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

[Cloud7]

Why do people keep making this braindead point about being upset that whoever the DOF is will have to report to Woody? The guy is literally the CEO of the club. Every club employee has to report to him, just as he has to report to the glazers.

Do people expect the DOF to report to no one?

 

[Listar]

To be fair, 'Thinking' the people who hired them are now gone based off of transfers isn't really an argument

Nope. Im more basing it on when Hicks came in. What I meant was the result of a more organised structure can equate to more coherent transfer strategy.

 

[Grande]

Fair enough, but I think it's also fair to say we'll never truly know if this kind of thing happens (ie, saying no to all CBs and so forth). If the DoF is set up and functions as a DoF should, which any sensible DoF would insist upon (or else they'd just leave quickly), then we should expect them to decide how the funds are spent. The real question would be how many funds are given.

I agree on this, and we’ll never really know (until it’s far too late anyway). What is certain for me is that I won’t expect lasting improvement unless it’s clear that Woodward and the Glazers have left the football side of decisions well in the hands of people with a long term engagement and good football competency.

 

[Loony BoB]

We should also keep in mind that the fruits of a DoF aren't felt immediately, and that they will take a couple of years to see results in the team on any level. The first couple of years is a building stage.

 

[Listar]

Works for Real Madrid and Chelsea. And secondly for the umpteenth time, Moyes was the 'chosen one'. Unless you think his first duty as a CEO should have been to overrule Fergie.

Rel Madrid and Chelsea won stuff with their strategy, we didn't, I don't get your argument.

Hiring Moyes does not mean incompetence. Hiring Van Gaal does not mean incompetence. Hiring Mourinho does not mean incompetence.

However, agreeing to hire moyes, then agreed to transfers such as Mata and Fellaini, then hiring Van Gaal, signing players like Schneiderlin, Schweinsteiger, Depay, the debacle of sacking Van Gaal, the hiring of Mourinho, the renewal of mourinho contract then not backing him in the summer, leading to a train wreck we have now, is incompetence. Sure you can find excuse for each case, but we can also find an excuse for each match we lost under Van Gaal and Mourinho, but as a whole with the points tally both deserved the sack. There was only one constant throughout our disappointing years since SAF left and guess who that is? Its not Moyes, Van gaal or Mourinho. So forgive me if I do not trust Ed Woodward to make any footballing decisions including hiring the DOF.

 

[Judas]

Signings of Schneiderlin, Schweinsteiger, Depay were celebrated at the time though?

 

[Loony BoB]

So forgive me if I do not trust Ed Woodward to make any footballing decisions including hiring the DOF.

Including hiring the DoF? Bloody hell, you can't allow for him to do anything right, can you? Who should hire the DoF? Carrick?

Hiring a DoF is a football decision made by non-footballing people around the world because those non-footballing people can't do footballing things. It's literally normal. Everything about it is normal. If you're not going to let Woodward do it, you may as well ask the Glazers to put their finger up their butt and try to find one there. Let Ed hire a DoF, for goodness sake. Hiring a DoF isn't like signing a player. You just have to get the guy who is most suited to what your club wants, pay him and give him funding.

 

[RedNed77]

Rel Madrid and Chelsea won stuff with their strategy, we didn't, I don't get your argument.

Hiring Moyes does not mean incompetence. Hiring Van Gaal does not mean incompetence. Hiring Mourinho does not mean incompetence.

However, agreeing to hire moyes, then agreed to transfers such as Mata and Fellaini, then hiring Van Gaal, signing players like Schneiderlin, Schweinsteiger, Depay, the debacle of sacking Van Gaal, the hiring of Mourinho, the renewal of mourinho contract then not backing him in the summer, leading to a train wreck we have now, is incompetence. Sure you can find excuse for each case, but we can also find an excuse for each match we lost under Van Gaal and Mourinho, but as a whole with the points tally both deserved the sack. There was only one constant throughout our disappointing years since SAF left and guess who that is? Its not Moyes, Van gaal or Mourinho. So forgive me if I do not trust Ed Woodward to make any footballing decisions including hiring the DOF.

