Glazers / Woodward out! (One down)

[Roger777]

They are a disgrace.

Bring back hanging...

 

[minoo-utd]

We don't have any solutions neither they. Board is clueless but won't depart so don't know even if our fans protest!

 

[Denis' cuff]

Based on what?

Manchester United were a bigger financial powerhouse before Woodward, relatively speaking. We had the highest revenue in the world for years and years.

When the Glazers took over, Manchester United were number 1 on the Deloitte money list with Liverpool’s revenue being roughly 50% of ours. Now we’re third and Liverpool are earning nearly 80% of what we do. How is that progress?

Of the 10 top clubs on the 2005 Deloitte money list, every single non-Italian club (because of Calciopoli) have increased their revenue by more than us.

Bayern are at 94% of our revenue. This Woodward genius myth needs to die. He inherited the most valuable football brand in the world and didn’t advance it relative to our competitors.

Excellent post. Some of those letting the Glazers off the hook need to understand this basic scenario.

Problem was, when Edwards sold us down the river, we were sitting ducks for this takeover, whilst the FA sat on their hands and allowed unsuitable owners to come in with insufficient funds. They were quick enough to stop the Murdoch takeover at the behest of the media at large because it would give us “an unfair advantage “. Pity they weren’t led by the nose (media) to be just as concerned about an unfair disadvantage. We have literally been handicapped and incredibly, there are those who fail to see it.

 

[Kapardin]

I understand Glazers want to leech money out of the club, but how is that related to hiring actual football people as opposed to a banker? Surely it won't cost them much to hire competent people and it would also benefit their own selfish ends anyway since better football and results means more money. Would also keep fans happy too.

They just seem to like to do things the hard way or shoot themselves in the foot for no reason. If they want to keep Woodward for friendship's sake, they can do so in another capacity.

 

[red thru&thru]

I understand Glazers want to leech money out of the club, but how is that related to hiring actual football people as opposed to a banker? Surely it won't cost them much to hire competent people and it would also benefit their own selfish ends anyway since better football and results means more money. Would also keep fans happy too.

They just seem to like to do things the hard way or shoot themselves in the foot for no reason. If they want to keep Woodward for friendship's sake, they can do so in another capacity.

Agree to all the above.

Like the American pundit put it, United are trying to build a mansion using a finance guy, rather than an architect! Although Glazer's have given Woodward enough money to succeed, both of their incompetence merit the sack in any other business.

Also, the fans, this whole attitude of, "what will a protest achieve", you're the precise reason why were a joke of a club. You'll moan but will do F all. 6 years, and counting, is enough. If we walk out, stop buying merchandise or even a simple unfollow of the official media platforms, will be enough to make the fans voice heard.

 

[Pscholes18]

 

[ship50]

Nobody is going out anytime soon, including many players.

 

[Scholsey2004]

Woodward and the glazers have wrecked the club, there's no question about that. There is however no mechanism for forcing them out so we're stuck. Green and gold already failed to dislodge them.

 

[Tincanalley]

I am of the opinion that the Glazers are fine as owners, there is money while not 100% sufficient, there is money to spend. The main problem is Ed. It is mismanagement of spending on the footballing side. If he can solely focus on the commercial side, let someone else run the footballing side, that would be ideal. If he can’t delegate those responsibilities, he needs to go.

Ed struck the deal that bought United as a Glazer family plaything - any tenuous link they have to football is through him. They are bound together- both have nothing to do with the club, and need to be encouraged by those who love the club to feck right off!

 

[LonelyFire]

I am of the opinion that the Glazers are fine as owners, there is money while not 100% sufficient, there is money to spend. The main problem is Ed. It is mismanagement of spending on the footballing side. If he can solely focus on the commercial side, let someone else run the footballing side, that would be ideal. If he can’t delegate those responsibilities, he needs to go.

I genuinely cannot believe some Utd fans still believe this.

The rot started as soon as they ladled all their debt on the club. All we are seeing now is the result of years of under investment at a critical time and a lack of decision making based on football.

 

[Bestietom]

Let's see this summer if the Glazers mean what they say and take more interest in the team and club instead of bleeding us.

