Woodward (old thread)

[Pexbo]

We were preparing the bid for 3-4 months prior to the deal. I think it's perfectly possible that we will sign no one in this window other than them two simply because there's only a month left and it's a very short time to prepare a bid, too short.

Do you really think that Van Gaal would have bought a few players without even looking at the squad he was getting? There's barely a week left of the tour and then he'll have been working with the squad for 3 weeks and had 4 games to have a good look at them in and still have a month left to get chopping and changing.

Stop acting like a spoilt little shit.

 

[Shark]

Do you really think that Van Gaal would have bought a few players without even looking at the squad he was getting? There's barely a week left of the tour and then he'll have been working with the squad for 3 weeks and had 4 games to have a good look at them in and still have a month left to get chopping and changing.

Stop acting like a spoilt little shit.

He's only joking ffs.

 

[Sarni]

He's only joking ffs.

Exactly. Besides it's what we were saying the whole Summer last year and it didn't really end up well after all.

I think we will sign one or two more players this time. Won't be exciting signings though IMO, more squad players.

 

[Andy_Cole]

If he fails to land a needed marquee this window, if him spouting his 'watch this space' crap, then he needs to just concentrate on new sponsorship and someone new should step in for transfers. Before anyone mentions Mata, I just think we were lucky that he was actually very very available with not many other suitors.

 

[Pexbo]

He's only joking ffs.

I realise he put it forward in joke form but he's one of a large group on here that seem to think buying a player is just like Football Manager.

"Oh he's worth about £40m, I'll put in a bid of £45m so he signs before our first game". We're talking multi-million pound deals for players who have to fit in properly. Just look at Fellaini. £28m spunked down the plug hole and we could be stuck with him for the forseeable future because Moyes doesn't have another club yet.

We've got plenty of time to assess the squad properly before we start throwing some cash around.

 

[Walrus]

Thing with Woody is he sets himself up on a bit of a pedastal. Last summer it was the whole flying back from Australia on "urgent transfer business", this year every time he opens his mouth it seems to be "watch this space" and "we gon' buy some players!!"*

Ultimately, if we go into next season as we are now I dont think it will be a big problem. We saw what Liverpool were able to do last year with a limited squad, without the distraction/extra games of the CL. Everyone is assuming half our squad is going to be injured at any given time (which has often been the case) - I think the fact we are playing fewer games and LVG will be able to rest players will mean that we dont suffer as many injuries this term.

Additionally it is well known that LVG favours youth. In preseason we have already seen Keane x2, Blackett, James, Zaha, Lingard - and we have the likes of Wilson and Lawrence also in contention (cant remember if they have featured yet). If LVG feels that some of those are ready to make the step up like Januzaj last season, then to me it is highly likely that he doesnt feel the need to sign 3-4 players.

Also, as we are not in europe, players being cup tied is irrelevant to us this season. I can see us using the January transfer window more actively for both buying and selling (our players wont be cup tied, we wont care if the ones we buy are), after LVG has assessed the squad over another ~6 months.

*I may have made that one up

 

[Oneunited26]

Is he has useless as a chocolate tea pot? or the next coming of the messiah?

Over 3 transfer windows, we have signed?
Fellaini
mata
herrera
shaw

I say he is the former, with it entering august 1st, he is far from being the latter

Saying that, a chocolate tea is pretty useful, if you want to eat it

 

[Señor]

So I guess his Studward days are over...

 

[Shark]

That's unfair. It's got to be at stage 3 at the least.

The bad thing is, stage three is the stage Woody loads up the Fax machine. This can take weeks on end, I hear it's around 30 years old.

 

[Ramshock]

Woodward is his own worst enemy. Why do an obviously rehearsed interview on MUTV and say things like theres no budget and watch this space whenever your manager is saying things like I want to assess my squad and see how they do under my system first. Surely he knows saying shit like that will only agitate the supporters when they see rivals and other big clubs buying while we talk about buying. The manager is assessing squad and wont buy anyone until they are assessed whilst Ed says we are working on things. Mixed signals

 

[Shark]

Exactly. Besides it's what we were saying the whole Summer last year and it didn't really end up well after all.