Who would you like to make the choice on who the DoF is then?

 

[Listar]

Who would you like to make the choice on who the DoF is then?

Maybe everyone sitting together like SAF and Sir Bobby Charlton the scouts the staff even the tea lady but not Ed.

 

[RedNed77]

Maybe everyone sitting together like SAF and Sir Bobby Charlton the scouts the staff even the tea lady but not Ed.

Because SAF's last recommendation (Moyes) was so solid?

EDIT: For what its worth I suspect the decision won't be entirely Ed's and they will talk about it as a board, of which Sir Bobby and Sir Alex are still part of.

 

[Listar]

Including hiring the DoF? Bloody hell, you can't allow for him to do anything right, can you? Who should hire the DoF? Carrick?

Hiring a DoF is a football decision made by non-footballing people around the world because those non-footballing people can't do footballing things. It's literally normal. Everything about it is normal. If you're not going to let Woodward do it, you may as well ask the Glazers to put their finger up their butt and try to find one there. Let Ed hire a DoF, for goodness sake. Hiring a DoF isn't like signing a player. You just have to get the guy who is most suited to what your club wants, pay him and give him funding.

Because he failed to identify managers that know what United represents on 3 occasions, so I do not trust him to find some DOF that can represent us. What makes you think he can get the DOF appointment right?

 

[Judas]

Maybe everyone sitting together like SAF and Sir Bobby Charlton the scouts the staff even the tea lady but not Ed.

Seems highly highly highly reasonable.

 

[Danillaco]

Go and throw everything at Michael Zorc from Borussia Dortmund. What this guy does is brilliant!

 

[Eric's Seagull]

So forgive me if I do not trust Ed Woodward to make any footballing decisions including hiring the DOF.

No need for any forgiveness needed to be given to anybody who does'nt trust Ed footballing decisions. Perfectly warranted opinion in my eyes mate

 

[Listar]

Because SAF's last recommendation (Moyes) was so solid?

So we discount SAF because of Moyes but we trust Ed in spite of Moyes Van Gaal and Mourinho (+renewing his contract few months before sacking him). Yes great point you have there.

 

[Foxbatt]

Including hiring the DoF? Bloody hell, you can't allow for him to do anything right, can you? Who should hire the DoF? Carrick?

Hiring a DoF is a football decision made by non-footballing people around the world because those non-footballing people can't do footballing things. It's literally normal. Everything about it is normal. If you're not going to let Woodward do it, you may as well ask the Glazers to put their finger up their butt and try to find one there. Let Ed hire a DoF, for goodness sake. Hiring a DoF isn't like signing a player. You just have to get the guy who is most suited to what your club wants, pay him and give him funding.

Agree with you. Sometimes here it as if everyone is a kid and has never worked in a position where you have to hire and fire people. Of course it is Ed with the help of others who are going to hire the DOF. Who else is going to hire a DOF? If they think about this for a minute they will realise how stupid they sound if they do not think Woodward would be the one who is hiring the DOF. Ultimately every decision of the club is made by him. The DOF is only going to recommend to him and he and the Board is the who will decide on budget for the transfers and salaries etc for that particular year.

 

[wolvored]

Why do people keep making this braindead point about being upset that whoever the DOF is will have to report to Woody? The guy is literally the CEO of the club. Every club employee has to report to him, just as he has to report to the glazers.

Do people expect the DOF to report to no one?

Exactly. For all we know Woody might have to report everything up the line and just be the yes or no man. Without an inkling of how the club is run everyone blames Woody for bad managers bad transfers bad everything. It might be he hasn't as much power as everybody thinks he has.

 

[Grande]

Imagine the uproar and outrage if the first thing we knew about Woody before even knew who he was was that he overruled Fergies managerial choice. Gary Neville would have burned down Twitter and Sky

Except that that is a vast oversimplification of the situation.

