Oh I agree with that.
Telegraph: Gary Neville calls for Ed Woodward to be sacked for Manchester United's 'unforgivable' recruitment
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They earn more than 350k per week?
It's interesting that he's targeting Woodward on finances which is considered his major strength by the owners. There is so much waste, but we should remember this is in an industry where waste is pretty much standard practice. The owners have probably agreed a certain figure they are willing to spend, they may not care as long as the income and profitability targets are hit each year off the expenditure.
That said, it should seem obvious to everyone that not being part of the Champions League is borderline criminal - given how much money we are leaving on the table there. We should pretty much be an ever-present in Champions League with the amount of money that is ploughed into the football side each season. How it suddenly became acceptable to run close, but finish outside of qualification, is beyond me.
We should absolutely be competing for league titles too, but I accept winning in an era where City have been behaving like they are playing with Football Manager cheat mode is certainly not trivial.
Is Woodward so amazing at the business dealing that our owners can't afford to risk losing him by stripping down his role? It seems so obvious that the path forward is to move Woody away from the football side of things, and just have him focus on bringing in piles of money.
That said, it should seem obvious to everyone that not being part of the Champions League is borderline criminal - given how much money we are leaving on the table there. We should pretty much be an ever-present in Champions League with the amount of money that is ploughed into the football side each season. How it suddenly became acceptable to run close, but finish outside of qualification, is beyond me.
We should absolutely be competing for league titles too, but I accept winning in an era where City have been behaving like they are playing with Football Manager cheat mode is certainly not trivial.
Is Woodward so amazing at the business dealing that our owners can't afford to risk losing him by stripping down his role? It seems so obvious that the path forward is to move Woody away from the football side of things, and just have him focus on bringing in piles of money.
Shunned unshunned
Just checked. De Bruyne is rumoured to be on £280k a week. Martial and Rashford are rumoured to be on £250k a week.
One has established himself as the best midfielder and is 28 in his prime. The other two are young players that for some reason we decided to overpay. We just give players whatever they want.
Another thing that Glazers and Woodward should be criticised for is this stupid policy of renewing contracts in the last year because we just end up overpaying because we are desperate to not lose the player on a free.
It's a bit simplistic. Players routinely extend their contracts in the last 18 months of their current contract, there is nothing new or special about it and you can't force a player to sign sooner anyway. Our issue is simply that we are not an attractive club from a football standpoint and we aren't really good at signing or developing top potential on a regular basis, I put an emphasis on regular basis because it is the ability to repeat it and over and over that will give us some leverage in the transfer and wage market. Otherwise the few talented players that you have know that you are stuck with them and that you are not really going anywhere in terms of success which is something that they will make you pay whether you try to sign them 36 or 18 months before the term of their contract.
Just take Rashford, Martial, De Gea and Pogba we allegedly tried to start negotiations with all of them more than 24 months before the end of their contracts and if I'm not mistaken they all delayed them.
Ed Woodward is shit at his job.
In other news, Adolf Hitler wasn't a very nice guy....
In other news, Adolf Hitler wasn't a very nice guy....
This 100%.
About bloody time someone "big" talked about our bollocks management since SAF retired.
Don't think the Glazers care too much thought to be honest. As long as their return on investment is stable, everything is peachy for them. Winning silverware is just a cherry on top
Don't think the Glazers care too much thought to be honest. As long as their return on investment is stable, everything is peachy for them. Winning silverware is just a cherry on top
Indeed. But aditionally, one of the biggest problems with not winning much, is that you're going to have to overpay to get players to come or stay here. We simply lack pull right now.
Many of us have been saying this for a while.
Matt Judge I believe is the guy who negotiates (if you can call it that) on wages.
It wouldn't surprise me if the player agent asks for £100kpw and Matt Judge says, "No, we only want to pay you £150kpw".
From top to bottom, we are underperforming.
I think Woodward is doing a worse job than Ole.
Ole is bad. But Woodward has been stinking up the place for about 7 years. He has been consistently bad.
People also say that he is very good at getting sponsorships - I disagree with this. It doesn't take much skill to "sell" sponsorship for MUFC. This is easy. The difficulty is when you have a small club/brand and want to sell sponsorship to companies who have never heard of your club/organisation. That takes true skill.
This. Outstanding post.
