martial, Lingard, Sanchez and Mata are already not prolific and miss chances even when they get spaces. We have seen this time and again, we miss even basic one-on-ones with the GK. It is partly due to their limitations and partly due to a lack of proper coaching.

So if we get a non-scoring winger, the burden of scoring will still be on Lukaku and perhaps Pogba as there's no guarantee the others will finish their chances.
Click to expand...

There's no guarantees and none of our forwards are world class, but Sanchez, Mata and Martial have shown themselves capable of getting on the scoresheet at other points in their careers and we'd certainly do them no harm by opening up a little bit of space for them to operate in. Having a decent crosser to whip in balls to Lukaku would not hurt either.

It doesn't matter anymore anyway. José will be gone by next year and someone new will have to contend with Ed.
 
This myth that we have turned into a galaticos club has to end. The vast majority of our signing post SAF haven't been what anyone would call galaticos.
Furthermore, I don't believe for a second that there are any players that have arrived in this club post 2013, that haven't come with the explicit permission of the manager. There are many things Ed is guilty of, but not that.
If there is a failure of transfer strategy at this club, it has been because Ed Woodward has given managers free reign over signings.
Our recruitment process has been well documented over the years. The manager gives Ed a list per position, Ed goes through the list and attemota to sign in order of priority.
You can't call it a lack of strategy. The strategy is wrong.
 
el3mel said:
Except we didn't. We were ready to enter the season with Depay and Morgan as our biggest transfers + a washed out Bastian while selling everyone in the attack to free space for Rooney. Martial came out as a panic buy at last day.

That actually happened exactly in LVG first summer too. We signed Shaw and Herrera while he was with Netherlands. He then joined the team and had a great preseason so the board decided to not spend any longer and keep what we had. The shock of such disastrous results in the first games, getting two points out of first 9 while getting smashed 4-0 by Mk Dones forced us to panic buy 4 players in the last 2 weeks. More than half of our transfers in this window came in the last 2 weeks due to panic on the crap results and fear of not getting CL again !

Damn, the more I look at it, the more I discover how Ed reign gets more and more terrible in my eyes.
Click to expand...

Why can't others see this? It's so obvious.
Spend when we don't make top 4 (or look like we are going to fail).
Don't spend when we are in the top 4 or look like we will finish in the top 4.

The signing of Sanchez was the only exception to this rule.
 
Infra-red said:
It doesn't matter anymore anyway. José will be gone by next year and someone new will have to contend with Ed.
Click to expand...

This could well be the case.
The problem is that Ed will still be here, spending money, only when we are failing to get top 4 and looking for unattainable targets like Varane, Bale and Neymar.
 
Adisa said:
This myth that we have turned into a galaticos club has to end. The vast majority of our signing post SAF haven't been what anyone would call galaticos.
Furthermore, I don't believe for a second that there are any players that have arrived in this club post 2013, that haven't come with the explicit permission of the manager. There are many things Ed is guilty of, but not that.
If there is a failure of transfer strategy at this club, it has been because Ed Woodward has given managers free reign over signings.
Our recruitment process has been well documented over the years. The manager gives Ed a list per position, Ed goes through the list and attemota to sign in order of priority.
You can't call it a lack of strategy. The strategy is wrong.
Click to expand...

Galactico signings generally happen, once per year and usually over the Summer.
Let's take a look at Woodward's dealings.

In the first Summer, Woodward tried to get Bale (probably for a World Record fee), but failed. No doubt there were other Galactico signings targeted, but that also ended in failure. In the end we got Fellaini.
In the 2nd Summer, Woodward got Di Maria, who was the MOTM in the CL final. He was unquestionably a Galactico. He was the most expensive signing in English football.
In the 3rd Summer, we didn't get a Galactico, but I believe a bid was discussed and made for Neymar. This was LVG's final Summer. I think Muller for £100M was also discussed.
In the 4th Summer, we got Pogba. The most expensive player in the history of football. The very definition of a Galactico.
In the next Summer, we failed to get a Galactico, though it could be argued that we did succeed when we got Sanchez (a few months earlier), who in his prime, would not be out of place at Real Madrid or Barca.
This Summer, I believe Bale was chased, but that ended in failure. Strange that we didn't go for Ronaldo, but maybe Woodie decided that he wanted to save money, so that the Glazers could buy themselves another mansion or yacht.