Ever since 2001, people on the board will have worked on ‘candidates to replace Fergie’. When the Glazers came in (with Woodward on ship) in 2005 they will have assessed that question. In 2013, Gill, Woodward, the board would not only have been heavily into assessing the question, the evaluation of candidates would have included more people in the process. Whoever Fergie would have suggested, would assuredly already be on an unofficial list and someone would have already done a run-down on his CV, his likelihood of availability, his managerial style, strengths and weaknesses, his fit for the role as manager of Man Uniteds specific set up and situation after Ferguson. Anything else would be unbelievably clownish and haphazard. If Ferguson suggested a bad candidate, Gill, Woodward and The Glazers would and should know, and react. They must have been heavily evaluating Moyes’ (among others) candidacy, and have all assessed that it was at least a reasonable choice. And also be involved in the process that enabled Moyes to more or less pick his entire staff at will, which showed as much amateurism on Moyes’ part as on those who allowed him to do that. It was a bad process.

It’s also not true that most people thought him a reasonable candidate at the time. Many did, and many didn’t. Most of those who did, did so on romantic or superficial grounds, such as his Scottish background, his similarities with Fergie, punching above his weight with a smaller club. The very things that might lead Fergie to overestimate him, and should make it Gills/Woodwards task to balance the evaluation. I think we also know that it wasn’t a case of Fergie saying ‘Moyes is the only candidate and you’ll be mad to go with anyone else’.

What I mean is it’s not a damning mistake on Gill’s or Woodward’s part, but a mistake none the less, and it would be easily redeemed if Woodward showed he had learned from it or knew what he was doing later on, but tht hasn’t happened.

 

[Loony BoB]

For what its worth I suspect the decision won't be entirely Ed's and they will talk about it as a board, of which Sir Bobby and Sir Alex are still part of.

100% certain of this, yes. I don't know if the tea lady is involved though.

 

[Eric's Seagull]

give him funding

That is one area I am concerned about. Obviously Ed is going to the funding, I just hope he gives him all the funding that he asks for as I think it going to take quite a bit of funding to catch City and even the Scousers and I wouldn't want us to fall ever further behind by not spending whatever it takes to get us back up there challenging.

 

[Cloud7]

No need for any forgiveness needed to be given to anybody who does'nt trust Ed footballing decisions. Perfectly warranted opinion in my eyes mate

So who would you say should hire the DOF then?

 

[Eric's Seagull]

100% certain of this, yes. I don't know if the tea lady is involved though.

Maybe she can serve them PG and offer some Tips

 

[Listar]

100% certain of this, yes. I don't know if the tea lady is involved though.

It was rumoured that Sir Bobby was not in agreement for hiring Mourinho. So your 100% certainty is base on what again?

 

[Eric's Seagull]

So who would you say should hire the DOF then?

Obviously it would have to be Ed reluctantly although I don't trust his judgement on it. In an ideal world it would be a combination of Sir Alex and Sir Bobby but obviously that is not going to happen mate. Just hope asks their advice before he makes the decision.

 

[Listar]

And if I may, if Woodward is a bit more competent it may be so different and I quote:

And according to the upcoming biography on Klopp - Bring the Noise, written by Raphael Honigstein - United's executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward flew to see Klopp just weeks before Moyes' sacking.

However, Klopp apparently found Woodward's bizarre comparison between United and Disneyland “a bit unsexy” and therefore decided to remain at Dortmund.

 

[RedNed77]

I actually don't think Ed has made too many bad decisions. They were largely understandable and reasonable at the time and a lot of the criticism has come from revisionism and hindsight.

Moyes was appointed on the back of our GOAT managers recommendation, yes he turned out to be shite but it could have gone the other way.

LvG made sense as Moyes was so out of his depth and we wanted an experienced elder statesman to calm things down, once again with hindsight he was allowed to carry on for too long.

