Telegraph: Gary Neville calls for Ed Woodward to be sacked for Manchester United's 'unforgivable' recruitment

Offside · Jan 20, 2020

If we create a scale based on Fergie's signings from 0-10:

0 - Taibi
5 - Anderson
10 - Cantona.

Then if we say that anything from:

0-3 is shite
4-6 is decent
7 to 9 is good
10 is unreal

Woodward's signings are practically all shite. It's astonishing:

Fellaini 3/10 – shite
Mata 6/10 – decent
Di Maria 1/10 – shite
Shaw 3/10 – shite
Herrera 6/10 – decent
Rojo 3/10 – shite
Blind 5/10 – decent
Falcao 1/10 – shite
Martial 5/10 – decent
Schneiderlin 1/10 – shite
Depay 2/10 – shite
Darmian 2/10 – shite
BFS 2/10 – shite
Romero 7/10 – good
Pogba 6/10– decent
Mkhitaryan 3/10 – shite
Ibra 6/10 – decent
Lukaku 5/10 – decent
Matic 4/10 – decent
Lindelof 3/10 – shite so far in all honesty (bit harsh feel free to disagree)
Sanchez 1/10 – shite
Fred – 4/10 – decent
Dalot – 3/10 shite (done feck all but again bit harsh)

The 6 years previously the signings were better but still very patchy:

Van Persie 9/10 – good
Kagawa 3/10 – shite
Zaha 1/10 – shite
De Gea 9/10 – good
Jones 2/10 – shite
Young 5/10 – decent
Bebe 1/10 – shite
Smalling 5/10 – decent
Chicharito 7/10 – good
Valencia 7/10 – good
Obertan 1/10 – shite
Owen 4/10 – decent
Anderson 5/10 – decent
Nani 7/10 – good
Hargreaves 6/10 – decent
Tevez 8/10 - good

If you then look at the 6 years prior to that, recruitment was just bang on (bar a couple of shit) hence why when the team matured the success was incredible:

Carrick 8/10 – good
Vidic 10/10 – unreal
Evra 10/10 – unreal
Park 8/10 – good
Van Der Sar 10/10 – unreal
Rooney 10/10 – unreal
Smith 5/10 – decent
C.Ronaldo 10/10 – unreal
Saha 8/10 – good
Kleberson 3/10 – shite
Djemba Djemba 2/10 – shite
Ferdinand 10/10 – unreal
Veron 4/10 – decent (shite would be harsh he was magic at times)
Van Nistelrooy 10/10 – unreal

Somewhere along the line we have gone very wrong with our recruitment. It starts around 2009.

The fact we needed to massively improve it anyway and then we put that utter buffoon Ed in charge is why we find ourselves in that absolute shit show we are in now. We need somebody who knows how to built a team to come in. A proper footballing person with a proper strategy and the ability to actually negotiate and fecking conclude the signings. Look at Leicester, Liverpool, City all of their recent success comes from spending their money properly and not spunking it on shite. Why? Because they either have proper footballing people in charge of recruitment or they have a top manager who they trust in the market.

That top list is just mental. Incompetence on an unprecedented scale in modern football.

A lot of the players could have been good but were shite due to the managers Ed has employed. The awful recruitment is terrible but that combined with the managers he has appointed, it truly is unforgivable

Champagne Football · Jan 20, 2020

It's very possible Neville is attacking Ed to take pressure and focus off Ole

ants7 · Jan 20, 2020

I'm genuinely sad about this situation. If only Ed would have appointed a director of football after Fergie retired, all his money would have been presumably spent so much better and all this would have been avoided. For whatever reason this did not happen, we are now paying much higher price. If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.

Fosu-Mens · Jan 20, 2020

JPRouve said:
The first sentence is most likely nonsense, these days journalists claim the weirdest things and for some reason people actually believe it. United has an HR department and they also have a COO, there is next to no chance that Woodward is the one handling the hiring of a physio or any position at that level.

My footballing dislike for certain people at the club and the capitalistic way it operates, sometimes causes me to give to much validity to some less than likely "news" regarding certain people at the club. I hereby retract the first sentence of my previous post and thank you for rectifying my improbable statement.

JPRouve · Jan 20, 2020

ants7 said:
I'm genuinely sad about this situation. If only Ed would have appointed a director of football after Fergie retired, all his money would have been presumably spent so much better and all this would have been avoided. For whatever reason this did not happen, we are no paying much higher price. If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.