I would say that we are following the Galactico model and when we fail to land one, it isn't because we didn't want one, it's because we failed, while trying.
Woodward even mentioned this a few months back when he said that he is after the very best in the World. I believe he discussed Varane, for the role of CB. Sure, Toby A and Maguire would be good signings, but Varane would be the Galactico signing that Woodie craves.
 
sunama said:
This could well be the case.
The problem is that Ed will still be here, spending money, only when we are failing to get top 4 and looking for unattainable targets like Varane, Bale and Neymar.
Click to expand...

Yes, it is not an ideal position to be in. But since there is no chance of Ed not meddling in football matters for the foreseeable future, we have to ensure we appoint a manager who can maximize resources and can put up with some lean summers when Ed goes gallivanting around Europe in vain or vetoes transfers like he did now. Jardim would be able to cope, and it would be nice if Zidane could as he's obviously first choice for the club.
 
sunama said:
Galactico signings generally happen, once per year and usually over the Summer.
Let's take a look at Woodward's dealings.

In the first Summer, Woodward tried to get Bale (probably for a World Record fee), but failed. No doubt there were other Galactico signings targeted, but that also ended in failure. In the end we got Fellaini.
In the 2nd Summer, Woodward got Di Maria, who was the MOTM in the CL final. He was unquestionably a Galactico. He was the most expensive signing in English football.
In the 3rd Summer, we didn't get a Galactico, but I believe a bid was discussed and made for Neymar. This was LVG's final Summer. I think Muller for £100M was also discussed.
In the 4th Summer, we got Pogba. The most expensive player in the history of football. The very definition of a Galactico.
In the next Summer, we failed to get a Galactico, though it could be argued that we did succeed when we got Sanchez (a few months earlier), who in his prime, would not be out of place at Real Madrid or Barca.
This Summer, I believe Bale was chased, but that ended in failure. Strange that we didn't go for Ronaldo, but maybe Woodie decided that he wanted to save money, so that the Glazers could buy themselves another mansion or yacht.

I would say that we are following the Galactico model and when we fail to land one, it isn't because we didn't want one, it's because we failed, while trying.
Woodward even mentioned this a few months back when he said that he is after the very best in the World. I believe he discussed Varane, for the role of CB. Sure, Toby A and Maguire would be good signings, but Varane would be the Galactico signing that Woodie craves.
Click to expand...
A lot of your post is based on speculation. Let's focus on the players that have arrived. The bottom line is that I don't think anyone of them has arrived without the manager's blessing. Those players are here because the managers wanted them.
If there is a lack of strategy, the managers are also to blame because they want these players .
This club needs a DoF.
 
We're indeed following the Galacticos model. More than half of our budget every summer is dedicated for one galacticos while the rest don't usually exceed 40m or less. Our budget in every season doesn't exceed 150m so:

First summer : Chased Bale and Fabre the whole summer.
Second summer : Half of the budget went to Di Maria.
Third summer : Bayern already said we offered 100m for Muller.
Fourth summer : 89m for Pogba, again more than half of our summer budget.
Fifth summer : 75m for Lukaku, again half of our budget.
Sixth : 50m for Fred, almost all of our budget this time thanks to us decreasing it from 150 to 70

That's Galacticos at its finest.

At the other hand City spent 200m last summer but non exceeded 50m. They signed Walker, Danilo, Mendy, B.Silva and Ederson. In Mourinho 3 seasons, we spent 150m on 3 players every summer ( Zlatan was free) and 50m/70m on Fred.

City isn't following a Galacticos project. They spend a lot but they not anything more than 50-60m on a player, so sign a lot of players each summer, distributed over most of the pitch. We on the other hand ignore certain weaknesses to splash half of our budget on a galactico as if he alone will solve our issues.

City are well planned. We're not.
 
Last edited:
Introduce some of our Young players. McKenna know them well and can get the best out of them. Mourinho just wants to spend monies on over the hill players. We need more youth to play fast flowing football and we have plenty of talent available. Lots of young players have proved they are good enough in the past. Try them even from the bench.
 