Re Jose, I actually think he would have thrived if he'd taken over SAF's team immediately after he'd left. We had a team of ageing stars, apparently Jose's preferred model of player, and some of them were the mad dogs he was complaining about lacking.

Most of the players we have signed have been welcomed then turned to shit afterwards, with the possible exceptions of Fellaini & Mata and those two were on Moyes, so are indirectly on SAF.

I think people are looking to place blame where there probably isn't any to be placed. A lot of it is luck. Perez appointed Zidane and everybody was all "he's never managed anywhere before, its a complete circus and will fail". look how that worked out for them. He then appointed Lopetegui who was experienced and that went grimly. Even Bayern the model of a well run club with a lauded structue get it wrong, in a one team league have made mistakes with managers. LvG wasn't a stand out success for them and Kovac doesnt seem to be at teh moment either. Ancelloti wasnt great either.

I'm confident if we take our time we'll get the DoF and next manager decision right.

 

[Judas]

And if I may, if Woodward is a bit more competent it may be so different and I quote:

And according to the upcoming biography on Klopp - Bring the Noise, written by Raphael Honigstein - United's executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward flew to see Klopp just weeks before Moyes' sacking.

However, Klopp apparently found Woodward's bizarre comparison between United and Disneyland “a bit unsexy” and therefore decided to remain at Dortmund.

If he found the idea of Disneyland sexy he’d have ended up on a register, so it’s a relief he thought that really.

 

[Listar]

I actually don't think Ed has made too many bad decisions. They were largely understandable and reasonable at the time and a lot of the criticism has come from revisionism and hindsight.

Moyes was appointed on the back of our GOAT managers recommendation, yes he turned out to be shite but it could have gone the other way.

LvG made sense as Moyes was so out of his depth and we wanted an experienced elder statesman to calm things down, once again with hindsight he was allowed to carry on for too long.

Re Jose, I actually think he would have thrived if he'd taken over SAF's team immediately after he'd left. We had a team of ageing stars, apparently Jose's preferred model of player, and some of them were the mad dogs he was complaining about lacking.

Most of the players we have signed have been welcomed then turned to shit afterwards, with the possible exceptions of Fellaini & Mata and those two were on Moyes, so are indirectly on SAF.

I think people are looking to place blame where there probably isn't any to be placed. A lot of it is luck. Perez appointed Zidane and everybody was all "he's never managed anywhere before, its a complete circus and will fail". look how that worked out for them. He then appointed Lopetegui who was experienced and that went grimly. Even Bayern the model of a well run club with a lauded structue get it wrong, in a one team league have made mistakes with managers. LvG wasn't a stand out success for them and Kovac doesnt seem to be at teh moment either. Ancelloti wasnt great either.

I'm confident if we take our time we'll get the DoF and next manager decision right.

So can we say, in hindsight, he made a lot of decisions that didn't come good. And some might even say he didn't made any decisions that came good at all.

But what do i know, maybe Poch likes Disneyland

 

[Stacks]

Works for Real Madrid and Chelsea. And secondly for the umpteenth time, Moyes was the 'chosen one'. Unless you think his first duty as a CEO should have been to overrule Fergie.

[/QUOTE]

people don't get this. All clubs go through managers until they find the right one. you don't sack your CEO, club owner or whoever because of it.

 

[Loony BoB]

It was rumoured that Sir Bobby was not in agreement for hiring Mourinho. So your 100% certainty is base on what again?

One person might not be in agreement with something but they are being consulted and if you think for a second that an ex-player with no managerial experience in his career suddenly outranks Sir Alex Ferguson well bloody hell, maybe you should go into the Manchester United board room and tell them who to hire. As the tea lady. Because apparently she should be making the decisions, rather than Sir Alex Ferguson or a CEO.

Still, let me indulge you on your question.