It did not happen at the time because Gill and SAF decided that Moyes was the new Fergie.

JPRouve · Jan 20, 2020

Fosu-Mens said:
My footballing dislike for certain people at the club and the capitalistic way it operates, sometimes causes me to give to much validity to some less than likely "news" regarding certain people at the club. I hereby retract the first sentence of my previous post and thank you for rectifying my improbable statement.

No problem, you simply quoted an article. I'm just baffled by the lack of respect that journalists have for fans nowadays or maybe they have no clue about corporate organization themselves.I would be surprised if Arnold(COO) is the one taking care of it himself, it's most likely one of his subordinate who after a request from the head of the medical department will oversee it, these things are either done internally or sometimes through staffing agencies. I wouldn't be able to tell you which route United use but it would be extremely surprising if the whole thing is done by the CEO.

TrustInOle · Jan 20, 2020

JPRouve said:
It did not happen at the time because Gill and SAF decided that Moyes was the new Fergie.

Hate to say it, but in hindsight this decision was the begging of the Spiral down? No way back from what Moyes turned United into, then its just been constant scrambling from a board with hardly any football expertise and a continued lack of vision aside from commercial.

Johan07 · Jan 20, 2020

Fosu-Mens said:
Given that Woody is seemingly the one responsible for hiring (attempted) a physio from Celtic, I would not be very surprised if he and Judge are involved at some important stages in a recruitment process.

Woody is the CEO of MUFC and responsible for the organizational structure of the club. If people are not doing their job (Manager, CFO, Judge etc) or a department is not up to the standard, then he is responsible for firing or not firing them or starting processes to make that department functioning. Since we are so far behind in regards to the use of data analytics and player assessment in the recruitment department it is better to hire someone that has already worked in a well functioning department to fast track the progress/development rather than fumble around until we are at an acceptable level.

Would you want Woodward to appoint a DOF responsible for fixing or modernising our footballing department? Would you let a blind man paint your house?

You seem to have some real insight. Please share where you got the basis of this claim.

Cassidy · Jan 20, 2020

JPRouve said:
It did not happen at the time because Gill and SAF decided that Moyes was the new Fergie.

Pretty sure Gill was against the Moyes hire

JPRouve · Jan 20, 2020

Cassidy said:
Pretty sure Gill was against the Moyes hire

Woodward is supposed to be the one that was against it and Gill was the CEO, so he can't really get out of his responsiblities.

Amadaeus · Jan 20, 2020

I will like Woody to come out with a statement and say Ole/manager sends me a list of players he wants and I just approve the funds for that players. It will make Neville look like a mug. We have spent a billion pounds on players. The problem is the manager we have have poor recruitment abilities. I doubt Woodward is in charge of picking out the players we buy at United. We have scouts, transfer committee and coaches for that. Neville is just trying to protect his pal Ole.

Cassidy · Jan 20, 2020

JPRouve said:
Woodward is supposed to be the one that was against it and Gill was the CEO, so he can't really get out of his responsiblities.

Gill went on record to say what United manager required a few times before Moyes appointment. Moyes didn't fit the criteria. Its said Gill wanted Jose

Alabaster Codify7 · Jan 20, 2020

Champagne Football said:
It's very possible Neville is attacking Ed to take pressure and focus off Ole

My feelings too. I can see a lot of media turning on Ole in the coming weeks, I can see some sketchy results coming up and probably more injuries too. By March, I fully expect the situation to be very bad.

Adnan · Jan 20, 2020

JPRouve said:
I agree with him but his main argument is based on something that I have been saying for years now which goes totally against what he and many others people said in the last years with their "the club is not backing the manager" narrative. The issue isn't a lack of investment, it's that when you back a manager that has no clue about how to manage a football club, you end up wasting an incredible amount of money, that's why most clubs have a structure that is independent to the head coach who is "just" there to coach players on the training pitch and on match days. The shareholders should fire Woodward because he wasted their money and fans should want him to be sacked because he is useless but our managers are also responsible, they have been the main driving force behind our purchase, contract extensions and our wage bill incredible increase, Woodward is just the idiot that backed them and now we are kind of screwed because we absolutely need to get rid of a good 100m in wages before starting to splash big again.