We need lots of funding and many players brought in, and many others out.
We must start by bringing in at least 5 players this window.
We must continue to improve by bringing in better players each window until we have a strong squad.
We need to look at the whole structure of the club from youth team upwards.
We must get back to the top of the tree as quickly as possible.

 

[Gator Nate]

As an American, and a fan of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, I can tell you that the incompetence of the Glazer brothers is not limited to Man Utd. The Buccaneers have fallen apart since their father Malcolm fell ill in 2006 and the sons took full control. To wit:

- 73-131 record. A W-L% of 0.357. Which actually lowered the Bucs even further as the all-time worst in this stat. Literally the worst era for traditionally the worst team in NFL history.
- Fired super bowl championship winning head coach Jon Gruden because “none of the players liked him.”
- Hired and fired Head coaches Raheem Morris, Greg Schiano, Lovie Smith, Dirk Koetter within 12 years. None of which ever had HC positions again on other teams.
- First place in division 1x, last place 8x.
- ZERO playoff wins.
- Rebranded and have worst kits in NFL.
- Have has more MRSA outbreaks than any other NFL team. Have dirty facilities.

The NFL is purposefully designed for teams to not stay bad very long, yet the Glazers have led a horrendous team for 12 years now. And to make it worse, they have no money left to spend on players in the salary cap system.

I know futbol fans have deeper connections to their clubs than we Americans do, so I can only imagine how this feels for you lot. But I highly implore you to do what is necessary to rid yourself of the plight known as the Glazers.

You forgot that we have our own Ed Woodward: Jason Licht

I don't know that we have the worst kits, and I do miss the creamsicle, but those were changed early on under Malcolm.

The list of coaches since Gruden has been laughable. None of them should ever have been given a chance except for maybe Smith, and I thought he'd do better.

That said, I would argue that Cleveland has been more of a disaster over the same period of time.

 

[KiD MoYeS]

Maybe the lack of movement on a technical director is an indication that the owners are set to sell.

The reality is that they are just that inept. The club is so unbelievably f*cked.

 

[nycender]

I miss David Gill

 

[Bestietom]

Maybe the lack of movement on a technical director is an indication that the owners are set to sell.

The reality is that they are just that inept. The club is so unbelievably f*cked.

I hope your right.

 

[11101]

I don't mind the Glazers too much. I'd rather they weren't there but it's not like we haven't been given any transfer budget in recent years.

Woodward on the other hand. He's killing us with his reluctance to let go of the football matters, an area he clearly has absolutely no idea in. The Glazers need to see their cash cow is on the decline so either they sell us, or they force Woodward to bring in someone to help us reassert ourselves on the pitch. He obviously won't do it himself.

 

[Coops73]

Maybe the lack of movement on a technical director is an indication that the owners are set to sell.

The reality is that they are just that inept. The club is so unbelievably f*cked.

I’ve thought this too. There was talk about them not being interested in selling and taking a more “active” role in the club (god forbid) but my hope is that this is just the opening gambit to force the buyers hand and perhaps now that we’ve failed to qualify for the CL it has helped in some way to establish a value i.e. X amount for qualification to the CL and X amount for failing to qualify....clutching at straws?

 

[Majima]

I don't mind the Glazers too much. I'd rather they weren't there but it's not like we haven't been given any transfer budget in recent years.

Woodward on the other hand. He's killing us with his reluctance to let go of the football matters, an area he clearly has absolutely no idea in. The Glazers need to see their cash cow is on the decline so either they sell us, or they force Woodward to bring in someone to help us reassert ourselves on the pitch. He obviously won't do it himself.

You don't mind the Glazers too much? Wow. The people who have turned this famous club into a cash cow. They've siphoned out over £1billion between them, we've paid £800mil in interest fees alone. We were debt free.

They haven't given us enough support at all. No where near.

The underinvestment was peak at Ronaldo's record sale when we replaced him with Wigan's Valencia, crocked Owen & farmer Obertan. They thought they could get by underinvesting on SAF's genius. They only started panic spending a fortune after they let all the mainstay of our team get old and retire practically at the same time. Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra, Neville, Giggs, Scholes. By then, the market had massively inflated, there was no longer SAF to paper over the cracks and it was all too little, too late. Where's our football structure behind the scenes? We went from LVG to Mourinho. You couldn't have picked a worse strategy than that. They are clueless, but they don't care because they are getting their money regardless.

