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

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Can We stop using the word 'Top Red'? Moyes was loved by the so called Top Reds.

Woodward made a lot of blunders. Now it's up to him to change the manager, otherwise We'll lose a lot of 'potentially good with another manager' players that would cost us much more to replace. Time to try another approach, with another manager. The shit players can feck off though.
 
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Raees said:
So is it conceivable he is just a Top Red or is it really just all about the penny pinching for Woodward. What is his overall vision and purpose for the club and for this season?
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That would be a good question for him to answer because the Disneyland of Football isn't quite working I'd say.
 
I wonder if he has an independent team of some sort to advice him on footballing matters. An under performing manager is no help and his coaching staffs' loyalty would lie with their immediate boss. You'd think he'd ask for advice with club ambassadors consisting of past players and Sir Alex.
 
JPRouve said:
The press said that he demanded complete control but since it's never a thing, you can safely say that it's BS.
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That was when they had a wobble, early in his tenure. The press (and Liverpool fans) started coming up with all these reasons why the board were making the managers job unnecessarily difficult. Once the team starts producing on the field, these rumours go away. Funny that.
 
Blood boils everytime I see the camera pan to his face during a game. Scruffy looking egotistical leech.
 
sunama said:
I keep saying exactly this.
There are some people on this forum who say, "we should not let Jose spend £XM in the transfer window.
Why not? Any money saved will more than likely end up The Glazers' bank account and Woodie will take a bonus.
At least if the money is spent on players, it means that that money is invested in the team and it may help us on the pitch. It also means that for a certain duration of time (until the player is sold), that money won't end up in the account of the The Glazers.

I don't support the Glazers. I don't support a business. I support our on-pitch performance which is why I want money spent on our team and also the stadium infrastructure.

I am convinced that the money saved last Summer will somehow end up in the Glazers' pockets.
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We spent £70m this window. We still owed money from our previous two big deals. There is a reason for why we did not spend more.
Read this:Let's talk money and why our transfer business has been so poor
If we had spent £100m more on players during this summer, the "budget" for next summer and a new manager(and hopefully a DoF) would have been limited.

This is in no way a defense to the Glazers/Woodward, and i think they are the biggest long term problem with this club, but as a clearification for why we did not spend more during the summer. One could also possibly argue that certain people within the club wanted JM gone and would not sign anymore players for him, but this is mere speculation on my behalf.
 
Sb_16 said:
I wonder if he has an independent team of some sort to advice him on footballing matters. An under performing manager is no help and his coaching staffs' loyalty would lie with their immediate boss. You'd think he'd ask for advice with club ambassadors consisting of past players and Sir Alex.
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That didn't turn out very well the one time he asked Sir Alex did it? We got Moyes.
 
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United stock prices continue to fall.
 
Woodward believes that the valuation of the club has little to do with on-field performance. So the stock price tanking will only lead to Woodward working overtime for sponsorships.
 
arthurka said:
According to our former youth scout Ed is well not the Man... Or in other words an idiot-ish.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...otball-news/man-utd-transfer-de-jong-15530351
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Good article and it sounds like the guy knew what he was doing. Glad he had balls to tell Woodward straight how it is. Seems like Ed got rid of him because he is so stubborn as to take anything from the opinion of somebody who actually seems to know a bit about football.

For Ed to get rid of a guy who has 16 years experience here because Ed thinks he knows better than him is a shame and makes Ed seem more of a tw^t than he already is.
 
Eric's Seagull said:
Good article and it sounds like the guy knew what he was doing. Glad he had balls to tell Woodward straight how it is. Seems like Ed got rid of him because he is so stubborn as to take anything from the opinion of somebody who actually seems to know a bit about football.

For Ed to get rid of a guy who has 16 years experience here because Ed thinks he knows better than him is a shame and makes Ed seem more of a tw^t than he already is.
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I don't think he thinks he knows better. He just doesn't care about footballing matters. He has said as such plenty of times, he believes football and the running of the club are not related except for the financial benefit of being in the PL and CL. I don't have the exact quote, but he basically said that even if we have bad results he can still get us to be one of the richest in the world and that's what matters to him.
 
Eric's Seagull said:
If this is the case, which I think that it could well be. I think he should relinquish the control he has over football matters to someone who cares and knows what they are doing.
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Let me rephrase that a bit. Woodward probably does care, but not to any considerably high level that amounts to action. We've been talking about a footballing director for years, we've only just revamped our scouting network 5 years after SAF has left. I think it's safe to say that having a good structure to the club is low down on the list of priorities for our CEO, which leads us to make changes to improve in that area very slowly.