Woodward for sure backed the managers, but the point you make about an independent structure to the head coach is the important one imo and hasn't been implemented after continuous failures. A head coach needs to concentrate on coaching players without having a huge say in recruitment. Under a DoF type structure we as a club would make better use of our scouting network regards recruitment for the first team and better plan for the future. Fergie was a one off and could manage the football department with great success. But Ole and the rest post Fergie never had the experience of actually running the whole football department without help from specialist people at the top level. Our mindset currently is to target the right profile of players for extortionate fees from a position of weakness from clubs in England who demand premium fees. And until we adopt a similar approach to how Juve, RBL and Dortmund etc do things I feel we will continue to see us make mistakes. Building a top quality squad takes time but the important thing is to spend wisely and Juve post Calciopoli is a great example under Marotta and Paratici.

Woodward has shown naivety beyond belief and needs to be moved on.

RedDevilRoshi · Jan 20, 2020

Neville is such a fool. He whole heartedly defended the club after our summer transfer window which we failed to address our midfield and attack. Everyone knew it was going to come back and haunt us. Now he’s opened his eyes and realised that the club’s depth is feckin shit and we should have strengthened those areas. Guy is a prick.

Offside · Jan 20, 2020

Possible that Neville is deliberately calling out Ed, but not naming him, in order to publicly create the image that the club isn’t a desirable place to play so that Bruno will be turned off so he gets the blame for the transfer not happening, the club gets free publicity as an ex player is making headlines whilst at the same time Nev is saving money for the Glazers and landing himself a hefty bonus as a secret agent of their PR team?

mancan92 · Jan 20, 2020

JPRouve said:
The first sentence is most likely nonsense, these days journalists claim the weirdest things and for some reason people actually believe it. United has an HR department and they also have a COO, there is next to no chance that Woodward is the one handling the hiring of a physio or any position at that level.

It sounds crazy. But i work with some of the biggest and oldest companies in the world.most of them are ran like complete ametuer operations as in so incompetently that one recently lost 10 million quid because the ceo employed his daughters boyfriend with no experience being a doctor as the head of the medical department.

He then proceeded to set the wrong doctors with the wrong patients and lets just say found themselves with a crap ton of legal fees.

It wouldnt surprise me one bit if we were run as incompetently.

JPRouve · Jan 20, 2020

Cassidy said:
Gill went on record to say what United manager required a few times before Moyes appointment. Moyes didn't fit the criteria. Its said Gill wanted Jose

I remember that list about experience but that was PR nonsense. He put the club in that situation because in a very United fashion we did things at the last minute, when Ancelotti, Guardiola and Mourinho were all already in agreement with someone. They turned around and convinced themselves that Moyes was the one.

Cee90 · Jan 20, 2020

Hope the likes of Rio and other ex-United players also have their say to build some momentum around this.

JPRouve · Jan 20, 2020

mancan92 said:
It sounds crazy. But i work with some of the biggest and oldest companies in the world.most of them are ran like complete ametuer operations as in so incompetently that one recently lost 10 million quid because the ceo employed his daughters boyfriend with no experience being a doctor as the head of the medical department.

He then proceeded to set the wrong doctors with the wrong patients and lets just say found themselves with a crap ton of legal fees.

It wouldnt surprise me one bit if we were run as incompetently.

It can happen that's why I said that I would be surprised and not that it's impossible, the example that you gave is one that concerns family and in that case I'm not surprised either, I have seen that in a bank. But in this case we actually know that United sometimes use staffing agencies and we know that the COO actually does his job, that's why this claim from the journalist is to me based on the fact that he wants to create controvery around Woodwards mention, they used to do the same thing until Mourinho name dropped Judge in 2017.

Red_toad · Jan 20, 2020

Amadaeus said:
I will like Woody to come out with a statement and say Ole/manager sends me a list of players he wants and I just approve the funds for that players. It will make Neville look like a mug. We have spent a billion pounds on players. The problem is the manager we have have poor recruitment abilities. I doubt Woodward is in charge of picking out the players we buy at United. We have scouts, transfer committee and coaches for that. Neville is just trying to protect his pal Ole.

His previous managers pretty much said the opposite. So yeah he could say that, but wouldn’t make it true.

Siorac · Jan 20, 2020

Marcelinho87 said:
feck me, this is ridiculous!

Marcus Rashford is a much better football than Jamie Vardy... Where was Jamie Vardy at the age of 22?

Rest I can agree with though.

Vardy is weirdly overrated on the Caf. He's a good striker but you'd think he's the next coming of Romario the way some people go on about him.