I think we will sign one or two more players this time. Won't be exciting signings though IMO, more squad players.

Agreed. I just don't see who this marquee signing that everybody wants is going to come from. There's few available, especially out of the ones we've been linked to. Hummels, Vidal, Di Maria ect.

I just don't see it.

 

[Jev]

Thing with Woody is he sets himself up on a bit of a pedastal. Last summer it was the whole flying back from Australia on "urgent transfer business", this year every time he opens his mouth it seems to be "watch this space" and "we gon' buy some players!!"*

Ultimately, if we go into next season as we are now I dont think it will be a big problem. We saw what Liverpool were able to do last year with a limited squad, without the distraction/extra games of the CL. Everyone is assuming half our squad is going to be injured at any given time (which has often been the case) - I think the fact we are playing fewer games and LVG will be able to rest players will mean that we dont suffer as many injuries this term.

Additionally it is well known that LVG favours youth. In preseason we have already seen Keane x2, Blackett, James, Zaha, Lingard - and we have the likes of Wilson and Lawrence also in contention (cant remember if they have featured yet). If LVG feels that some of those are ready to make the step up like Januzaj last season, then to me it is highly likely that he doesnt feel the need to sign 3-4 players.

Also, as we are not in europe, players being cup tied is irrelevant to us this season. I can see us using the January transfer window more actively for both buying and selling (our players wont be cup tied, we wont care if the ones we buy are), after LVG has assessed the squad over another ~6 months.

*I may have made that one up

The problem is not squad size, it's quality. If we wait until January, then the championship will be long gone by then, and we could find ourselves some way off the top-4. Much too big a gamble. We need to buy, Woodward has said we will buy and if he fails to deliver this time round, he has to go.

People keep mentioning that there's still a long way to go in the transfer window. That's true but while we've been sitting on our hands, we've seen perfectly suitable players go to other clubs, even some of our league rivals. Come the end of August, there may not be many suitable players available anymore.

 

[Jev]

Agreed. I just don't see who this marquee signing that everybody wants is going to come from. There's few available, especially out of the ones we've been linked to. Hummels, Vidal, Di Maria ect.

I just don't see it.

I think people are expecting such a signing because we've basically been promised one and because we all know that unless we buy big, we'll be looking at a fight for fourth rather than a fight for first.

 

[Kaos]

Didn't LVG give him a list of players he wanted? Assuming that Herrera and Shaw were not his signings (only 'approvals') then we haven't signed any of his suggested players yet.

 

[Oneunited26]

The problem is not squad size, it's quality. If we wait until January, then the championship will be long gone by then, and we could find us some way off the top-4. Much too big a gamble. We need to buy, Woodward has said we will buy and if he fails to deliver this time round, he has to go.

People keep mentioning that there's still a long way to go in the transfer window. That's true but while we've been sitting on our hands, we've seen perfectly suitable players go to other clubs, even some of our league rivals. Come the end of August, there may not be many suitable players available anymore.

I do think the squad size in certain positions is pretty weak, like the defence. But it looks to me another failed transfer summer for mr ed woodward

 

[Jev]

I do think the squad size in certain positions is pretty weak, like the defence. But it looks to me another failed transfer summer for mr ed woodward

Right, obviously we need at least one more defender, ideally two if we're sticking with three at the back. The rest of the squad looks pretty robust, except maybe left wing-back.

 

[Sarni]

Agreed. I just don't see who this marquee signing that everybody wants is going to come from. There's few available, especially out of the ones we've been linked to. Hummels, Vidal, Di Maria ect.

I just don't see it.

Hummels isn't even available, I don't think Vidal is available either and Di Maria would probably rather play for PSG. I don't see a marquee signing this Summer, next year if we are back in CL we might sign one.

 

[J-Stander]

Didn't LVG give him a list of players he wanted? Assuming that Herrera and Shaw were not his signings (only 'approvals') then we haven't signed any of his suggested players then.

Yep. Well he told him who he wanted and who could leave, so we haven't seen him secure one of van gaals targets yet, and he said he told him that back in May.

