Ed Woodward 2019 - Until all Arctic ice melts edition

el3mel

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We'll probably sell Lukaku and sign Maguire. That's about it I guess.

It may not even happen as well.

That has been a very underwhelming window to follow.
 

AshRK

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We'll probably sell Lukaku and sign Maguire. That's about it I guess.

It may not even happen as well.

That has been a very underwhelming window to follow.
That's what even I think will happen. Woodward will definitely go in panic mode and bid crazy amount for Dybala only for it to be refused.
 

oz insomniac

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In reality Woodward us a very poor Ceo/acting DOF who it appears is more concerned with maintaining his power bases and is a loyal servant to the owners . Each window appear to underline his failure to act swiftly and an overarching wish to be seen as a hard negotiator which is more important than actually concluding deals .

Those signings he makes are generally ending at the amount demanded in the initial phase , so what's the point of these tactics? To actually not spend any the funds and please the owners, or show his mates at the merchant bank that he is a tough Cnut. It remains bewildering that he appointed a manager despite the opportunity to look at more experienced candidates, then in effect has failed to support him in the transfer market so even a modest rebuild could be made ahead of a pre season schedule which could bed the new players in.

Yes, he may make a few splash signing like he did when LVG was here, but that does not eradicate the reputation damage that is sheeted to the club as it falls down the pecking order of EPL clubs. Remember Man Utd is still the most recognised and valuable EPL club, not that this is reflected currently in the clubs playing roster or attractiveness to elite prospects.

All this dross about worse ownership if we are not careful etc, is not the argument, it is the inability of the CEO to get the club back to a position at the top of the EPL, nothing will change until decisive decision making is a a norm.
 

Andycoleno9

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You can't keep buying players without selling. Our main problem is not how bad Ed is in buying players. Our problem is in selling players.
Look at our current situation. We have huge squad. We have at least 2 players for every position. Plus Greenwood, Gomes, Tuanzebe, Chong, Garner. It is bloody normal that we are not buying players. We just don't have space for them.
Why we don't sell? I can't believe that Ed is that incompetent. I thought it is because we are not ruthless enough, family club and shit like that but is it maybe because of lack of ambition? Are Glazers happy with top4 spot and don't have desire to fight with other top clubs? Or Ed is just that bad in selling players? Or we just don't have clear vision?

We have 6 central defenders. It was logical to sell at least two this summer and buy one world class. We didn't do that. In fact we gave Jones new contract despite that we knew that we will need world class defender. Now even if we buy Maguire, we will basically pay millions to two defenders who will not play at all. Right winger or no10 position? It was logical to sell Lingard and buy Dybala or Costa or some other player who would give huge boost to this squad. Is that hard to sell Rojo, Smalling, Lingard, Matic for example? Yes, they have huge wages but that excuse is becoming a real myth. Other big clubs also pay very good wages to their players but still they sell them regulary and upgrade their squads every year. And some do it for decent fee. We can't sell Darmian whos price is 10-15 mil and who has normal contract.
 

Revan

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You can't keep buying players without selling. Our main problem is not how bad Ed is in buying players. Our problem is in selling players.
Look at our current situation. We have huge squad. We have at least 2 players for every position. Plus Greenwood, Gomes, Tuanzebe, Chong, Garner. It is bloody normal that we are not buying players. We just don't have space for them.
Why we don't sell? I can't believe that Ed is that incompetent. I thought it is because we are not ruthless enough, family club and shit like that but is it maybe because of lack of ambition? Are Glazers happy with top4 spot and don't have desire to fight with other top clubs? Or Ed is just that bad in selling players? Or we just don't have clear vision?

We have 6 central defenders. It was logical to sell at least two this summer and buy one world class. We didn't do that. In fact we gave Jones new contract despite that we knew that we will need world class defender. Now even if we buy Maguire, we will basically pay millions to two defenders who will not play at all. Right winger or no10 position? It was logical to sell Lingard and buy Dybala or Costa or some other player who would give huge boost to this squad. Is that hard to sell Rojo, Smalling, Lingard, Matic for example? Yes, they have huge wages but that excuse is becoming a real myth. Other big clubs also pay very good wages to their players but still they sell them regulary and upgrade their squads every year. And some do it for decent fee. We can't sell Darmian whos price is 10-15 mil and who has normal contract.
Likely because they are quite bad while being on high salaries. No one in their right mind would pay money and give 100k/week to the likes of Rojo or Jones. Or gosh forbid, pay half a million per week in Alexis Sanchez, even if we waived the entire transfer fee.

The problem is that we have accumulated many mediocre players in high salaries. No idea if Ed or the managers are to be blamed for this.
 

ArjenIsM3

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Likely because they are quite bad while being on high salaries. No one in their right mind would pay money and give 100k/week to the likes of Rojo or Jones. Or gosh forbid, pay half a million per week in Alexis Sanchez, even if we waived the entire transfer fee.