When I quote someone who says something and I say I am 100% certain of something, and you wish to know what I am 100% certain of, you can generally look to the quote that I am quoting and that is the thing I am 100% certain of. In this case, when RedNed77 says...

For what its worth I suspect the decision won't be entirely Ed's and they will talk about it as a board, of which Sir Bobby and Sir Alex are still part of.

...and I follow it up saying that I am 100% certain of this being accurate, then I am 100% certain that the thing that RedNed77 said is accurate. That is to say, I am 100% certain that...
- The decision won't be entirely Ed's
- They will talk about it as a board
- Sir Bobby and Sir Alex are part of that board

If, for any reason, you feel that a rumour that one member of a board was not in agreement with a decision and that would impact how 100% certain I am of the above topics, then please note that...

- If Sir Bobby were to not be in agreement with the decision, that would still leave the decision to not be entirely Ed's
- If Sir Bobby were to not be in agreement with the decision, they would still haven talked about it as a board
- If Sir Bobby were to not be in agreement with the decision, Sir Bobby and Sir Alex would still be part of that board.

Hope that clears it all up mate.

Sidenote: Rumours? Really? You're going down that road now? Sigh. I wonder why I bother sometimes...

 

[Patrick08]

I actually don't think Ed has made too many bad decisions. They were largely understandable and reasonable at the time and a lot of the criticism has come from revisionism and hindsight.

Moyes was appointed on the back of our GOAT managers recommendation, yes he turned out to be shite but it could have gone the other way.

LvG made sense as Moyes was so out of his depth and we wanted an experienced elder statesman to calm things down, once again with hindsight he was allowed to carry on for too long.

Re Jose, I actually think he would have thrived if he'd taken over SAF's team immediately after he'd left. We had a team of ageing stars, apparently Jose's preferred model of player, and some of them were the mad dogs he was complaining about lacking.

Most of the players we have signed have been welcomed then turned to shit afterwards, with the possible exceptions of Fellaini & Mata and those two were on Moyes, so are indirectly on SAF.

I think people are looking to place blame where there probably isn't any to be placed. A lot of it is luck. Perez appointed Zidane and everybody was all "he's never managed anywhere before, its a complete circus and will fail". look how that worked out for them. He then appointed Lopetegui who was experienced and that went grimly. Even Bayern the model of a well run club with a lauded structue get it wrong, in a one team league have made mistakes with managers. LvG wasn't a stand out success for them and Kovac doesnt seem to be at teh moment either. Ancelloti wasnt great either.

I'm confident if we take our time we'll get the DoF and next manager decision right.

Those are not bad decisions for people with zero footballing experience. But people who work in football day in day out can easily point out contradictions in them.

 

[Listar]

One person might not be in agreement with something but they are being consulted and if you think for a second that an ex-player with no managerial experience in his career suddenly outranks Sir Alex Ferguson well bloody hell, maybe you should go into the Manchester United board room and tell them who to hire. As the tea lady. Because apparently she should be making the decisions, rather than Sir Alex Ferguson or a CEO.

Still, let me indulge you on your question.

When I quote someone who says something and I say I am 100% certain of something, and you wish to know what I am 100% certain of, you can generally look to the quote that I am quoting and that is the thing I am 100% certain of. In this case, when RedNed77 says...

...and I follow it up saying that I am 100% certain of this being accurate, then I am 100% certain that the thing that RedNed77 said is accurate. That is to say, I am 100% certain that...
- The decision won't be entirely Ed's
- They will talk about it as a board
- Sir Bobby and Sir Alex are part of that board

If, for any reason, you feel that a rumour that one member of a board was not in agreement with a decision and that would impact how 100% certain I am of the above topics, then please note that...

- If Sir Bobby were to not be in agreement with the decision, that would still leave the decision to not be entirely Ed's
- If Sir Bobby were to not be in agreement with the decision, they would still haven talked about it as a board
- If Sir Bobby were to not be in agreement with the decision, Sir Bobby and Sir Alex would still be part of that board.