So no, they haven't gave us enough money at all because they are the very reason we are in this position in the first place

The Woodward & the Glazers go hand in hand. We aren't getting rid of one without the other.

They all need to be ousted out.

I would say it would be nice for the class of 92 to start a campaign against them in the media, but they don't want to burn any potential bridges with a future boss it seems. All full of it.

 

[Yakuza_devils]

Based on what?

Manchester United were a bigger financial powerhouse before Woodward, relatively speaking. We had the highest revenue in the world for years and years.

When the Glazers took over, Manchester United were number 1 on the Deloitte money list with Liverpool’s revenue being roughly 50% of ours. Now we’re third and Liverpool are earning nearly 80% of what we do. How is that progress?

Of the 10 top clubs on the 2005 Deloitte money list, every single non-Italian club (because of Calciopoli) have increased their revenue by more than us.

Bayern are at 94% of our revenue. This Woodward genius myth needs to die. He inherited the most valuable football brand in the world and didn’t advance it relative to our competitors.

Great Post!

 

[hungrywing]

I understand Glazers want to leech money out of the club, but how is that related to hiring actual football people as opposed to a banker? Surely it won't cost them much to hire competent people and it would also benefit their own selfish ends anyway since better football and results means more money. Would also keep fans happy too.

They just seem to like to do things the hard way or shoot themselves in the foot for no reason. If they want to keep Woodward for friendship's sake, they can do so in another capacity.

The scary answer?

'He's like, English, so he knows about all this and stuff.'

 

[Kapardin]

You forgot that we have our own Ed Woodward: Jason Licht

I don't know that we have the worst kits, and I do miss the creamsicle, but those were changed early on under Malcolm.

The list of coaches since Gruden has been laughable. None of them should ever have been given a chance except for maybe Smith, and I thought he'd do better.

That said, I would argue that Cleveland has been more of a disaster over the same period of time.

Came across this article:

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap30...-gm-jason-licht-to-avoid-too-much-instability

I am not too familiar with NFL, but fecking hell, this reads like the recent history of Man United. Substitute Bucs with United and Jason Licht with Ed Woodward and it's the same damn thing!

 

[Johan07]

Came across this article:

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap30...-gm-jason-licht-to-avoid-too-much-instability

I am not too familiar with NFL, but fecking hell, this reads like the recent history of Man United. Substitute Bucs with United and Jason Licht with Ed Woodward and it's the same damn thing!

So you would like David Gill back as CEO? The role that Woodward took over. Seems like a lot of people idolise him on here. And he was great for us. Guess what: not a "football person", but a finance guy much similar to Woodward himself.
There is this weird misconception on the Caf about Woodward really does. He is the CEO. Much like Levy at Spurs. Guess what: also a finance guy. This idea that we need to install a "football person" as CEO is so weird. Its not needed to have a history playing or coaching to be the CEO of a financial juggernaut as United. It has to be someone like Woodward, Gill or Levy, anything else would be corporate malpractice.

 

[11101]

You don't mind the Glazers too much? Wow. The people who have turned this famous club into a cash cow. They've siphoned out over £1billion between them, we've paid £800mil in interest fees alone. We were debt free.

They haven't given us enough support at all. No where near.

The underinvestment was peak at Ronaldo's record sale when we replaced him with Wigan's Valencia, crocked Owen & farmer Obertan. They thought they could get by underinvesting on SAF's genius. They only started panic spending a fortune after they let all the mainstay of our team get old and retire practically at the same time. Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra, Neville, Giggs, Scholes. By then, the market had massively inflated, there was no longer SAF to paper over the cracks and it was all too little, too late. Where's our football structure behind the scenes? We went from LVG to Mourinho. You couldn't have picked a worse strategy than that. They are clueless, but they don't care because they are getting their money regardless.

So no, they haven't gave us enough money at all because they are the very reason we are in this position in the first place

The Woodward & the Glazers go hand in hand. We aren't getting rid of one without the other.