I would say that Woodward simply thinks that all you need to do is spend lots of money on players and managers and the football will sort itself out. Which is an awful lot like a fan, when the reality is that many clubs spend much less than us and out perform us because of other factors.
 
breakout67 said:
I don't think he thinks he knows better. He just doesn't care about footballing matters. He has said as such plenty of times, he believes football and the running of the club are not related except for the financial benefit of being in the PL and CL. I don't have the exact quote, but he basically said that even if we have bad results he can still get us to be one of the richest in the world and that's what matters to him.
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That's not what he said. You have two quotes the first one he was asked by investors if the the commercial capacity of the club were impacted by performances(good or bad) and he answered that it wasn't directly linked. The second one if people had actually read the article instead of stopping at the title, he was talking about support, he said that even if the club won nothing it would be supported which will always allow the club to have the financial strength to change the team by purchasing players instead of selling.

The latter interview was a bit dumb but the message is totally different to what some got from the title.
 
How can Woodward be contacted? If we get fans hounding him at games, bombarding his PA with emails about how bad of a job he's doing, use Twilio to automate calls on how he needs to change. There needs to be action taken in order for a change. Otherwise, we're going to be stuck in the purgatory mediocrity forever.

Unless, this is just a campaign by him to pump the value of the club as high as possible for the Glazers so they can get a maximal return when they sell.

Maybe, they envision some paying them £5 billion for the club, but they need to prove it. Because no one with a long-term mindset would make some of the rash decisions he has.
 
arthurka said:
According to our former youth scout Ed is well not the Man... Or in other words an idiot-ish.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...otball-news/man-utd-transfer-de-jong-15530351
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This breaks my heart. Not just the fact that we missed out on some remarkable talents but that we have only a couple full time scouts.

What the actual feck. I seriously can't stand this anymore. We spend how much on those moronic promotions about our partnerships and neglect a crucial component to our football.

Feck Woodward. Feck the Glazers.
 
Giggsyking said:
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United stock prices continue to fall.
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Hate to see United's stock fall.

I hope that what the owners take from this is that football results are affecting the share price (although I may be wrong, they may have fallen for some other reason). If this is the case I hope that they put in the serious investment to get us back to the top and it gets invested wisely by someone knows a bit about football and not Ed.

On the other hand the owners might not want to put in the X amount of hundreds of millions it takes to get us there and they might decide to sell before the share prices get any lower. (although I doubt this will happen).
 
Sterling Archer said:
This breaks my heart. Not just the fact that we missed out on some remarkable talents but that we have only a couple full time scouts.

What the actual feck. I seriously can't stand this anymore. We spend how much on those moronic promotions about our partnerships and neglect a crucial component to our football.

Feck Woodward. Feck the Glazers.
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Woodward yes but I somehow doubt Glazers lose their sleep over us having 10 scouts instead of 2. The money from sponsorship deals would've still come so that's about it. It's the gross incompetence from those one and/or two tiers below them I think. I bet some of them thought that with the internet videos scouting you don't really need real scouts anymore. Or that they'll simply receive a list of players to sign as they 'fit the profile'.
 
Tomuś said:
Woodward yes but I somehow doubt Glazers lose their sleep over us having 10 scouts instead of 2. The money from sponsorship deals would've still come so that's about it. It's the gross incompetence from those one and/or two tiers below them I think. I bet some of them thought that with the internet videos scouting you don't really need real scouts anymore. Or that they'll simply receive a list of players to sign as they 'fit the profile'.
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That's a fair point. If we talk just salary, wouldn't have been significant. If anything might save some money instead of flying the other scouts all over.

I'd maybe even feel better if the last bit were the case. But with some of the stories and comments I get the feeling certain beagle-faced chumps think their own opinion and knowledge of football is more sound than our experienced scouts, even managers
 
arthurka said:
According to our former youth scout Ed is well not the Man... Or in other words an idiot-ish.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...otball-news/man-utd-transfer-de-jong-15530351
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Comes across a tad bitter to me, yeah he may well have recommended the two lads to United, but does he not think that the head scouts of every major club in Europe recommended them to their clubs as well....

And for some balance in the article where are the names of players he badged the club to sign who turned out to be so poor the club had to sneak them out the back door a few years later hoping nobody would notice they were leaving, or remember they'd been signed(on his recommendation) in the first place.

Think the fact he was past the retirement age may have had something to do with him being released, and not as he suggests because he stood up to Ed Woodward, but hey that's not a story is it ?
 
Class of 63 said:
Comes across a tad bitter to me, yeah he may well have recommended the two lads to United, but does he not think that the head scouts of every major club in Europe recommended them to their clubs as well....

And for some balance in the article where are the names of players he badged the club to sign who turned out to be so poor the club had to sneak them out the back door a few years later hoping nobody would notice they were leaving, or remember they'd been signed(on his recommendation) in the first place.

Think the fact he was past the retirement age may have had something to do with him being released, and not as he suggests because he stood up to Ed Woodward, but hey that's not a story is it ?
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You spelled character assassination wrong.
 