Hope that clears it all up mate.

Sidenote: Rumours? Really? You're going down that road now? Sigh. I wonder why I bother sometimes...

There are already a few posts before you that guessed that Ed can override anyone (excluding the Glazers of course), including the DOF.

So I have now people calling me naive for thinking Ed does not get the final say, then I have you here saying the decision won't be entirely Eds. What a dilemma I am in.

Ultimately the decision will be Ed's and thats what I have a problem with!

 

[RedNed77]

Those are not bad decisions for people with zero footballing experience. But people who work in football day in day out can easily point out contradictions in them.

Ed works in football day in day out. We're muppets posting on a message board. The man literally spends all day talking football with agents, managers and other CEO's...

 

[Eric's Seagull]

I actually don't think Ed has made too many bad decisions.

I'm confident if we take our time we'll get the DoF and next manager decision right.

I am of the same opinion but I just hope it happens sooner rather than later so that we don't fall further behind the elite clubs mate.

 

[Patrick08]

Ed works in football day in day out. We're muppets posting on a message board. The man literally spends all day talking football with agents, managers and other CEO's...

It dint work out did it? He did no research about philosphies, styles and our clubs history and squad suitability before getting these managers and players.

 

[Foxbatt]

It dint work out did it? He did no research about philosphies, styles and our clubs history and squad suitability before getting these managers and players.

He absolutely knows it for sure. He is not an idiot and given the disasters of Moyes LVG was the obvious choice that was available. He had a reputation of building teams, his teams usually played good football too. LVG for some odd reason wanted to bore the hell out of everyone . Jose was also a good choice for the short term recovery but Jose decided to throw out his toys. Now he is going down the right path in taking time to get a good DOF and then a suitable manager.

 

[Loony BoB]

There are already a few posts before you that guessed that Ed can override anyone (excluding the Glazers of course), including the DOF.

So I have now people calling me naive for thinking Ed does not get the final say, then I have you here saying the decision won't be entirely Eds. What a dilemma I am in.

Ultimately the decision will be Ed's and thats what I have a problem with!

Fair. I think the problem here is that there is an implication from these people who suggest Ed does not get the final say. The implication is that Ed is making all decisions, often against the desires of those involved in making decisions. I would disagree.

My understanding of how a football club with a DoF works is as follows...

- DoF/Manager/CEO discuss goals and transfer budgets for the season.
- Owners/Board/CEO decide transfer budget for the season. This is likely the only time the owners are heavily involved.
- Chief Scout/Manager/DoF identify targets over time based on budget.
- DoF works on these targets. Speaks with agents, clubs, players, etc. Through this research, he establishes what he sees as the right price for the right player.
- Board/CEO/DoF/Manager meet to discuss this 'right player at the right price' when the price and wages required become apparent. He explains his justification.
- Board/CEO/DoF/Manager discuss and decide - as a group - what they believe the best course of action is.
- CEO signs off the funds, usually with a very quick call to the owners. So long as it is within the budget, the owners will agree immediately. If it is outside the budget, CEO would have to justify the commercial value of this request (eg. will it pay off eventually for the club financially). This is the part where the CEO is , effectively, in control and can "override" the DoF. However, any club with a decent management system will not have a CEO that will suddenly turn on the board, because the board more often than not appoints the CEO.

Could have some details wrong but that's generally how I imagine it would play out. I've been a boss of a group before with the ability to override people. You don't do it, though, unless you have extremely good justification. You are involved in the discussions, you can disagree, but if everyone else on the board is at odds with you then you tend to accept this. Ed won't be going "I know better about football than you." He will however be considering "I know more about finances than you." So the only real instance I can see Ed saying "no" is if it is a case of a financial decision rather than a footballing one.