Lee565 · Jan 20, 2020

We need more former players coming out an calling for him to be sacked, if you wanted either or all of van Gaal, Mourinho or Solskjear sacked at some point post fergie then Woodward should be the main priority to be vocal about losing their position at the club as he was the one responsible for their appointments.

It's a shame the media doesnt scrutinise the club more for having Woodward in charge of footballing matters but they probably prefer United in dire straits as it probably does them better business.

izec · Jan 20, 2020

Offside said:
If we create a scale based on Fergie's signings from 0-10:

0 - Taibi
5 - Anderson
10 - Cantona.

Then if we say that anything from:

0-3 is shite
4-6 is decent
7 to 9 is good
10 is unreal

Woodward's signings are practically all shite. It's astonishing:

Fellaini 3/10 – shite
Mata 6/10 – decent
Di Maria 1/10 – shite
Shaw 3/10 – shite
Herrera 6/10 – decent
Rojo 3/10 – shite
Blind 5/10 – decent
Falcao 1/10 – shite
Martial 5/10 – decent
Schneiderlin 1/10 – shite
Depay 2/10 – shite
Darmian 2/10 – shite
BFS 2/10 – shite
Romero 7/10 – good
Pogba 6/10– decent
Mkhitaryan 3/10 – shite
Ibra 6/10 – decent
Lukaku 5/10 – decent
Matic 4/10 – decent
Lindelof 3/10 – shite so far in all honesty (bit harsh feel free to disagree)
Sanchez 1/10 – shite
Fred – 4/10 – decent
Dalot – 3/10 shite (done feck all but again bit harsh)

The 6 years previously the signings were better but still very patchy:

Van Persie 9/10 – good
Kagawa 3/10 – shite
Zaha 1/10 – shite
De Gea 9/10 – good
Jones 2/10 – shite
Young 5/10 – decent
Bebe 1/10 – shite
Smalling 5/10 – decent
Chicharito 7/10 – good
Valencia 7/10 – good
Obertan 1/10 – shite
Owen 4/10 – decent
Anderson 5/10 – decent
Nani 7/10 – good
Hargreaves 6/10 – decent
Tevez 8/10 - good

If you then look at the 6 years prior to that, recruitment was just bang on (bar a couple of shit) hence why when the team matured the success was incredible:

Carrick 8/10 – good
Vidic 10/10 – unreal
Evra 10/10 – unreal
Park 8/10 – good
Van Der Sar 10/10 – unreal
Rooney 10/10 – unreal
Smith 5/10 – decent
C.Ronaldo 10/10 – unreal
Saha 8/10 – good
Kleberson 3/10 – shite
Djemba Djemba 2/10 – shite
Ferdinand 10/10 – unreal
Veron 4/10 – decent (shite would be harsh he was magic at times)
Van Nistelrooy 10/10 – unreal

Somewhere along the line we have gone very wrong with our recruitment. It starts around 2009.

The fact we needed to massively improve it anyway and then we put that utter buffoon Ed in charge is why we find ourselves in that absolute shit show we are in now. We need somebody who knows how to built a team to come in. A proper footballing person with a proper strategy and the ability to actually negotiate and fecking conclude the signings. Look at Leicester, Liverpool, City all of their recent success comes from spending their money properly and not spunking it on shite. Why? Because they either have proper footballing people in charge of recruitment or they have a top manager who they trust in the market.

That top list is just mental. Incompetence on an unprecedented scale in modern football.

A lot of the players could have been good but were shite due to the managers Ed has employed. The awful recruitment is terrible but that combined with the managers he has appointed, it truly is unforgivable

you cant do it like that. Fergie would have to manage these players to know if they are crap or not. Or Ole the others. Fred looked like shit under Jose but looks good now. A crap player and deadwood under a manager can be gold for the other.

Stadjer · Jan 20, 2020

I know Woodward is considered the devil here but there is a little excuse for him as to why he let the wage bill go so high...

Managers asked for new players and he got some of those players and was forced to pay a high wage for them to satisfy the manager. Those players werent going to join for the chance to work with Moyes/vanGaal/Ole, to play in the Europa League, play the fabulous quality of football we have been seeing the last few years or to live in Manchester.

Manchester United will still have appeal because of the history but the club does miss the appeal from having the best manager of all time, basically be sure of winning atleast some throphies and play/compete for the CL like it was during the Ferguson days.

