How good was David Gill

Andy_Cole

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Was having an argument with my mate yesterday who believed Uniteds downfall was because Gill left, as much as Ferguson.

I disagreed. I seem to remember thinking he was not that great. He thought that Gill was fantastic at his job and ran a really well oiled machine at United.

Not sure if anyone has any insight in this. I also think perhaps Gill is a bit over rated because of Woodward’s incompetence that came after him.
 

roonster09

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Gill did great job by leaving at same time, SAF carried the club and everyone looked competent.
 

Oranges038

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Classy player, quick, good feet, brilliant tackler, excellent in the air, wonderful reader of the game. Makes Maguire look like Titus Bramble.

One of the best defenders ever.
 

sugar_kane

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Woodward's failings were partly enabled by the lack of a modern footballing structure David Gill had left.

Woodward was awful, a disaster for this club, but he also inherited a dinosaur of an organisation that was held together by the phenomenal force of Sir Alex Ferguson and made his bosses look good.

I see those final years under Fergie as a time of hubris and complacency (from a club structure perspective) followed by the collapse under Woodward.
 

Chairman Steve

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I think Gill decided to get the feck out as soon as he got wind Sir Alex was retiring, leaving Woodward to hold the bag so to speak.
 

Marwood

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I don't think anyone outside the club could possibly know the answer.
 

golden_blunder

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Gill (and Fergie ) could have, and should have started restructuring for when SAF retired. Chuck in that Gill went at the same time (huge error in my opinion) which left Woody to his own, inexperienced self. He was on a hiding from day one.
 

The Corinthian

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I’m of the view that when it comes to football clubs, the less you see / hear of the CEO means the better the job he’s doing. It’s no coincidence that everyone knows about Woodward but not many people know about Gill.
 

Gordon Godot

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THere is an untold story as to why Gill left. He had said numerous times that there was a pland to handle succession after Fergie and the club would not make the same mistakes at the past. Yet we then did exactly the same as Busby, allowing outgoing manager to set their time of leaving, to hand pick their successor and then to hang around in the background. I suspect GIll had had enough of the Glazers, maybe they had had enough of him, maybe he also objected to the joke of the Moyes appointment. I doubt we will ever know the full truth
 

Zen86

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He obviously had a good relationship with Fergie, but it was the latter who was the reason for our success. That said, Gill didn't do us any favours by stepping down at the same time. Any scope for transitional stability was lost and he probably saw just how reliant we were on Fergie and the shitshow that was to follow.
 

Dante

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Better than we give him credit for.

Look at Chelsea. They change manager every couple of seasons without encountering any of the problems that United have had in the last decade.

It's because they have a structure in place behind the scenes. A structure that allowed Roberto Di Matteo to win the Champions League and Avram Grant to get within a couple of points and a penalty kick of eclipsing United's greatest ever team.

A good chairman makes the manager's position plug-and-play.
 

Jeppers7

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Always thought he was overrated. We struggled and struggled with so many signings under him and towards the end of SAF era he has to share responsibility for the lack of forward planning.
 

JPRouve

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THere is an untold story as to why Gill left. He had said numerous times that there was a pland to handle succession after Fergie and the club would not make the same mistakes at the past. Yet we then did exactly the same as Busby, allowing outgoing manager to set their time of leaving, to hand pick their successor and then to hang around in the background. I suspect GIll had had enough of the Glazers, maybe they had had enough of him, maybe he also objected to the joke of the Moyes appointment. I doubt we will ever know the full truth
Why would there be an untold story? Why would you suspect that Gill had enough of the Glazers? The Glazers are the ones that made Gill the vice Chairman, they trusted him.
 

The Corinthian

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Absolutely everyone knew about David Gill :lol:

Ans Kenyon before him.
Not the point I’m making.

The fact that we know so much about Woody’s psyche and general behaviour is what I was referring to.

Like when he returned from Australia for ‘urgent transfer business’ or when he said ‘we can do things in the transfer market that other clubs can only dream of’, or when he described working here as ‘an adult Disneyland’.

Gill you would hardly hear from or see. Although we all knew he was the guy in the board room how often did we as fans hear from him?
 

haru krentz

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Everyone at club was carried by SAF, even the high reputation assistant manager like Queiroz, McLaren, and Meuleensten so it's kinda hard to measure just how good Gill was after all he was handed the already well-run club after Kenyon left and the list of players we missed under Gill was pretty long too (Robben, Essien, Benzema, Moura, Hazard) although i dont know whether he was fully responsible or it was Sir Alex who called off the shot.

Everyone is a genius when you've got the GOAT as the manager of the actual product.
Reminds me when Liverpool's Transfer Committee getting blasted by media on monthly basis before Klopp arrives :lol: The importance of great manager can never be underestimated, you can sign the most talented player in the world but it means nothing if you cant improve them onto another level.
 
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Why would there be an untold story? Why would you suspect that Gill had enough of the Glazers? The Glazers are the ones that made Gill the vice Chairman, they trusted him.
In fact, he was the perfect Glazer man. Kept spending on a tight leash, unlike Woodward.
 

Fortitude

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Not sure how easy this is to deduce when you're the right-hand man of Ferguson. If Woodward has the same role with Fergie as his lead, he would have been dictated to until he got it right and learned the tricks and nuances of the trade. I'd also say when you're the representative of Fergie, doors that would otherwise be closed will be wide open for you. Woodward wasn't afforded that privilege.

