I'm not referring to their history, as they were clearly successful. I'm referring to their stints with United. Inept was probably strong word to describe all of them, but I had Moyes in my head as I was typing that. LVG and Mourinho were clearly past it though. At least with LVG of the three, we could see what they were trying to do and some semblance of a footballing strategy. We don't even have that now.
The best was technically SAF, and he didn't fail. Just to counter your assertion there.
SAF didn't work with Woodward, who I'm convinced is the main problem. The Glazers won't be an issue if the long-term footballing decisions are made by someone with even a modicum of sense. Just look at our spending to see that we aren't being held back because we don't have money. We definitely have money available, but our idiot CEO is throwing it away at every turn and shifting the blame onto the manager, which has left us with an astronomical net spend and the worst squad we've had in 40 to 50 years.
Firstly, Woodward has hired wildly different managers with wildly differing footballing philosophies. This has left us with a completely mis-matched squad of players suited to completely different styles of football. Moyes to van Gaal to Mourinho to Solskjær is such a scattergun approach to managerial appointments that it's hard to comprehend what the idea is behind it, other than just hiring based on name and reputation (or in Ole's case, feelgood factor) and not at all considering which manager is best suited to get the most out of the squad we have. This has also lead us to spend enormous amounts of money on a host of new players just to get the squad even remotely close to fitting the new manager's vision. Both LvG and Mourinho went mental with spending during their first transfer window. Most of those players have been sold at a loss because they didn't have a place in the next manager's team, weren't good enough or didn't want to be here in the first place.
Secondly, two things are obvious about Woodward: One, he fancies himself some kind of Billy Big Bollocks football scout and will make or veto signings against the manager's wishes, and two, he's clearly absolutely fecking inept at player recruitment, as evidenced by the following:
- We've spent months chasing big players every summer without moves ever materializing, which has meant that we've ended up panic buying the scraps other teams don't want at an inflated cost at the end of the window. Examples are Thiago, Fabregas, Perisic, Kroos, Sergio Ramos, Alderweireld, Bale, Griezmann, Willian and probably a whole host of others that I've forgotten or suppressed. Some of those sagas went on for the entire summer, and ended up with absolutely nothing in the end. We also messed up at the end of this summer's window by not finding someone to fill the massive hole left by Lukaku.
- We signed Fellaini at a higher cost than necessary because we waited too long to pull the trigger.
- We signed Maguire for a record fee this summer after Mourinho was denied the same player (and others) at a lower cost last summer.
- Woodward signed Fred for a mind-numbing sum of money despite the player clearly not being wanted by Mourinho and never featuring in his plans, which is understandable now considering he'll obviously never be close to the level required of a United player.
- I'm fairly confident the signings of Di Maria and Sanchez were done because Woodward wanted to do a bit of dick-swinging in the transfer market and not because the managers actually needed or wanted the players, based on how they were utilized after they were signed.
These are just some examples of the footballing side of things being badly run, and they're 100% on Woodward. If we're chasing a player at the start of a window it's because someone at the club has identified the need for that player. Woodward's job is to secure the deal as quickly as possible or move on if it can't be done. That's how well-run clubs do it. If we dry-hump for two months and end up without options that has nothing to do with the manager and everything to do with the guy responsible for closing the deal. If a manager comes in and the squad we have is woefully incompatible with that manager's style it isn't the manager's fault for succeeding a different type of manager. If that manager doesn't get the players he wants and needs to play according to his philosophies and ideas it isn't the manager's fault.
I agree that Ole seems incredibly out of his depth here, but no manager is ever going to succeed here because our club is run in a way that actively prevents even the very best managers from performing. Mourinho said finishing runner-up in the league with us was his greatest achievement. I know he has a tendency to exaggerate, but there's definitely truth to those words, and it's becoming increasingly obvious what he meant by that. At this level of football it's impossible to be the best without everyone pulling in the same direction, and Woodward doesn't have a clue which direction he's supposed to pull.
.