How can Woodward compete against clubs who are, besides a very generous wage, as a bonus also offering living in Madrid/London/Barcelona, playing with Messi/Ronaldo, playing for Zidane/Klopp/Guardiola and the chance to compete for the biggest trophies?

The answer is money. That is fine, Manchester United has a lot of that. However you can not deny that a lot of that money is going to the wrong players (Jones, Lingard, Sánchez - best examples).

Offside · Jan 20, 2020

izec said:
you cant do it like that. Fergie would have to manage these players to know if they are crap or not. Or Ole the others. Fred looked like shit under Jose but looks good now. A crap player and deadwood under a manager can be gold for the other.

That's the point I make at the end. Ed is also responsible for the managerial shit shows.

SweetRightFoot · Jan 20, 2020

I keep reading that we don't have a 'Director of Football' but we have a 'chief executive'...

Didn't Evra say that during his contract dispute that Woodward said over the phone 'I'm the Director of Football at Man United... '?

Woodward is DoF without the title. If he ever announced he was, he would be ridiculed for his complete lack of experience or knowledge.

Amadaeus · Jan 20, 2020

Red_toad said:
His previous managers pretty much said the opposite. So yeah he could say that, but wouldn’t make it true.

Most of our managers baring Moyes has been backed financially. How they can say the opposite is beyond me. We are on record of having bought the most expensive striker, midfielder and defender of all time :lol:

The managers should have bought different players at the time as each window we outspent most of our rivals and had the capacity to do so. The manager we had didn’t have good foresight or player development abilities to progress these players abilities. The last transfer window, Neville gave his seal of his approval. Now things aren’t going to well, he decided to change his opinion. It is too late for that.

sammsky1 · Jan 20, 2020

Jeffthered said:
This is why Gary Neville continues to be held in such high-regard. He is far more inutuitive, considered, thorough, and forward-thinking than many, many, many of the other football pundits out there. He has changed the way people consider punditry. He is also, importantly, a leader in terms of providing analysis and comment on issues... he is clear, consistent., and subsequently, speaks with purpose and a degree of authority (whether actual or perceived..).

And I am pleased he has opened this debate. Many will now follow.

I did not realise that we had the second largest wage-bill in the world. That is both a disgrace, and an absolute embarrasment. We have become a 'laughing stock' of a club. Something must change. Must.

The feels significant and I suspect Neville has the blessings of SAF and SBC to make such a statement. I think he is being highly strategic as there is no way he makes such criticism off the cuff or in the heat of the moment. He has effectively just burnt his bridge with Woodward and current exec team.

Perhaps this is the start of the campaign to see Woodward replaced as CEO by Neville himself. If he was provided world class directors of football, finance and marketing, then I could see Neville doing well in such a role.

Regulus Arcturus Black · Jan 20, 2020

JPRouve said:
The first sentence is most likely nonsense, these days journalists claim the weirdest things and for some reason people actually believe it. United has an HR department and they also have a COO, there is next to no chance that Woodward is the one handling the hiring of a physio or any position at that level.

Hahha, as if Ed has time to hire everyone in the club. CEO of Manchester United but also, head of HR & recruitment :lol:

He’ll be blamed for this outbreak in Asia soon.

Regulus Arcturus Black · Jan 20, 2020

Amadaeus said:
The last transfer window, Neville gave his seal of his approval. Now things aren’t going to well, he decided to change his opinion. It is too late for that.

Interesting, but true.

Red_toad · Jan 20, 2020

Amadaeus said:
Most of our managers baring Moyes has been backed financially. How they can say the opposite is beyond me. The managers should have bought different players at the time as each window we outspent most of our rivals and had the capacity to do so. Neville gave his seal of his approval for our last transfer window activity. Now things aren’t going to well, he decided to change his opinion. It is too late for that.

If the previous managers had been promised whatever by Woodward and that wasn’t followed through, they can say whatever they like.
Oh so people can only change their opinions when it suits you :lol:

, that’s nice to know.
He can see his mates in shite, comes out and directly puts pressure on the man holding the purse strings. He’s helping his mate by highlighting a massive problem at United.

Sandikan · Jan 20, 2020

A few months he quite bafflingly said that we'd win the league before Liverpool would.

It was pretty ridiculous at the time, but has ended up being utter madness.

sammsky1 · Jan 20, 2020

Regulus Arcturus Black said:
Hahha, as if Ed has time to hire everyone in the club. CEO of Manchester United but also, head of HR & recruitment

He’ll be blamed for this outbreak in Asia soon.