A great example for me is that of the Mourinho escapade recently. Fred was signed very early on, and Mourinho suggested that he could not play Fred without a more reliable center-back. Mourinho may have spent all his money on Fred and then found that the center-backs he was after costed more than the remainder of the budget allowed. In this case, Mourinho should have planned better. If he wanted to buy a center-back but spent all his money on Fred, who he could not buy without a center-back, he should have looked into this considerably earlier into the planning. They should have waited on Fred and got the center-back first, and then looked for Fred at that point. If he had to get both and did not have the budget to get both, then quite frankly you suck it up and get either one of them or neither of them.

And, it must be said, we had five center-backs at the club, two of which Mourinho bought himself, so Mourinho didn't have much room to argue back if the budget wasn't there.

If the board felt the cost being quoted was too high - and I wouldn't be surprised if SAF/SBC both scoffed at the idea of paying £70m for a center-back unless he was unquestionably world class - then the board would have rejected it before the CEO could even get to the option of signing it off.

 

[Borussin]

Go and throw everything at Michael Zorc from Borussia Dortmund. What this guy does is brilliant!

and he won't leave Dortmund, as has been mentioned a few times aleady.

He's also likely retiring at the end of his current contract.

 

[Water Melon]

Fair. I think the problem here is that there is an implication from these people who suggest Ed does not get the final say. The implication is that Ed is making all decisions, often against the desires of those involved in making decisions. I would disagree.

My understanding of how a football club with a DoF works is as follows...

- DoF/Manager/CEO discuss goals and transfer budgets for the season.
- Owners/Board/CEO decide transfer budget for the season. This is likely the only time the owners are heavily involved.
- Chief Scout/Manager/DoF identify targets over time based on budget.
- DoF works on these targets. Speaks with agents, clubs, players, etc. Through this research, he establishes what he sees as the right price for the right player.
- Board/CEO/DoF/Manager meet to discuss this 'right player at the right price' when the price and wages required become apparent. He explains his justification.
- Board/CEO/DoF/Manager discuss and decide - as a group - what they believe the best course of action is.
- CEO signs off the funds, usually with a very quick call to the owners. So long as it is within the budget, the owners will agree immediately. If it is outside the budget, CEO would have to justify the commercial value of this request (eg. will it pay off eventually for the club financially). This is the part where the CEO is , effectively, in control and can "override" the DoF. However, any club with a decent management system will not have a CEO that will suddenly turn on the board, because the board more often than not appoints the CEO.

Could have some details wrong but that's generally how I imagine it would play out. I've been a boss of a group before with the ability to override people. You don't do it, though, unless you have extremely good justification. You are involved in the discussions, you can disagree, but if everyone else on the board is at odds with you then you tend to accept this. Ed won't be going "I know better about football than you." He will however be considering "I know more about finances than you." So the only real instance I can see Ed saying "no" is if it is a case of a financial decision rather than a footballing one.

A great example for me is that of the Mourinho escapade recently. Fred was signed very early on, and Mourinho suggested that he could not play Fred without a more reliable center-back. Mourinho may have spent all his money on Fred and then found that the center-backs he was after costed more than the remainder of the budget allowed. In this case, Mourinho should have planned better. If he wanted to buy a center-back but spent all his money on Fred, who he could not buy without a center-back, he should have looked into this considerably earlier into the planning. They should have waited on Fred and got the center-back first, and then looked for Fred at that point. If he had to get both and did not have the budget to get both, then quite frankly you suck it up and get either one of them or neither of them.

And, it must be said, we had five center-backs at the club, two of which Mourinho bought himself, so Mourinho didn't have much room to argue back if the budget wasn't there.

If the board felt the cost being quoted was too high - and I wouldn't be surprised if SAF/SBC both scoffed at the idea of paying £70m for a center-back unless he was unquestionably world class - then the board would have rejected it before the CEO could even get to the option of signing it off.

Take a bow, Sir

 

[Listar]

No and if he is then Woodward is really clueless.

I won’t be surprised if evra does become DOF. He is seen to be close to Woodward recently and you can’t really say Woodward is clued up