It's hard to tell how things were going behind the scenes to really judge who was calling the shots, but at the end of the day this has been an era of failure for the club so it's good to see the old guards leaving. Hopefully we have a replacement in mind before the start of the summer.
Matt Judge resigns from role as Manchester United’s Head of Corporate Development
- Thread starter macheda14
- Start date
Didn't Evra say he turned his phone off on transfer deadline day?
Good to see another one of Ed's old guard bite the dust hopefully this can entice Sir Jim Ratcliffe to now make a bid!
A perfect example of financial rationale over footballing sense. And we are surprised that so many managers have failed under the Woodward regime?
Maybe in a couple of years when he sees a better organisation chart/structure within the Club. He definitely has the appetite for buying an EPL club for sure after putting a late bid for Chelsea.
Judge and Woodward caused so much of damage to the club it’s good they’ve now fecked off. This shows the club are moving in the right direction for the rebuild
DIsneyland era well and truly done, I hope.
Terminated 2: Judgement Day.
My thoughts exactlyAny chance this is in somehow an indication that the leeches are selling up? I see that Jim Ratcliffe had his 4bn bid for Chelsea rejected and now im just adding 1 plus 1 and coming up with 4bn
I do not know what our wage structure is. Also, did Judge decide the wage structure, or just work within the parameters decided by others?
As for transfer fees - negotiations aren't magic. If Leicester are insistent on a certain price, all you can do is either agree to pay it or walk away and go for another player. I don't think deciding 'we're not paying this and that for Maguire, we'll go for another player' was Judge's decision.
Very true!
In addition, one of the problems at United that’s frequently been reported in recent times has been the length of time it takes to get decisions made as absolutely everything has to be cleared with Joel Glazer in Florida, which of course is in a time zone hours behind the UK.
Now in the early days of their ownership, and into the early Woodward years, the Glazers were known for their hands-off approach. The stuff that’s being leaked about their micromanagement has only been from the last four or so years; the first time I got wind of it was when they wouldn’t let Martial be sold in Jose’s last summer.
So why had they shifted from hands-off to wanting everything run past them? Presumably because they no longer trusted the decisions that were being made on their behalf. And because of their remoteness and lack of knowledge, maybe they were scared to go all the way and actually replace the people making the bad decisions; better the devil you know etc. Woodward’s resignation has changed all that, and to our great fortune the person selected as his replacement, despite being yet another cronyist internal appointment, seems to be in possession of two vital qualities: a recognition that others might be better qualified to make footballing decisions than him and the confidence and tact to be able to persuade the Glazers that change is good.
Correct.
I also believe he will only join the club if Fletcher leaves. If that happens I can say more, but until then that’s all I can say.
Are we actually going to have football people in charge of football decision? Must be dreaming. Well done to Murtogh for clearing the deadwoodwards from top to bottom. Mitchell will be final piece of the puzzle.
I suspect the final title might not be called "deputy football director". Hopefully it will be something along the lines of head of recruitment and Mitchell or someone capable will head that role.
Many thanks for his efforts during his time at the club.
Ralf and Murtough are the Glazers whisperers.
I am no expert but in my opinion, one can only judge a departing CEO's performance by whether the structure he built remains in place in the short-medium term. CEO's aren't there to run the day to day stuff. They are there to shape the business vision ie 4-5 years. If his successor comes in and dismantles all that at record speed then that means two things
a- The new CEO believes that what his predecessor had done is basically crap
b- He's got the full support of the owners to change this around.
Which basically translates in one thing ie the previous CEO was a mess.
That's what I believe is happening right now with Bout, Lawler and Judge leaving. I won't be surprised if more people are shown the door.
Fletcher's appointment is a weird one. As a kid he was highly hyped. I remember SAF wanting to give him his debut at age 16 which is silly considering how long much much much talented players like Becks and Scholes had to wait for their debut. He then signs a long contract only to announce his illness. If I remember well SAF knew about it beforehand but still orchestrated this contract extension which is nice for the player but was at the detriment of the club's interests. Then he finally leaves only to return first as U16 coach, then as a first team coach then as a technical director. His rise to prominence was ridiculous in football standards and he seem to be everywhere at any time (academy, coaching players, interviewing managers, shouting at the sidelines etc). His job confuses Rangnick who knows a thing or two about how a club should be structured
In my opinion Fletcher has powerful patrons protecting him which I believe are not part of the Woodward's cabal. Which makes it quite difficult to predict what would happen next to him. According to Hawson he might be leaving in the summer. I think he'll remain here up until SAF is still around.
It likely was Woodward being the main issue originally. However if the 'main issue' is allowed to continue being a huge problem for close to a decade, that then goes up the chain and becomes the fault of the owners.