Class of 63 said:
Calm your knickers love, where the feck have I said he was a liar ?
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Ohhhh, misogyny. How refreshing. He said he was fired for standing up to Woodward, you offered you’re own little story that you made up as to the real reason he was fired. So if that’s not you calling him a liar, what are you doing? Other than getting super defensive of course.
 
Reddy Rederson said:
Ohhhh, misogyny. How refreshing. He said he was fired for standing up to Woodward, you offered you’re own little story that you made up as to the real reason he was fired. So if that’s not you calling him a liar, what are you doing? Other than getting super defensive of course.
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He didn't say that at all, learn to read, he said "I think it was possibly part of my downfall as to why seven months down the line I was removed.....

The guy was 66 at the time and he conveniently failed to mention to the reporter that he'd already informed the club the club that he was leaving at the end of the season anyway so getting his contract paid up and leaving a few weeks/months early than he intended was/is hardly newsworthy when you consider some of the names(who were more successful at their jobs than he was) leaving the club around that time as part of a academy restructure.

ps. Think you'll find it's you that's getting super defensive, just sayin'
 
Clearly there is an issue with this article, it gives you the idea that only United had reports on these players and that it's only because the club didn't follow them that these players aren't playing for united. Everyone knows that it's wrong, the simple fact that United a club with a notorious small scouting network had lots of reports about these players should tell you that other clubs did too despite that De Jong and De Ligt are still playing for Ajax. Maybe it's simply because these players weren't interest in early moves while Ajax weren't interested in letting top prospect leave on the cheap when they could simply develop them and make a lot more money.

MEN writes strange articles sometimes where the title don't match the content or the narrative makes no sense.
 
The major issue I have with Woodward is he hires questionable managers and then fails to ditch them whilst our season is salvageable! Other clubs would have acted by now, even if it meant getting in a caretaker
 
Stacks said:
The major issue I have with Woodward is he hires questionable managers and then fails to ditch them whilst our season is salvageable! Other clubs would have acted by now, even if it meant getting in a caretaker
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And what's the point in that really? Is there some kind of a guarantee that a caretaker could salvage our season? It would only give Mourinho more excuses saying that if he was kept until end of the season he could've turned things around. Another 'quick fix' that could turn out not to be a fix at all instead of long term or even bloody medium term planning, something unheard of as of late here.

JPRouve said:
Clearly there is an issue with this article, it gives you the idea that only United had reports on these players and that it's only because the club didn't follow them that these players aren't playing for united. Everyone knows that it's wrong, the simple fact that United a club with a notorious small scouting network had lots of reports about these players should tell you that other clubs did too despite that De Jong and De Ligt are still playing for Ajax. Maybe it's simply because these players weren't interest in early moves while Ajax weren't interested in letting top prospect leave on the cheap when they could simply develop them and make a lot more money.

MEN writes strange articles sometimes where the title don't match the content or the narrative makes no sense.
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Obviously the article is partial but getting rid of this guy is a bit fishy to say at least. He makes it sound to me that he's prepared numerous reports on those two (so I believe before they became 'the thing' as of late) and those were either not considered or simply ignored, doubt he'd have a grip with us just not buying them. Given that he was also responsible for scouting Pique, it's sort of strange to fire a guy who was working for so long at the club, knew ins and outs and was still doing his job, age doesn't matter here, doubt he'd go to the press if he wanted to retire.

For me it only adds to the narrative that there's much wrong with out club and aforementioned long term planning, which will only result in another couple of years without winning PL/CL even if a new manager comes in.
 
JPRouve said:
Clearly there is an issue with this article, it gives you the idea that only United had reports on these players and that it's only because the club didn't follow them that these players aren't playing for united. Everyone knows that it's wrong, the simple fact that United a club with a notorious small scouting network had lots of reports about these players should tell you that other clubs did too despite that De Jong and De Ligt are still playing for Ajax. Maybe it's simply because these players weren't interest in early moves while Ajax weren't interested in letting top prospect leave on the cheap when they could simply develop them and make a lot more money.

MEN writes strange articles sometimes where the title don't match the content or the narrative makes no sense.
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Yeah, also it doesn't say Woodward rejected the move. He talks about competency of other people with Woodward.

"This was one of the reasons why I had a meeting with Ed Woodward and I told him that I wasn't convinced with the competency of certain people at the club. I told Ed Woodward quite straight: 'If you think I'm going to sit here and just tell you what you want to hear, I'm not that man because I'm going to tell you exactly how I see it'.
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Anyways it's a silly article. Clubs usually scout 100s of players and sign many for youth team. Few of them will move, some of them don't. Also among the players who moved, most of them won't even make it to top level.

This guy makes it sound like 2 players were ready to join only for Manutd to veto the deal.
 
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