 

[Shark]

Hummels isn't even available, I don't think Vidal is available either and Di Maria would probably rather play for PSG. I don't see a marquee signing this Summer, next year if we are back in CL we might sign one.

The noises that we've been hearing from people close to the club since Moyes was still in office is that we have a structured plan in place and we're going to be signing a few players that genuinely want to play for the club. That doesn't sound like a star studded transfer window to me, it sounds like we're going to continue to sign players that will improve us, but not move us up a major level. I'm not undermining the Shaw and Herrera signings, they're great additions, but it's possibly the best the club can do at the moment.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

I think we can categorise Shaw and Herrera as signings "approved by LVG" rather than "identified by LVG". I actually think it's reasonable that we haven't signed anyone else since then, as I'm happy enough with the idea of LVG wanting to properly assess our squad before making any further major signings. Bearing in mind how long it took him to start working with the squad and how there's been so much faffing round with commercial commitments and the like it's quite possible that he's only really had a good idea what he wants in the last week or two. Assuming Woody ony received this list of targets relatively recently, I don't think we should be slaughtering the guy for not nailing any of them down just yet. The stakes are high, though, and he's heaped even more pressure on himself with that silly interview. It really is sh*t or bust for him. If nothing else, I reckon he's fecking terrified of having to sit in an office with Van Gaal on deadline day and explain why he didn't get the players he needs. That's a scary thought!

 

[Walrus]

The problem is not squad size, it's quality. If we wait until January, then the championship will be long gone by then, and we could find us some way off the top-4. Much too big a gamble. We need to buy, Woodward has said we will buy and if he fails to deliver this time round, he has to go.

People keep mentioning that there's still a long way to go in the transfer window. That's true but while we've been sitting on our hands, we've seen perfectly suitable players go to other clubs, even some of our league rivals. Come the end of August, there may not be many suitable players available anymore.

I think we could do with a couple of quality investments but unlike a lot of others, I am also eager to see the youth players (like James and M. Keane) given an opportunity to shine.

I really doubt that by January we would be "some way off the top-4" with the current squad and LVG in charge - compare our squad with the one Liverpool had last season and I would say it is superior in pretty much every aspect. Dont underestimate the impact that playing fewer games can have on fitness, freshness and players not getting injured.

I would rather we kept our squad trimmed for this season, adding more players will just create unneeded rotation. For the first time in a long time we actually have a mostly settled first XI;

---------------DDG
------Jones - Smalling - Evans
Rafael -----------------------Shaw
---------????? --- Herrera
------------Mata
---------RVP --- Rooney

Other than the one CM position, the above is pretty much nailed on, and to me that is a very good side, and can challenge for the league *if* it stays injury free. Again I refer you to Liverpool last year for an example of how far you can get with a decent XI, if you are only competing on one front. We have plenty of depth on top of that anyway - the only position I can see that we need to buy a first choice player is the CM role next to Herrera, and then maybe a backup CB - if we do that then as a second XI we have


--------------Lindegaard-------------
-----M. Keane -- NewCB -- Blackett
Valencia ---------------------------James
--------Cleverley ----- Fletcher
---------------Kagawa
--------Welbeck ------ Hernandez

And thats not even taking into account Januzaj, Nani, Young, Carrick, Fellaini, Zaha, Lingard, W. Keane, Wilson, Lawrence

Sure, there isnt a huge amount of experience there - especially in defence, but how do players ever get that experience in the first place? There is never an ideal time to try to bring through new players except in utter dead rubber games. If LVG has been confident enough in the youngsters to give them gametime in the preseason, I expect he would be confident enough to give them some gametime in the league.

With the above squad, I really cant see us being far off the mark come January, at which point LVG has another opportunity to tweak and amend the squad, without needing to worry about players being cup-tied in Europe (both in and out).

 

[Oneunited26]

Right, obviously we need at least one more defender, ideally two if we're sticking with three at the back. The rest of the squad looks pretty robust, except maybe left wing-back.