CEO's in most large organisations have veto on people who report directly into them, and the layer below that.

Manchester United is not that big an organisation of people, so I'd expect the CEO to have involvement in recruitment of manager level and above non playing staff.

ottosec · Jan 20, 2020

Woodward can be blamed for many things, but not for how good the players we signed turned up.

His job is to bring the money in and buy the players the manager requests. It's not like he wanted to spend 80m on Maguire or give Sanchez 400k/week... The only reason he did it was because the managers asked him to.

If Woodward was in charge of picking the players we signed, we would have only signed players with 50m+ Instagram followers.

Actually, the problem with him is exactly the opposite - he gives the managers too much leeway.

mu4c_20le · Jan 20, 2020

sammsky1 said:
CEO's in most large organisations have veto on people who report directly into them, and the layer below that.

Manchester United is not that big an organisation of people, so I'd expect the CEO to have involvement in recruitment of manager level and above non playing staff.

Yeah, if this were a Fortune 500 company, the CEO would been replaced long ago. It's a simple matter of responsibility. Only reason he's still here is because he's the Glazers' favorite son. He's living on borrowed time.

youmeletsfly · Jan 20, 2020

Offside said:
If we create a scale based on Fergie's signings from 0-10:

0 - Taibi
5 - Anderson
10 - Cantona.

Then if we say that anything from:

0-3 is shite
4-6 is decent
7 to 9 is good
10 is unreal

Woodward's signings are practically all shite. It's astonishing:

Fellaini 3/10 – shite
Mata 6/10 – decent
Di Maria 1/10 – shite
Shaw 3/10 – shite
Herrera 6/10 – decent
Rojo 3/10 – shite
Blind 5/10 – decent
Falcao 1/10 – shite
Martial 5/10 – decent
Schneiderlin 1/10 – shite
Depay 2/10 – shite
Darmian 2/10 – shite
BFS 2/10 – shite
Romero 7/10 – good
Pogba 6/10– decent
Mkhitaryan 3/10 – shite
Ibra 6/10 – decent
Lukaku 5/10 – decent
Matic 4/10 – decent
Lindelof 3/10 – shite so far in all honesty (bit harsh feel free to disagree)
Sanchez 1/10 – shite
Fred – 4/10 – decent
Dalot – 3/10 shite (done feck all but again bit harsh)

The 6 years previously the signings were better but still very patchy:

Van Persie 9/10 – good
Kagawa 3/10 – shite
Zaha 1/10 – shite
De Gea 9/10 – good
Jones 2/10 – shite
Young 5/10 – decent
Bebe 1/10 – shite
Smalling 5/10 – decent
Chicharito 7/10 – good
Valencia 7/10 – good
Obertan 1/10 – shite
Owen 4/10 – decent
Anderson 5/10 – decent
Nani 7/10 – good
Hargreaves 6/10 – decent
Tevez 8/10 - good

If you then look at the 6 years prior to that, recruitment was just bang on (bar a couple of shit) hence why when the team matured the success was incredible:

Carrick 8/10 – good
Vidic 10/10 – unreal
Evra 10/10 – unreal
Park 8/10 – good
Van Der Sar 10/10 – unreal
Rooney 10/10 – unreal
Smith 5/10 – decent
C.Ronaldo 10/10 – unreal
Saha 8/10 – good
Kleberson 3/10 – shite
Djemba Djemba 2/10 – shite
Ferdinand 10/10 – unreal
Veron 4/10 – decent (shite would be harsh he was magic at times)
Van Nistelrooy 10/10 – unreal

Somewhere along the line we have gone very wrong with our recruitment. It starts around 2009.

The fact we needed to massively improve it anyway and then we put that utter buffoon Ed in charge is why we find ourselves in that absolute shit show we are in now. We need somebody who knows how to built a team to come in. A proper footballing person with a proper strategy and the ability to actually negotiate and fecking conclude the signings. Look at Leicester, Liverpool, City all of their recent success comes from spending their money properly and not spunking it on shite. Why? Because they either have proper footballing people in charge of recruitment or they have a top manager who they trust in the market.

That top list is just mental. Incompetence on an unprecedented scale in modern football.

A lot of the players could have been good but were shite due to the managers Ed has employed. The awful recruitment is terrible but that combined with the managers he has appointed, it truly is unforgivable

That looks so bad that I can't think of a word for it.
Our recruitment is a diagrace.