The problem is that we have accumulated many mediocre players in high salaries. No idea if Ed or the managers are to be blamed for this.
Obviously Ed because as CEO he's responsible + he's the one in charge of transfer negotiations along with Judge. There's no discussion really.
 

Andycoleno9

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Likely because they are quite bad while being on high salaries. No one in their right mind would pay money and give 100k/week to the likes of Rojo or Jones. Or gosh forbid, pay half a million per week in Alexis Sanchez, even if we waived the entire transfer fee.

The problem is that we have accumulated many mediocre players in high salaries. No idea if Ed or the managers are to be blamed for this.
All our current players except De gea were bought or got new contract in Ed's reign. So it is on him.
Mediocre players can be sold. Just you need to know how. And Ed doesn't. Even if you don't know then don't give them bloody new contracts. It is cheaper to release player on free than pay him millions for nothing
 

Fosu-Mens

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All our current players except De gea were bought or got new contract in Ed's reign. So it is on him.
Mediocre players can be sold. Just you need to know how. And Ed doesn't. Even if you don't know then don't give them bloody new contracts. It is cheaper to release player on free than pay him millions for nothing
Think this is evaluated as: If a player is released on a free, then he needs replacing which is transfer fee and wages. Hence it is cheaper to offer a new contract to x player than buying a player and pay his wages. The issue is that the ability and suitability of said x player are not what drives the decision.
 

Gehrman

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To be honest it's fecking depressing that Woodward has more or less become the face of the club where before it was SAF. Woody is the only constant now and he's an accountant who has overseen our complete failure on the pitch for 6 seasons. Tragic.
 

AneRu

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Think this is evaluated as: If a player is released on a free, then he needs replacing which is transfer fee and wages. Hence it is cheaper to offer a new contract to x player than buying a player and pay his wages. The issue is that the ability and suitability of said x player are not what drives the decision.
I think this where our lack of a DOF exposes us because if we had someone who can assess the technical and financial implication of these decisions we wouldn't have extended Rojo, for example, when we have had Tuanzebe and Fosu Mensah on the fringes of the first team for almost three years. A player like Rojo struggles to make ten appearances in the season and we keep him for the squad when we have youth players who would benefit from the chances and possibly stake a claim for a role in the first team in the long run.

I think we place too much importance on the figures and it ends up being counter productive because the player we choose to keep because we don't want to spend on a new player might end up making costly errors that result in us losing a CL spot, which is more damaging.
 
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Crustanoid

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Think this is evaluated as: If a player is released on a free, then he needs replacing which is transfer fee and wages. Hence it is cheaper to offer a new contract to x player than buying a player and pay his wages. The issue is that the ability and suitability of said x player are not what drives the decision.
And it’s the constant thought process driven by short-term finances (AKA continuous profits for the parasitic owners), rather than improved on pitch fortunes (AKA actually long term profits for the parasitic owners) which is strangling the life out of the ‘football’ club
 

Frank Grimes

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Our transfer window was always going to be defined by whether Lukaku and Pogba would go. If these rumours of Pogba to Real are true I'd expect United to get Maguire and at least 2 more in. Big week ahead.
 

Pughnichi

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I would be happy with Maguire, Wan-Bissaka and James. It improves two stand out weak positions and absolutely improves us defensively.

Also happy to be rid of Lukaku who just isn’t a Utd player. Happy for x1 starting spot to be shared between Rashford, Martial, Greenwood and Sanchez

We were told from the outset it’s a work in progress.

Would be great for another CM option and that in my mind would be a bonus.

I just hope we’re lining up Sancho for next summer
 

lewwoo

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This could be the season it finally all goes wrong for woodward. The fans wont accept Ole being used as his scapegoat as easily as they did Lvg and Mourinho. Lets see where we are at when the window closes but if this is all the business we are doing and it goes tits up again it is all on woody this time. We cant blame manager after manager when there has been one common denominator.
 

Fosu-Mens

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And it’s the constant thought process driven by short-term finances (AKA continuous profits for the parasitic owners), rather than improved on pitch fortunes (AKA actually long term profits for the parasitic owners) which is strangling the life out of the ‘football’ club
Most economical educated/focus people prefer short term profits compared to short term investment and loss followed by long term profit. Not that the club has not been allowed to use £££ over the last years, the problem is the amount of planning/research that has gone into the investment. What are the benefits of this investment(player)? Does the investment make us more competitive? Does it suit the way we want to operate on the pitch etc...
 