If we sign atleast 1 CB, and 1 CM we may do some pretty good things. A perfect summer? 2 midfielders, 1 CM, 1 wide player, 3 defenders, 1 CB and a versitile defender and a fullback

 

[Pexbo]

I think we can categorise Shaw and Herrera as signings "approved by LVG" rather than "identified by LVG". I actually think it's reasonable that we haven't signed anyone else since then, as I'm happy enough with the idea of LVG wanting to properly assess our squad before making any further major signings. Bearing in mind how long it took him to start working with the squad and how there's been so much faffing round with commercial commitments and the like it's quite possible that he's only really had a good idea what he wants in the last week or two. Assuming Woody ony received this list of targets relatively recently, I don't think we should be slaughtering the guy for not nailing any of them down just yet. The stakes are high, though, and he's heaped even more pressure on himself with that silly interview. It really is sh*t or bust for him. If nothing else, I reckon he's fecking terrified of having to sit in an office with Van Gaal on deadline day and explain why he didn't get the players he needs. That's a scary thought!

Considering he has a scouting team that know what he likes and he trusts them entirely, I don't think this really matters.

There's no way in hell that Woodward said to him "well we have deals in place for these two players, you probably haven't heard of them but is it OK if we just go ahead and close the deals anyway?"

I think it's much more likely that we passed all out scouting information on to Louis and his team to analyse before giving the green light and it appears he liked them.


It's not the case of "here's two names, yes or no" that people make it out to be.

 

[goin4glory]

More signings should have been made by this point. 2 weeks to go until the start of the season players need time to adapt to the new team/manager/city along with likely moving their family abroad. Imperative we had most of our business done by this point and it simply hasn't happened. Can't be seen as successful and if Woodward fails to get the players at all this window he should be removed from his position.

 

[daniel9988]

It wouldn't make sense for us to not spend big this transfer window. Considering the fact that "United also revealed that income from their new 10-year kit deal with Adidas will fall by 30 per cent to £52.5 million (RM283.2 million) per year if they miss out on the Champions League for two seasons in a row", spending more money this summer would be much better than losing 210 million from missing out of top 4 placing.

If you add in Champions League revenue, either Van Gaal and Woodward are EXTREMELY confident that we'll get top 4 with our current squad, or we actually do have plans to sign new players at the very moment to cover up the gaps identified by Van Gaal in the United team. Obviously they are on a tight schedule, as pre-season has only started and Van Gaal has only been training with the squad for less than a month, but I'm quite confident that the United Board, the Glazers, Woodward and our manager aren't complete idiots to take a risk on losing 210m + Champions League Revenue despite such glaring gaps in our squad right now.

Unless media reports are incorrect and the Adidas sponsorship money does not actually fall by 30% if we miss out on 4th place this season.

 

[Dr Baltar]

The bad thing is, stage three is the stage Woody loads up the Fax machine. This can take weeks on end, I hear it's around 30 years old.

Haha. "what is your fax number? FAXO MACHINO"

 

[Rednotdead]

On 2nd Sept it'll either be "Studward" or "Fudward".

 

[J-Stander]

On 2nd Sept it'll either be "Studward" or "Fudward".

I'm gonna go for cnutward.

 

[Pexbo]

More signings should have been made by this point. 2 weeks to go until the start of the season players need time to adapt to the new team/manager/city along with likely moving their family abroad. Imperative we had most of our business done by this point and it simply hasn't happened. Can't be seen as successful and if Woodward fails to get the players at all this window he should be removed from his position.

I prefer Louis opinion when he says he'd rather have a look and see what he has first.


Considering our first 6 games, I'm confident the squad is good enough to kick us off well and still give new signings plenty of time to bed in.

 

[Cooksen]

LVG said he wanted to evaluate the squad over this tour.

Then we will make our moves.

 

[sincher]

I think we could do with a couple of quality investments but unlike a lot of others, I am also eager to see the youth players (like James and M. Keane) given an opportunity to shine.

I really doubt that by January we would be "some way off the top-4" with the current squad and LVG in charge - compare our squad with the one Liverpool had last season and I would say it is superior in pretty much every aspect. Dont underestimate the impact that playing fewer games can have on fitness, freshness and players not getting injured.