They all need to be ousted out.

I would say it would be nice for the class of 92 to start a campaign against them in the media, but they don't want to burn any potential bridges with a future boss it seems. All full of it.

Like i say, I'd rather they didn't own us, but us completely wasting the £600m we've spent since SAF retired is nothing to do with them. They have almost nothing to do with how the club is run on a day to day basis. That's down to Woodward.

 

[Gator Nate]

Came across this article:

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap30...-gm-jason-licht-to-avoid-too-much-instability

I am not too familiar with NFL, but fecking hell, this reads like the recent history of Man United. Substitute Bucs with United and Jason Licht with Ed Woodward and it's the same damn thing!

Um... YEP!!!

I know it was mentioned that Gruden's firing was the catalyst for the fall, but truth be told, it was the departure of GM Rich McKay to the division rival Atlanta Falcons that started the fall.

 

[MAGARed]

Came across this article:

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap30...-gm-jason-licht-to-avoid-too-much-instability

I am not too familiar with NFL, but fecking hell, this reads like the recent history of Man United. Substitute Bucs with United and Jason Licht with Ed Woodward and it's the same damn thing!

That article shows that business acumen isn’t something you just inherit alongside daddy’s fortune.

“‘One thing we do know in the NFL, too much instability doesn't lead to success,’ Glazer said. ‘And we have had our share of instability over the last several years. And with Jason -- obviously Jason is not happy with what our record has been the last few years -- but when you look at our team and you look at our drafts, there have been positives. We have had a lot of players we drafted, re-sign, and we have a good nucleus of players. So at the end of the day we felt the consistency in that was important and will ultimately lead to success.’

Guess what idiots, Jason is the guy who hired the last 3 head coaches and hand picked every player currently on the roster. And it’s led to more last place finishes than anything. Zero playoff wins. A bust franchise quarterback with a history of sexual assault and theft.

The Buccaneers are expected to be a bottom team by oddsmakers again.

Delusional.

 

[Majima]

Like i say, I'd rather they didn't own us, but us completely wasting the £600m we've spent since SAF retired is nothing to do with them. They have almost nothing to do with how the club is run on a day to day basis. That's down to Woodward.

Woodward is the Glazers. He's their man. I'm talking about the bigger picture since they arrived in 2005. Not the last few years where they have panic spent. The non-existent strategy behind the scenes is on them. The panic-stations spending since SAF retired is on them. They should have invested properly whilst he was around then. The years of under investment which i noted above is the reason why we are even in this mess.

They shouldn't even be here. They have no interest in football and they can't afford us. They've taken over £1billion out of the club without putting a penny in. Can you imagine what we would be like if we had competent owners and were allowed to spend our own money?

It's a complete disgrace and travesty that they purchased us to begin with. The countries biggest club reduced to a cash cow for American owners who couldn't care less about the club.

 

[Im red2]

How long before the Galzers/Woodward PR machine invade this thread?

Most likely already here.

 

[Im red2]

Woodward does a lot more than write the checks. He oversees or has full control off all ththe deals. That includes the stupid wages he gives, and prices he pays for players. He picks the mangers, he chooses when they should be fired. He chooses when they should be backed. And if it wasn’t clear before, it should be now that he’s putting his nose in footballing matters that he shouldn’t. Regardless of what you think about Jose Mourinho, how anyone can accept a fecking banker thinking he knows more about football than one of the best managers in the PL era, I don’t know.

No matter what else you think, you should know that Woodward is a massive knob that cares only about the money coming in. And even then, only in short term thinking. His long term is a fecking joke.

Best post I seen here so far.

 

[Im red2]

Came across this article:

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap30...-gm-jason-licht-to-avoid-too-much-instability

I am not too familiar with NFL, but fecking hell, this reads like the recent history of Man United. Substitute Bucs with United and Jason Licht with Ed Woodward and it's the same damn thing!

This.

 

[Im red2]

Ed struck the deal that bought United as a Glazer family plaything - any tenuous link they have to football is through him. They are bound together- both have nothing to do with the club, and need to be encouraged by those who love the club to feck right off!

100% correct.