Bestietom said:
Introduce some of our Young players. McKenna know them well and can get the best out of them. Mourinho just wants to spend monies on over the hill players. We need more youth to play fast flowing football and we have plenty of talent available. Lots of young players have proved they are good enough in the past. Try them even from the bench.
Click to expand...
In theory this is good, but didn't our U23s get relegated?

U18s are awesome but too young still.
 
Funny how this thread is bumped whenever we drop points, with some excellent rewriting of history.

Years gone and still the same galactico bs.
 
el3mel said:
We're indeed following the Galacticos model. More than half of our budget every summer is dedicated for one galacticos while the rest don't usually exceed 40m or less. Our budget in every season doesn't exceed 150m som:

First summer : Chased Bale and Fabre the whole summer.
Second summer : Half of the budget went to Di Maria.
Third summer : Bayern already said we offered 100m for Muller.
Fourth summer : 89m for Pogba, again more than half of our summer budgrt.
Fifth summer : 75m for Lukaku, again half of our budget.
Sixth : 50m for Fred, almost all of our budget this time thanks to us decreasing it from 150 to 70

That's Galacticos at its finest.

At the other hand City spent 200m last summer but non exceeded 50m. They signed Walker, Danilo, Mendy, B.Silva and Ederson. In Mourinho 3 seasons, we spent 150m on 3 players every summer ( Zlatan was free) and 50m/70m on Fred.

City isn't following a Galacticos project. They spend a lot but they not anything more than 50-60m on a player, so sign a lot of players each summer, distributed over most of the pitch. We on the other hand ignore certain weaknesses to splash half of our budget on a galactico as if he alone will solve our issues.

City are well planned. We're not.
Click to expand...

But this is the thing. All those players were here because the managers wanted them.
 
Adisa said:
But this is the thing. All those players are here because the managers wanted them.
Click to expand...

There's one common factor among all the previous managers and that's Ed Woodward. If the same policy is applied every summer (i.e. dictating half of our budget to a galactico), then you can't say he doesn't have an opinion on this.
 
el3mel said:
There's one common factor among all the previous managers and that's Ed Woodward. If the same policy is applied every summer (i.e. dictating half of our budget to a galactico), then you can't say he doesn't have an opinion on this.
Click to expand...
Of course he has an opinion. He dictates the budget. But if the manager insists he sees buying Lukaku as a bigger priority than signing another winger, Lukaku is going to take half the budget. That's not Ed Woodward's fault.
Imo, the only way this issue of transfers can be solved is taking responsibility for squad planning from both manager and Ed. Get a DoF that sets the parameters as to how the club deals with transfers and future managers work within those parameters.
 
Adisa said:
Of course he has an opinion. He dictates the budget. But if the manager insists he sees buying Lukaku as a bigger priority than signing another winger, Lukaku is going to take half the budget. That's not Ed Woodward's fault.
Imo, the only way this issue of transfers can be solved is taking responsibility for squad planning from both manager and Ed. Get a DoF that sets the parameters as to how the club deals with transfers and future managers work within those parameters.
Click to expand...

You're talking about one summer. I'm talking about several summers all have the same trajectory. Same budget + same way in spending it, across 3 different managers.

Agree on the DOF part though. Time to start acting like a proper football club. Get someone who understands football and hire him as a DOF, put him in close contact with the manager and let Ed only pay the money. DOF should put a certain philosophy and theme for the team and the manager with his signings need to follow it.
 
el3mel said:
You're talking about one summer. I'm talking about several summers all have the same trajectory. Same budget + same way in spending it, across 3 different managers.

Agree on the DOF part though. Time to start acting like a proper football club. Get someone who understands football and hire him as a DOF, put him in close contact with the manager and let Ed only pay the money. DOF should put a certain philosophy and theme for the team and the manager with his signings need to follow it.
Click to expand...
I used that one summer as an example. The only way I think Ed can be blamed is if we think Mourinho didn't want Lukaku, Pogba or Sanchez or Fred and Van Gaal didn't want Di Maria.
I think it's simplistic to blame Ed Woodward on personal note for our transfer failings. Where I think the blame is, is on our archaic idea of a CEO manager relationship.
 
Henrik Larsson said:
Has he actually sold a player with profit since he's been on the job?
Click to expand...
A player being sold for profit is dependent on a player increasing his value while being at the club. Almost no signing has improved at United in the last five years.
 