The Glazers have probably cost themselves over a billion pounds in terms of assets by their utter mismanagement of the club. The unnecessary waste in transfer fees, the lack of money gained by transfer sales, the over-the-top wages, the lack of success on the field dropping prize-money, the lack of success reducing what we could have got in sponsorship, all this added together reducing the overall worth of the club...it all adds up. Either the Glazers themselves were meddling and getting things wrong (their fault) or they allowed the person who was ultimately making the decisions to continue for far too long (their fault). I doubt it would have been allowed to go on so long if their old man was still alive and in charge, but as what often happens in these situations the kids are nowhere near as business-savvy.
Last edited:
Notice how these people at the top have more leeway for poor performance than the common man. It’s rampant in the corporate sector.
And a stunning ability to fail upwards when they do get found out.
VDB was just an example. If we had gone and paid 50m for a Cancelo rather than AWB or 80m for a Van Dijk rather than Maguire, people would have had no complaints over the prices. The issue was that the wrong people chose the wrong players, and it was all done when everyone knew we were desperate.
Is it beyond the realms of possibility that Murtough asked RR for a list of his recommendations and is acting on some of them? For me it's too coincidental that this (re) evolution is happening just a couple of months after hiring one of the best club builders in recent history.
Why does Ralf get the credit for Murtough’s work?
Aaah it all makes sense now. You dislike Fletcher to such an extent that you concoct conspiracy theories around him.
Also come on Hawson? The only story he ever broke (ish) was Ronaldo and that was just because of his proximity to Rio. Him and Rio have never broken a story before or since.
You have to assume this is Russel Arnold's influence, right? He clearly wants football-savvy people involved in transfers and contract negotiations rather than the travesty of Woodward controlling everything.
We're learning, slowly but surely.
We're learning, slowly but surely.
In tears at the image of the Darren Fletcher illuminati.
It's not but these changes have been in the works for some time it appears. He's not been speaking publicly unlike Ralf but I think the credit should be attributed mainly to Murtough if anyone. He's also the one that was keen on and push through RR coming in the first place.
Dislike Fletcher? I've never even ever met the guy. All I am saying is that I can't see Fletcher being part of the Woodward's close circle of friends like Judge was. The guy has been treated very, very, very well long before Woodward or even the Glazers came into scene. In fact many fans used to call Fletcher as SAF's illegitimate son. Thus I can't see him go because Woodward left
Indeed. If the illuminati (otherwise know as SAF) had that much power over both Fletcher and the club, wouldn’t “they” have stopped him leaving for West Brom in 2015?
the theme tune to X-files came on in my head whilst I read this bit
So why was he allowed to leave for West Brom in 2015? Why was SAF not that desperate to let him go back then, but apparently is now?
Dislike in as much as you do find any opportunity to criticise him and his position in the club. To the point your peddling conspiracy theories around him that he’s a ‘protected man’ by a cabal of influencers.
And yes he was called Ferguson’s illegitimate son because SAF continued to play him when fans thought he was shit - it was thought he only did so because he was Scottish ergo ‘Ferguson’s illegitimate son’. He then turned out to be a very very good player thereby proving Ferguson’s continued trust in him. Nothing more nothing less.
The illuminati care very deeply about Stoke getting promoted.
The only connection (if you can even call it that) between SAF and Fletcher is they were born in the same country.
That's literally it.
Why would SAF go out of his way to protect someone just because they're fellow countrymen?
I reckon Fletcher will prove the doubters wrong. And I think there is an outside chance he could be our manager some day (he'd obviously need to leave the club to prove himself first).
I don't have much to back that up other than a hunch, but I reckon there are very good reasons why Fergie backed him for all those years - he has a great work ethic, he's intelligent, has a strong mentality and is very focused.
I don't have much to back that up other than a hunch, but I reckon there are very good reasons why Fergie backed him for all those years - he has a great work ethic, he's intelligent, has a strong mentality and is very focused.
I criticise every person I feel that lack the CV and the experience in the role he's given. If you read my posts you know that I did the same thing with Judge, Woodward, Murtough and Ole as well, most of whom I turned out to be correct on the matter. Fletcher got two promotions in few months. He's now conducting first team training, he's involved in interviewing managers and is a director. I find that to be not appropriate for a guy who few months before was just a coach for the U16.
First of all Murtough hired Ralf so for me he should get credit for at least having the believe something needed to change. But it´s clear after having listen to Ralf over the course of his tenure that he has been in dialog with his bosses while he has been working on looking at the squad. I at least don´t see how anyone could not connect the dots on whats been going on with Ralf coming in, I might be wrong.
Well you have to ask him, really. Its undeniable though that SAF has shown a level of rare patience with Fletcher, a player who wasn't even first team level for most of his career (some might even say he never was). We even gave him a long term contract when it was evident that his illness was ending his career at that level. Then he left, he came back and in few months time he fount himself as a director whose busy interviewing prospective managers and is part of the manager's first team coaching. Not even Rangnick understand fully what Fletcher does which is strange considering that Rangnick is quite experienced in building squads from bottom up
Last edited:
Well you've have to ask him. I guess not even SAF could give a second contract extension to someone whose illness had basically ruined his career at top flight.