 

[Im red2]

100% correct.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/man-utd-glazers-old-trafford-15291277

 

[Denis79]

I am of the opinion that the Glazers are fine as owners, there is money while not 100% sufficient, there is money to spend. The main problem is Ed. It is mismanagement of spending on the footballing side. If he can solely focus on the commercial side, let someone else run the footballing side, that would be ideal. If he can’t delegate those responsibilities, he needs to go.

If the owners cared for anything but money, Woodward would not keep his job. Simple as that.

 

[JPRouve]

As an American, and a fan of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, I can tell you that the incompetence of the Glazer brothers is not limited to Man Utd. The Buccaneers have fallen apart since their father Malcolm fell ill in 2006 and the sons took full control. To wit:

- 73-131 record. A W-L% of 0.357. Which actually lowered the Bucs even further as the all-time worst in this stat. Literally the worst era for traditionally the worst team in NFL history.
- Fired super bowl championship winning head coach Jon Gruden because “none of the players liked him.”
- Hired and fired Head coaches Raheem Morris, Greg Schiano, Lovie Smith, Dirk Koetter within 12 years. None of which ever had HC positions again on other teams.
- First place in division 1x, last place 8x.
- ZERO playoff wins.
- Rebranded and have worst kits in NFL.
- Have has more MRSA outbreaks than any other NFL team. Have dirty facilities.

The NFL is purposefully designed for teams to not stay bad very long, yet the Glazers have led a horrendous team for 12 years now. And to make it worse, they have no money left to spend on players in the salary cap system.

I know futbol fans have deeper connections to their clubs than we Americans do, so I can only imagine how this feels for you lot. But I highly implore you to do what is necessary to rid yourself of the plight known as the Glazers.

Schiano was one of the many Belichick pupils that failed in the NFL, Lovie Smith was a pretty good defensive coordinator and he is currently the University of Illinois HC on a very lucrative contract and as you know college football is pretty big, Dirk Koetter is a pretty good OC and was picked by the Falcons as soon as he was sacked and they now have an other good HC on paper. Gruden was fired 6 years after the Super Bowl and it was deserved. They don't have a franchise QB because they haven't been bad enough to pick very high on a regular basis while the three other teams have franchise QBs.

 

[MAGARed]

Schiano was one of the many Belichick pupils that failed in the NFL, Lovie Smith was a pretty good defensive coordinator and he is currently the University of Illinois HC on a very lucrative contract and as you know college football is pretty big, Dirk Koetter is a pretty good OC and was picked by the Falcons as soon as he was sacked and they now have an other good HC on paper. Gruden was fired 6 years after the Super Bowl and it was deserved. They don't have a franchise QB because they haven't been bad enough to pick very high on a regular basis while the three other teams have franchise QBs.

You’ve done the research to fill in the gaps but it doesn’t make the higher up looks any better.

Jason Licht, the current GM, picked QB Jameis Winston with the #1 overall pick in the NFL draft. He’s been a bust. You only get one shot at those. So idk what you’re talking about.

Glazers must sell all teams. Last place 8x.

 

[JPRouve]

You forgot that we have our own Ed Woodward: Jason Licht

I don't know that we have the worst kits, and I do miss the creamsicle, but those were changed early on under Malcolm.

The list of coaches since Gruden has been laughable. None of them should ever have been given a chance except for maybe Smith, and I thought he'd do better.

That said, I would argue that Cleveland has been more of a disaster over the same period of time.

You are not in competition with Cleveland but in the same bracket than the Lions, Dolphins, Washington, Bills, Jaguars and the Raiders. I also have a special mention for the Rams, they may have McVay today but they have been shoddy for almost the entirety of the 2002-2019 period.

Though Tampa has one mitigating factor, you are in arguably the best division in football.

 

[JPRouve]

You’ve done the research to fill in the gaps but it doesn’t make the higher up looks any better.

Jason Licht, the current GM, picked QB Jameis Winston with the #1 overall pick in the NFL draft. He’s been a bust. You only get one shot at those. So idk what you’re talking about.

Glazers must sell all teams. Last place 8x.