We are a business more than a football club,after finishing 2nd we should have been looking to send out a clear message of intent in the summer window but no,Woodward was more than satisfied that without further investment we could easily achieve the primary target of top 4 while cluelessly overlooking that the teams in and around us would be strengthening,beggars belief!
 
Adisa said:
I used that one summer as an example. The only way I think Ed can be blamed is if we think Mourinho didn't want Lukaku, Pogba or Sanchez or Fred and Van Gaal didn't want Di Maria.
I think it's simplistic to blame Ed Woodward on personal note for our transfer failings. Where I think the blame is, is on our archaic idea of a CEO manager relationship.
Click to expand...

Not sure about Mourinho, but I think LVG didn't want Di Maria at all the way he used him then dropping him completely for Ashley Young. ADM ended up not playing any major part in our best runs this season.

As I said, there's only one common factor between the 3 managers and that's Ed Woodward. It feels illogical to not starting to question his way of managing the clubs and transfers policy. If the managers are shite he's the one who's appointing them, and the way we are going on ever since Moyes was sacked, I really, really don't see what was Ed's plan for the team since then. Both LVG and Mourinho were appointing based on panic decisions, and the transfers we're doing are more miss than hit, with a non-existent strategy or planning in them.

The only plan who was put for the post SAF era was SAF's idea of hiring Moyes and giving him the long contract. When this ended up terribly failing, we lacked any good plan or ideas for solving this mess and here we're, panic decisions over panic decisions.
 
el3mel said:
Not sure about Mourinho, but I think LVG didn't want Di Maria at all the way he used him then dropping him completely for Ashley Young. ADM ended up not playing any major part in our best runs this season.

As I said, there's only one common factor between the 3 managers and that's Ed Woodward. It feels illogical to not starting to question his way of managing the clubs and transfers policy. If the managers are shite he's the one who's appointing them, and the way we are going on ever since Moyes was sacked, I really, really don't see what was Ed's plan for the team since then. Both LVG and Mourinho were appointing based on panic decisions, and the transfers we're doing are more miss than hit, with a non-existent strategy or planning in them.

The only plan who was put for the post SAF era was SAF's idea of hiring Moyes and giving him the long contract. When this ended up terribly failing, we lacked any good plan or ideas for solving this mess and here we're, panic decisions over panic decisions.
Click to expand...

Asked about Woodward’s comments, he said in the Sunday Mirror: "It is a strategy of Manchester United to do that. At this moment, we have five No.9s and four No.10s – and we don’t have wingers to give us attacking width.

"Or, I should say, we don't have wingers of the highest level, like Ronaldo or Di Maria or somebody like that. So, I have to play in another way – and you have seen that already. I only buy when I think we need to buy – in the position that is necessary."
Click to expand...

Only common factor in all years is, Woodward blindly following manager's requests.
 
Adisa said:
Van Gaal.
Click to expand...

roonster09 said:
Van Gaal when he complained that he didn't have highest level wingers like Di Maria, week or 2 later we signed Di Maria.
Click to expand...

He never played Di Maria on the wing.

When he was first signed he played him as a midfielder in diamond. He later on even played him as a striker. when he went on and played a formation that needs wingers as 4-1-4-1 he preferred Young on him on the wing position.

BTW if Woodward was following managers' requests blindly we would have been at a better position, because they understand football more than him.

Ed : Forgot to say, Di Maria wasn't even a winger for Madrid at this time.
 
At the moment, the club is as clueless as Ed Woodward and that tells you something.
a. He agreed on Sanchez's ridiculous wage, He's a finance guy and you'd think He'd understand how risky the deal was
b. He extended Jose's contract
c. He decided not to back Jose fully despite of b)

It's easy to blame him I know. But those three things above are ridiculous, almost amateurish when you think He's the CEO of Manchester fecking United. I don't expect him to fully understand how football works but point b and c are so basic. If you start questioning a manager's performance then don't extend his contract, delay your decision until you're sure about it or when there are enough reasons.

Now We're stuck with a manager that's still not performing as expected, players that are still not performing as expected, Sanchez's huge salary and questions among supporters & maybe the next potential managers? about how the club is limiting transfer budgets and won't back up their managers fully anymore. This galactico bullshit needs to stop. You want to stop top players from going to Spain? how about a clear direction for the club first? you know, the most important thing for a football club.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.