I would rather we kept our squad trimmed for this season, adding more players will just create unneeded rotation. For the first time in a long time we actually have a mostly settled first XI;

---------------DDG
------Jones - Smalling - Evans
Rafael -----------------------Shaw
---------????? --- Herrera
------------Mata
---------RVP --- Rooney

Other than the one CM position, the above is pretty much nailed on, and to me that is a very good side, and can challenge for the league *if* it stays injury free. Again I refer you to Liverpool last year for an example of how far you can get with a decent XI, if you are only competing on one front. We have plenty of depth on top of that anyway - the only position I can see that we need to buy a first choice player is the CM role next to Herrera, and then maybe a backup CB - if we do that then as a second XI we have


--------------Lindegaard-------------
-----M. Keane -- NewCB -- Blackett
Valencia ---------------------------James
--------Cleverley ----- Fletcher
---------------Kagawa
--------Welbeck ------ Hernandez

And thats not even taking into account Januzaj, Nani, Young, Carrick, Fellaini, Zaha, Lingard, W. Keane, Wilson, Lawrence

Sure, there isnt a huge amount of experience there - especially in defence, but how do players ever get that experience in the first place? There is never an ideal time to try to bring through new players except in utter dead rubber games. If LVG has been confident enough in the youngsters to give them gametime in the preseason, I expect he would be confident enough to give them some gametime in the league.

With the above squad, I really cant see us being far off the mark come January, at which point LVG has another opportunity to tweak and amend the squad, without needing to worry about players being cup-tied in Europe (both in and out).

I see Carrick as ideal for playing in a back three in many games - he can naturally step forward and link with the midfield where necessary. The 3-4-1-2 is an adaptable formation.

So I see a new midfielder as (much) more important than a new CB. I would say Jones - Carrick - Evans as first choice at the back when we play a 3, or Jones-Evans when we play a 2. That leaves Smalling, M.Keane and Blackett/Thorpe as backup which is maybe 1 light but not too bad. Fletcher could drop back in the same way as Carrick.

I think over the next few weeks we could see any of Nani, Anderson, Fellaini, Hernandez, Kagawa to leave, and our squad to look a bit like this with main backups in brackets:

-----------------------------De Gea (Lindegaard)---------------------------------
----------Jones (M.Keane)-------Carrick (Smalling)------Evans (Blackett)-----------
Rafael (Valencia)----------------------------------------------Shaw (Young/James)
-------------------New CM (Fletcher)------Herrera (Cleverley)---------------------
---------------------------------Mata (Januzaj)----------------------------------
--------------------RVP (Welbeck)---------Rooney (Hernandez/W.Keane/Wilson/Henriquez)

I would prefer Hernandez staying as I think he is a very useful option to have but we do have lots of young strikers.

A top quality central midfielder is the main missing piece. Another defender would be useful but I am more comfortable with the first choice if we can drop Carrick back. A specialist left wing back would be pretty useful too...

 

[Blue always red]

It depends which angle you look at it from. The commercial aspects of United's business he has excelled at, securing multiple lucrative deals which will be increased if we are successful on the pitch. Securing top 4 and good cup runs will be more than enough to keep the juggernaut running and the money flowing. We don't need to spend more from Woodward/Glazer's point of view.

 

[NMF]

LVG said he wanted to evaluate the squad over this tour.

Then we will make our moves.

But he should surely have players in mind on who he wants to bring in so at least Woody can start negotiations. If he hasn't well I'd be incredibly worried we're in for a busy deadline day.

 

[Cathy Ferguson]

I guess that we are trying to sign Vermalen but that it is proving very difficult. I don't really think that LvG needs much more time to assess our thin options at CB and LB. It is bleeding obvious that we need an established CB and some cover at LB for Shaw. Vermalen fits the bill. It is more about numbers than individual qualities of the present players. It can hardly be a surprise that only Evans can bring the ball out of defence. Giggs probably told him in May.

 

[Y2A]

People using the "There is still one month left in the market" need to pack up and give it a rest!