No, I simply follow the NFL and these aren't gaps you just tried to alter reality. And you are doing it again, the draft is a crapshoot everyone knows that and most QBs are bust, not even half of the current starting QBs are actually good. Winston is an average QB comparable to a Alex Smith, it's not bad but he most likely will never carry a team.

 

[Fluctuation0161]

I genuinely cannot believe some Utd fans still believe this.

The rot started as soon as they ladled all their debt on the club. All we are seeing now is the result of years of under investment at a critical time and a lack of decision making based on football.

Totally agree.

Any supporter who can't see the Glazers as an issue haven't understood the problems at the club.

 

[Fluctuation0161]

You don't mind the Glazers too much? Wow. The people who have turned this famous club into a cash cow. They've siphoned out over £1billion between them, we've paid £800mil in interest fees alone. We were debt free.

They haven't given us enough support at all. No where near.

The underinvestment was peak at Ronaldo's record sale when we replaced him with Wigan's Valencia, crocked Owen & farmer Obertan. They thought they could get by underinvesting on SAF's genius. They only started panic spending a fortune after they let all the mainstay of our team get old and retire practically at the same time. Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra, Neville, Giggs, Scholes. By then, the market had massively inflated, there was no longer SAF to paper over the cracks and it was all too little, too late. Where's our football structure behind the scenes? We went from LVG to Mourinho. You couldn't have picked a worse strategy than that. They are clueless, but they don't care because they are getting their money regardless.

So no, they haven't gave us enough money at all because they are the very reason we are in this position in the first place

The Woodward & the Glazers go hand in hand. We aren't getting rid of one without the other.

They all need to be ousted out.

I would say it would be nice for the class of 92 to start a campaign against them in the media, but they don't want to burn any potential bridges with a future boss it seems. All full of it.

Preach.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[Im red2]

You don't mind the Glazers too much? Wow. The people who have turned this famous club into a cash cow. They've siphoned out over £1billion between them, we've paid £800mil in interest fees alone. We were debt free.

They haven't given us enough support at all. No where near.

The underinvestment was peak at Ronaldo's record sale when we replaced him with Wigan's Valencia, crocked Owen & farmer Obertan. They thought they could get by underinvesting on SAF's genius. They only started panic spending a fortune after they let all the mainstay of our team get old and retire practically at the same time. Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra, Neville, Giggs, Scholes. By then, the market had massively inflated, there was no longer SAF to paper over the cracks and it was all too little, too late. Where's our football structure behind the scenes? We went from LVG to Mourinho. You couldn't have picked a worse strategy than that. They are clueless, but they don't care because they are getting their money regardless.

So no, they haven't gave us enough money at all because they are the very reason we are in this position in the first place

The Woodward & the Glazers go hand in hand. We aren't getting rid of one without the other.

They all need to be ousted out.

I would say it would be nice for the class of 92 to start a campaign against them in the media, but they don't want to burn any potential bridges with a future boss it seems. All full of it.

You are correct Majima, the club is now just nothing more than a cash cow, for a bunch of lazy Americans. All anyone need do is look at the rubbish we have on the pitch, biggest club in the World? Great fans for sure, but no ambition and no direction for the club except to make some arseholes rich. The owners are the problem.

 

[Saf94]

Sorry but some of the opinions here are just ridiculous. So much here is being said in hindsight and some of it is just plain wrong.

Glazers don’t back the team? What about us spending more money than anyone else in the world since Fergie left?

Woodward only cares about money and short term? Which of his decisions did people say at the time was bad? Getting the most successful non retired manager in the world? Yeah what a stupid decision to think a guy who won the league 2 years ago was a bad choice. We were literally second in the league 1 season ago... No one was saying at that time Woodward was destroying the club.

Yes Woody made mistakes but so much of this is in hindsight, a lot of the decisions he made seemed sensible at the time. We were on a very good trajectory up until this season, please don’t exaggerate as if Woodward has been killing this club more and more each year to get us to where we are now. Please tell me who was saying all this stuff when we had 3 years of solid progress - Fa Cup, Europa League and 2nd place - and were signing world class players in the transfer windows like Pogba, Zlatan and Mikhi. Hell even the Sanchez signing got 95% of us crazy excited