Cassidy · Jan 20, 2020

JPRouve said:
I remember that list about experience but that was PR nonsense. He put the club in that situation because in a very United fashion we did things at the last minute, when Ancelotti, Guardiola and Mourinho were all already in agreement with someone. They turned around and convinced themselves that Moyes was the one.

I am going to disagree because there were stories saying the opposite coming from Joses camp

Schmiznurf · Jan 20, 2020

The fact that we're so far behind and only have 11 days left of the month with zero recruitment, it's plain as day that cnut needs sacking.

fergiesarmy1 · Jan 20, 2020

Offside said:
If we create a scale based on Fergie's signings from 0-10:

0 - Taibi
5 - Anderson
10 - Cantona.

Then if we say that anything from:

0-3 is shite
4-6 is decent
7 to 9 is good
10 is unreal

Woodward's signings are practically all shite. It's astonishing:

Fellaini 3/10 – shite
Mata 6/10 – decent
Di Maria 1/10 – shite
Shaw 3/10 – shite
Herrera 6/10 – decent
Rojo 3/10 – shite
Blind 5/10 – decent
Falcao 1/10 – shite
Martial 5/10 – decent
Schneiderlin 1/10 – shite
Depay 2/10 – shite
Darmian 2/10 – shite
BFS 2/10 – shite
Romero 7/10 – good
Pogba 6/10– decent
Mkhitaryan 3/10 – shite
Ibra 6/10 – decent
Lukaku 5/10 – decent
Matic 4/10 – decent
Lindelof 3/10 – shite so far in all honesty (bit harsh feel free to disagree)
Sanchez 1/10 – shite
Fred – 4/10 – decent
Dalot – 3/10 shite (done feck all but again bit harsh)

The 6 years previously the signings were better but still very patchy:

Van Persie 9/10 – good
Kagawa 3/10 – shite
Zaha 1/10 – shite
De Gea 9/10 – good
Jones 2/10 – shite
Young 5/10 – decent
Bebe 1/10 – shite
Smalling 5/10 – decent
Chicharito 7/10 – good
Valencia 7/10 – good
Obertan 1/10 – shite
Owen 4/10 – decent
Anderson 5/10 – decent
Nani 7/10 – good
Hargreaves 6/10 – decent
Tevez 8/10 - good

If you then look at the 6 years prior to that, recruitment was just bang on (bar a couple of shit) hence why when the team matured the success was incredible:

Carrick 8/10 – good
Vidic 10/10 – unreal
Evra 10/10 – unreal
Park 8/10 – good
Van Der Sar 10/10 – unreal
Rooney 10/10 – unreal
Smith 5/10 – decent
C.Ronaldo 10/10 – unreal
Saha 8/10 – good
Kleberson 3/10 – shite
Djemba Djemba 2/10 – shite
Ferdinand 10/10 – unreal
Veron 4/10 – decent (shite would be harsh he was magic at times)
Van Nistelrooy 10/10 – unreal

Somewhere along the line we have gone very wrong with our recruitment. It starts around 2009.

The fact we needed to massively improve it anyway and then we put that utter buffoon Ed in charge is why we find ourselves in that absolute shit show we are in now. We need somebody who knows how to built a team to come in. A proper footballing person with a proper strategy and the ability to actually negotiate and fecking conclude the signings. Look at Leicester, Liverpool, City all of their recent success comes from spending their money properly and not spunking it on shite. Why? Because they either have proper footballing people in charge of recruitment or they have a top manager who they trust in the market.

That top list is just mental. Incompetence on an unprecedented scale in modern football.

A lot of the players could have been good but were shite due to the managers Ed has employed. The awful recruitment is terrible but that combined with the managers he has appointed, it truly is unforgivable

You would think they would get some right just by sheer luck of the £850m or so we have spent since Fergie.

ottosec said:
Woodward can be blamed for many things, but not for how good the players we signed turned up.

His job is to bring the money in and buy the players the manager requests. It's not like he wanted to spend 80m on Maguire or give Sanchez 400k/week... The only reason he did it was because the managers asked him to.

If Woodward was in charge of picking the players we signed, we would have only signed players with 50m+ Instagram followers.

Actually, the problem with him is exactly the opposite - he gives the managers too much leeway.

He does seem to overpay with alarming regularity both in fees and salaries.

Telegraph: Gary Neville calls for Ed Woodward to be sacked for Manchester United's 'unforgivable' recruitment

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