I agree with this, partially.
The wage issue doesn't only effect new signings. We are also over-paying on dross like Ashley Young and P.Jones (to name 2 players).
Jones should be on a pay as you play contract. I doubt any EPL club would pay Jones the money he gets from MUFC.
Superstars like Pogba will need to be paid handsomely....I get that.
Anyone defending Woodward in here should get the following tagline: "Ed Woodward?"
Nail on the head..
Would this side challenge for the league?
De Gea; AWB; Maguire; Smalling; Shaw (pre leg break); Pogba, Herrera, Martial, Rashford, di Maria, Ibra
We've had players like Blind, Mata, Bailly, Fred, Depay, Fellaini who'd be very useful.
I actually find the criticism that Woody receives to be way over the top. Hes spent a shit tonne and our managers have failed him.
De Gea; AWB; Maguire; Smalling; Shaw (pre leg break); Pogba, Herrera, Martial, Rashford, di Maria, Ibra
We've had players like Blind, Mata, Bailly, Fred, Depay, Fellaini who'd be very useful.
I actually find the criticism that Woody receives to be way over the top. Hes spent a shit tonne and our managers have failed him.
With the right manager possibly. Again back to the people choosing the manager.
No, the criticism is not that we spent too much or too little. It’s how we spent. If one manager spends a lot on mediocre players or too little to get good players, the buck might stop there. But when you have the same situation after four managers, the buck mus pass on to the responsible for the set up. This is Woodward.
It's not just Woodward. Anyone who thinks the Glazers aren't equally culpable are in complete denial. They set the tone and the direction of the club. They even appointed Woodward to replace Gill so their judgement isn't great is it?
Glazers n Woodward OUT this year is what I'm still hoping for. I'd rather bite my lip and follow us under the Saudis than watch our slow painful demise under these parasites. The club is rotten.
Glazers n Woodward OUT this year is what I'm still hoping for. I'd rather bite my lip and follow us under the Saudis than watch our slow painful demise under these parasites. The club is rotten.
You're not wrong. But he has to carry the can. The footballing structure at the club is his responsibility. If he can't that right, he has no business here.
Well said Gary. Get fecking Woodward out.
Let him go be chief exec at a fortune 500 company and probably do very well for himself, he's clearly not cut out to run a successful football club.
Glazers aren't going anywhere.
I look at it this way, unless the Galzers have had direct involvement(I doubt it) on how we've spent €1bn in six and a half years, they can't be the biggest culprit.
They're leeches and I want them out but teams have built world class squads with half that money.
Apparently Allegri was set to take over after LVG's 3 years, but the plans were scrapped because the fans wanted him out after the 2nd season.
Woody deserves all the critics, He's the CEO. He's the one who decided to keep the obviously failing managers (sacking them for too late) and He's the one who gave out fat contracts to our rather average players. He also never seem to have a proper plan. He sacked Van Gaal after Jose was available even though He knew They are totally different and then He sacked Jose when shit hit the fan after not backing him up properly in the transfer window. After that He appointed Ole because We were in a winning streak even though everyone and their mothers knew We haven't hit that patch of bad results to see how Ole copes with it.
Moyes to Van Gaal -> No complaint as anything was improvement over Moyes
Van Gaal to Jose -> From possession football + youth to no youth + instant success. Here's when you begin to wonder if Ed has a long term planning at all. After a while it was becoming apparent that He didn't back Jose fully even though We all know Jose likes to buy older players for instant success.
Jose to Ole -> From no youth + instant success to youth + no success. All with the wrong timing, trigger happy decision. Here's when you know our CEO cannot be relied for big decisions around the club. Which is 100% of his job description. Look at the pattern, there's no pattern. Wouldn't surprise me if the next manager after Ole is Maradona.
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Absolutely needed to be said. Ultimately I'm not sure how much of an impact it will have, though I live in hope. I have no doubt that the owners and executives and the primary issue with our club. I've said it for years.
Is this true? If it is then things are far worse than I thought. Who signed off these contracts? Burt Reynolds?
You don't know that. They bought us in 2005 so that's 15 years ago now. Are they going to keep us forever and pass it on to the 3rd generation of the Glazer family? They are blood sucking business men and will sell the club when it's the right time. I think that time is soon coming because Liverpool n City are catching us up off the pitch too and are well infront on it as we all know.