You've gone from The Godfather to Mr. Bean in terms of managerial aura there, then followed it up with Anton Chigur and Hannibal Lector and topped that off with Forrest Gump (no disrespect intended), so it's a very different scaling for Gill than it was for Woodward.
 
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Not the point I’m making.

The fact that we know so much about Woody’s psyche and general behaviour is what I was referring to.

Like when he returned from Australia for ‘urgent transfer business’ or when he said ‘we can do things in the transfer market that other clubs can only dream of’, or when he described working here as ‘an adult Disneyland’.

Gill you would hardly hear from or see. Although we all knew he was the guy in the board room how often did we as fans hear from him?
How often do we hear from Woody? Almost never.

And now we’re hearing about Arnold and Murtough all the time, that’s just the World today, with this constant desperation to reveal any United news.

Even with Gill though, you’re just showing recency bias.

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport...-you-in-the-eye-and-say-that-1984929.html?amp

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport...-going-nowhere-declares-gill-1919991.html?amp
 

Djemba-Djemba

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Anyone would look good when Fergie was manager.

Except Woodward probably, he was so fecking useless he'd have probably managed to ruin Fergie too.
 

JPRouve

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Anyone would look good when Fergie was manager.

Except Woodward probably, he was so fecking useless he'd have probably managed to ruin Fergie too.
I don't think so, Woodward faults was to follow the managers lead into impasses, that's what made him useless. Fergie was the best scout around.
 

JPRouve

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Woodward was such a useless tosser though, he'd have found a way to mess things up.
I'm sure that your sentiment is based on rightful frustration but we need to keep in mind that Woodward fault was to be passive and reactive. Logically these flaws don't apply to an SAF managed club unless we assume that SAF takes silly decisions.
 
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Fortitude

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Woodward was such a useless tosser though, he'd have found a way to mess things up.
Ferguson would not have allowed that to happen - you either get with the program or you're gone. Woodward was naive, but he bent over backwards for his managers in the most clueless ways; Fergie would have guided him and made him the best he could be. The blind leading the blind was our biggest problem - Moyes, Van Gaal, Mourinho and Ole, not a single one of them have a clue about the job they were instructing Woodward on, with the middle two always having people that bought for them and had them work with what they were given.
 

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I'm sure that your sentiment is based on rightful frustration but we need to keep in mind that Woodward fault was to be passive and reactive. Logically these flaws don't apply to an SAF managed club unless we assume that SAF takes silly decisions.
It's depressing to say, but Woodward would have been fine in the right structure. The issue is that he was given much too wide a scope, and mostly included in his scope areas that he just wasn't competent for. Had he had the right governance in place at the club, and focused on his strengths (which he obviously has), he wouldn't look so out of his depth. The problem at Utd for years has been systemic rather than linked to individuals, which hopefully is being slowly rectified.
 

JPRouve

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It's depressing to say, but Woodward would have been fine in the right structure. The issue is that he was given much too wide a scope, and mostly included in his scope areas that he just wasn't competent for. Had he had the right governance in place at the club, and focused on his strengths (which he obviously has), he wouldn't look so out of his depth. The problem at Utd for years has been systemic rather than linked to individuals, which hopefully is being slowly rectified.
Agreed. One of the reasons I believe that we are unfair to Woodward is that he managed to be an important figure at the ECA in domains that fits his expertise, so his peers thougth that he had something to offer.
 

2cents

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Hard to judge him. He left the club in a shambles, structurally speaking. Our recruitment was awful for years before he left, and we consistently missed out on players who went on to be extremely valuable for our rivals in those years. Yet we can’t know for sure how much he was hamstrung by the Glazers or restricted by Fergie’s influence.
 

amolbhatia50k

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Can't say I know enough to be able to judge him. How many decisions were inspired ones on his part of us riding the wave of brilliance of footballers greatest ever manager. I do think as a club we did a poor job of modernizing but again I don't know if we can blame someone who seemed to do well in his time.
 

The Corinthian

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How often do we hear from Woody? Almost never.

And now we’re hearing about Arnold and Murtough all the time, that’s just the World today, with this constant desperation to reveal any United news.

Even with Gill though, you’re just showing recency bias.

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport...-you-in-the-eye-and-say-that-1984929.html?amp

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport...-going-nowhere-declares-gill-1919991.html?amp
These were at the heigh of green and gold. Times you’d expect the CEO to make a statement. When else did Gill come out with anything remotely similar to what Woody used to say? Again, it goes back to my point that the less you hear from them the better.
 

SirReginald

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Gill leaving and not having a support structure in place for Woodward to transition into the job only really exposed what a terrible CEO Woodward truly was. If he was eased into the position it would have taken longer to find the issues but they would always be there.

Woodward was a absolutely diabolical football negotiator, quite possible the worst in recent memory for any team. Your wages went through the roof, you publicly targeted star players and ended up with “Fellaini’s” over your Fabregas’s, consistently renewed contracts for players past their purpose.

I mean if Gill wasn’t the best (I have no idea how good he was), Ed will forever make him seem like was. Then again no CEO would have been better than Ed.
 

Mainoldo

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Hazard - fail
Sneijder - fail
Benzema - fail
Ballack - fail
David Vila - fail
David Silva - fail
Ribery- fail

I’m sure I’ve missed a few other big ones.