The season starts in 2 weeks and we've only bought two players into the team. This was the summer that we were supposed to go "huge into the market", sums as big as £200millon were being touted about by people within United. Well.......we've spent £56million

Even our manager claims our squad is horribly "unbalanced" with too many number 10's and not enough "specialist wingers" which is what morons like me have been saying on the internet for months now. We've hardly shifted any deadwood as well Bebe and Buttner is all.

We are the team that had arguably the worst season out of every Premier League team last season and it was obvious that we needed many key positions refilling as well, yet the club have pretty much stood idle, once again!

Sure we might buy some players late on, but the season will have already started and the new additions would need gelling into the team. Most our main big money marquee players should have been bought a long time ago (I doubt we will even sign any). We've got one hell of an easy start to the league, so we need to pick up maximum points in our opening 6 games.

Woodward is going to look like an absolute clown come 2nd of September, especially after saying "Watch this space" wdf? Hope he doesn't think he can get away with cheap options like De Jong and Vermaelan.

I agree.

 

[Red Comet]

It depends which angle you look at it from. The commercial aspects of United's business he has excelled at, securing multiple lucrative deals which will be increased if we are successful on the pitch. Securing top 4 and good cup runs will be more than enough to keep the juggernaut running and the money flowing. We don't need to spend more from Woodward/Glazer's point of view.

We didn't build the reputation that we have today by finishing in top 4 consistently. We have our global status because we consistently challenge to be the champions. Our club has got the most titles ever since Premier League was conceptualised. Sure, we attracted a lot of bandwagon fans, but that is what gave us our global marketing power.

Liverpool still had some sort of status today because of their history of titles before EPL. But if you look at the younger, football watching fans around the world today, more fans would rather grab a Chelsea shirt than a Liverpool shirt. The only ones that happen to support Liverpool tend to be those whose family are Liverpool supporters.

If we do not continue to challenge for titles, we will be as irrelevant as Liverpool going forward.

 

[Blue always red]

We didn't build the reputation that we have today by finishing in top 4 consistently. We have our global status because we consistently challenge to be the champions. Our club has got the most titles ever since Premier League was conceptualised. Sure, we attracted a lot of bandwagon fans, but that is what gave us our global marketing power.

Liverpool still had some sort of status today because of their history of titles before EPL. But if you look at the younger, football watching fans around the world today, more fans would rather grab a Chelsea shirt than a Liverpool shirt. The only ones that happen to support Liverpool tend to be those whose family are Liverpool supporters.

If we do not continue to challenge for titles, we will be as irrelevant as Liverpool going forward.

True, but I believe football wasn't as big in other parts of the world whilst Liverpool were in their pomp. I was in India last year for a week and you see a load of guys walking around in United tops, but none of them are proper hardcore fans. It's just cool to wear United gear and that is the legacy of our success. As long as we are up there and have marquee players like Rooney,RVP,Kagawa and Mata, I think we'll always have massive support across the world. I mean we finished 7th last season and are set to sell more seats than the superbowl did on Saturday.

 

[Melvyn]

We didn't build the reputation that we have today by finishing in top 4 consistently. We have our global status because we consistently challenge to be the champions. Our club has got the most titles ever since Premier League was conceptualised. Sure, we attracted a lot of bandwagon fans, but that is what gave us our global marketing power.

Liverpool still had some sort of status today because of their history of titles before EPL. But if you look at the younger, football watching fans around the world today, more fans would rather grab a Chelsea shirt than a Liverpool shirt. The only ones that happen to support Liverpool tend to be those whose family are Liverpool supporters.

If we do not continue to challenge for titles, we will be as irrelevant as Liverpool going forward.

Correct. Top 4 is most definitely not enough for our sponsors and the Glazers know that. The club actually needs to win trophies in order to maintain the kind of sponsorship deals we currently have.

 

[NoWinNoFee]

Tight as a ducks arse

 

[Jev]

There's a limit to how much you have to 'assess' a squad. I mean you don't have to spend six weeks with a squad to realize that three established first-team CB's is too few if you plan on playing three at the back.

And frankly you don't need much time to realize that we could do with a CM. It's not rocket science.

One more thing, didn't Blackett use to be considered a left-back? See him mentioned a lot as a potential CB.