How many clubs have an embedded philosophy? Take Liverpool, for example, how similar was Klopp to Brendan Rodgers or their previous managers? Did Liverpool always have Klopp in mind or did they go for him once he became available as it was definitely a risk worth taking?
I agree that he's made a number of incorrect decisions. Moyes was on Fergie. LvG and Jose were both punts with the idea being quick success. Ole was a mistake and thats been my opinion since day 1 - this was Eds biggest error. He played his cards perfectly by sacking Mourinho at the right time, giving the care taker job to a fan favourite but he messed up when he made Ole permanent. He has his shortcomings and other than missing out on Klopp, I don't see too many issues with his managerial appointments. He's backed them well but for different reasons, they've all failed him thus far.
That said, he deserves the sack as he isn't experienced enough. I'd like us to move forward in the direction others want in that set a plan and work towards it but we need competent people in their roles. Ed and Ole both should go.
Anyone have our predicted wagebill for next season if we get rid of Sanchez and Pogba goes? Doubt it'll be top 5, we've got rid of a lot of players on high wages (Lukaku, Fellaini, Herrera, Young, Smalling, Darmian) with more to go (Rojo, Jones,) I'd be surprised if the wage bill hasn't fallen dramatically.
Player for player compare our signings vs Liverpool over the past 4/5 seasons and without hindsight at the time you’d say our signings were better, except for maybe 1 or 2. Something is rotten with the coaching at the club.
True I think. I rated Mane highly, but he is probably the only one. Van Dijk I didn't expect to develop like he did for them. Allison was a very good keeper so rated that move.
The rest probably not that much.
The only real example, I can think of was Pep and the feathering of the nest that occured at City, that was a clear plan for years before it happened.
Football tends to have this fallacy of success = the right way to do something, also a severe grass is always greener syndrome. The Spainish model of youth development was heralded as the best thing since sliced bread when Spain was dominating the scene, then it was the German system, all while papering over or flat out ignoring the cracks in it. Only to immediately eject everything the second it loses a big game, in favour of the new hotness.
However, difference between Liverpool's approach and United's over the last 5 years (apart from one has worked and one clearly hasn't), is that Liverpool have appeared to act more swiftly and proactivately, rather than indecisively and extremely reactionary. Some of that is pure luck, it's not like they didn't have years of abject shite too but it's probably more just making a decision one way or the other and following through.
Mourinho shouldn't have been renewed or he should have been backed fully, if you aren't getting rid of Pogba and Martial, then let him go. It would have taken balls to put up with his moaning for the next 6 months but I think the signs of a meltdown where on the cards. Instead they renewed to keep him happy short term, knowing long term he's going to shit the bed. Ole shouldn't have been employeed on a full time basis, as much as I like him and am now prepared to give him time. If they had stuck to the original statement, I don't think the calls to give him the job on a permenant basis in June would have been as high as they were in March. The 3 year search for a DoF is just laughable at this point, if they'd have just picked ANYBODY you'd be seeing results about now or have a scapegoat, instead you have yet to hire someone.
If any of those moves had worked, you wouldn't be hearing these complaints though.
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Apparently De Gea's latest contract makes him the highest paid player the the league.
This was after he started to become more error prone, we reward mediocrity.
Nobody else in world football was going to give him close to those wages and his performances were not exactly making him irreplaceable at the time.
We are a laughing stock.
How can we hope to have a balanced squad with a keeper as top earner?
If we ever do get consistently performing forwards and midfielders, they will be entitled to ask for more than the the error prone GK.
It was actually a worse decision than the Sanchez salary, at least that was recognized as ridiculous.
Is that right about Poch not being able to sign until summer? I wondered why no one has hired him.
At last. Now I hope others would pile up the pressure too.
Pity we will never hear what the great man really thinks of the current mess of the club.
Yeah, I agree with you. Ultimately, I think Eds had the right intentions but its no much the decisions hes made but, as you point out, the lack of them. Missing out on Klopp and a DOF seem to be our biggest problems as well as the key signings we've not made.
The guys he hired failed him?
So how long do we allow him to continue his failures?
He’s overseen failure since Fergie and Gill left. How much longer would you like to see him given? As our squad is paper thin and we’ve a manager in charge with no track record, which he has over seen in his role.