Greck

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All our current players except De gea were bought or got new contract in Ed's reign. So it is on him.
Mediocre players can be sold. Just you need to know how. And Ed doesn't. Even if you don't know then don't give them bloody new contracts. It is cheaper to release player on free than pay him millions for nothing
If you release him on a free you may have to pay the worth of his salary which is still paying him millions for nothing except without the benefit of being able to use him since he's no longer on the team. It's a contract and in the absence of some advantageous bailout clause you can't just terminate it before it ends. There are other factors but in general you cant just release a player with time on his contract without a substantial settlement. Typically it's not more beneficial or cheaper to do so.

Where we could have avoided this situation was earlier when we gave them those contracts in the first place. I still don't believe we renewed any contract with the intention of recouping a fee. "We want to recoup a fee so we put them on a contract no one would want to buy". This would be criminal level incompetence if true
 
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dannyrhinos89

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If Woodward somehow pulls off Bruno, maguire and dybala before the window closes then he deserves a statue outside old Trafford.
 

Jacob

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If Woodward somehow pulls off Bruno, maguire and dybala before the window closes then he deserves a statue outside old Trafford.
He really doesn't. The club has still been run very amateurish. No cohesion or distinct philosophy.
 

Andycoleno9

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If you release him on a free you may have to pay the worth of his salary which is still paying him millions for nothing except without the benefit of being able to use him since he's no longer on the team. It's a contract and in the absence of some advantageous bailout clause you can't just terminate it before it ends. There are other factors but in general you cant just release a player with time on his contract without a substantial settlement. Typically it's not more beneficial or cheaper to do so.

Where we could have avoided this situation was earlier when we gave them those contracts in the first place. I still don't believe we renewed any contract with the intention of recouping a fee. "We want to recoup a fee so we put them on a contract no one would want to buy". This would be criminal level incompetence if true
I meant release them when they cintract expires or to say better don't offer new contract to deadwood( like we did with Jones)
 

Greck

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I meant release them when they cintract expires or to say better don't offer new contract to deadwood( like we did with Jones)
I agree. Although not on the Jones part. I think ole genuinely rates him. You can tell who a manager rates from his selection habits. Jones like Rashford gets favour at his position and I don't think it's because Woodward his forcing him to showcase Jones for a sale.
 

oz insomniac

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A crucial week on 2 fronts, obviously for the team to conclude transfers on relatively long term targets, and for Woody as if he fails Again in this window and doesn't to bring in Bruno, McGuire and swap Laukaku for Dybala, then a line has been drawn under his ability to act as DOF and CEO for the Man Utd football club.

In a sense the stars have aligned and all those targets are attainable and appear to actually want to move to Man UTd, whilst moving players on is still a problem this is a chance to start to assemble a team that can at least compete for the top 4. Fingers crossed that Woody actually is successful ( hopefull he sees how important that is in his job description).
 

Andycoleno9

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If Woodward somehow pulls off Bruno, maguire and dybala before the window closes then he deserves a statue outside old Trafford.
You think that Glazers would give another 200mil for players. Plus wages. No way. Maguire will come for sure. We will put skme clauses in deal and sign him. Bruno is fake story i think. We have enough midfielders and i don't think that we will sell one.
Dybala; he is just using us to get better status( contract) in Juve
 

LeftyBlaster

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You think that Glazers would give another 200mil for players. Plus wages. No way. Maguire will come for sure. We will put skme clauses in deal and sign him. Bruno is fake story i think. We have enough midfielders and i don't think that we will sell one.
Dybala; he is just using us to get better status( contract) in Juve
:houllier: Not quality ones to challenge. What are you on about
 

ottosec

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He's been hardly perfect, but since he took over he's been doing well on the transfer market. Much much better than David "Warchest" Gill did in his last years. It's hardly his fault that the top players he bought didn't work.

Moaners gonna moan, though.

He needs to get us a center back and a midfielder now, at least.
 

Andycoleno9

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:houllier: Not quality ones to challenge. What are you on about
Of course that Bruno would be great but we are not talking about quality now. In that case we need 5 more players. We are talking about quantity. You can't just buy players without selling them.
Our squad is huge plus we will buy Maguire sooner or later. Do you expect that Ed will manage to sell one midfielder in these 10 days? I don't.
 

TRUERED89

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If Woodward somehow pulls off Bruno, maguire and dybala before the window closes then he deserves a statue outside old Trafford.
No absolutely NOT! if we win the fecking PL he might just get a handshake, feck a statue he's got 6 years to make up for. Although I will take back a lot of the insults I've hurled out at him!
 

He'sRaldo

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If Woodward somehow pulls off Bruno, maguire and dybala before the window closes then he deserves a statue outside old Trafford.
I highly doubt the people on this thread will be reasonable enough to take back anything they said.
 

MrSingh2002

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If ever there was a time for Ed to move quick and pay whatever is required... it's now if he wants Dybala. Sign him before anyone else gets involved like PSG/Bayern/City.

Or he can be another that got away.