Blaming Woodward and all those above Ole

[JPRouve]

he wanted new signings in ready for preseason. That went well

He was talking about the transfer "meeting" in April, you don't plan for players in April and expect to have them for preseason. You are not even sure to have them at all when you start that late.

 

[tonnas]

Ole is already begging for Woodward to do his job properly...but when it doesn’t happen, fans will blame Ole.

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Fair to say this thread backfired?

we blame Ole as he has NO IDEA how to coach, buying better plaeyrs wont solve the issue. We are being outplayed by much lesser teams then us, we have no style or idea how to playe and thas on our great foolish manager.

 

[Sparky_Hughes]

Absolutely.

Fans seem to be accepting a below average manager and blame the board.

The board doesn't coach the team. Ole needs to go.

The board and captain clueless in particular chose the manager. The buck stops with them, thats what they get the big bucks for.

 

[JPRouve]

Yes, but rumors got him either taking up Juve or Inter before Marotta was appointed at Inter. He was officially appointed in May, true.

I'll be honest, I'm not following. He was linked with every club remotely realistic. United, Inter, Juventus, Real Madrid, Roma and probably others. If you are trying to say that it was done before Marotta's appointment then we will probably disagree.

 

[romufc]

The board and captain clueless in particular chose the manager. The buck stops with them, thats what they get the big bucks for.

Agreed. The board chose the manager and they keep chosing the wrong one. That's why if Poch is available you get him.

 

[0le]

Ole is already begging for Woodward to do his job properly...but when it doesn’t happen, fans will blame Ole.

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Fair to say this thread backfired?

Imagine if Ole really does put Sancho as the key signing. If that is true, its very worrying. You can never assume you will definitely sign someone. This club knows that better than anyone else with that Obi Mikel fiasco with Chelsea.

 

[Russky14]

Absolutely bang on the money
Woodward is an incompetent meddlesome deluded chinless gobshite who doesnt know the difference between a football and a narwhal. He is a typical money obsessed banker wanker who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing and is almost single handedly responsible for the utter shit show post SAF.

The United revamp job is only long term because of the muppets that own and control the club.

I have supported the club since 1976 and lived most of my life in the NEast so for me visits to OT have always been limited. The way I read it there are a majority on here who want OGS out (putting aside leg-end). There are an even bigger majority that want Woody Woodpecker & the Adams family gone.

So a question for all those OT season ticket holders on here who want the latter particularly the latter to happen. I see people post & then re-side themselves they can't do anything. The start point has to be audible dissension at home matches, not a plane at 2000 ft with a banner. 20k people chanting Woody & Glazers out with banners during the match. Also need to temporarily replace those banners capital city of throphies one's for a while.

Sit on you backside and do nowt or show some fight for your club. The Glazers are stubborn and the commercial aspect at the moment is not hindered by the rubbish on the pitch - but it will be at some point. Some one posted that we need to have a full blown crisis i.e. finish 15 to 17th & I would agree. So if you want Christmas to happen (well right off this one) then the pressure at matches needs to be ramped-up massively including even to detriment on the pitch- well it can't get any worse.

Or is it that the majority on here are the actual minority at OT? The majority are brain washed or dead loyalists. Sorry needs to be said.

I said 18 months back Pep will be gone in 4 years (to PSG). As for Klopp all the pundits are saying the Scousers are in 3rd gear. Well there is another way to look at it, that actually they hit 1st gear last season and this year is reality i..e. there are not that good its the norm (the Scousers are equally deluded). Too many 1 goal victories.. Without VVD, Mane & VAR where would they be? At dortmund his hi-press worked for 3 to 4 years and them kaput. This is where I see City & the Scousers in 3 years.

Do nowt and it will take 10 years, do something and it may take 2 or 3 to get back to a challenge whilst fixing the whole structure for long term gain.

 

[clarkydaz]

He was talking about the transfer "meeting" in April, you don't plan for players in April and expect to have them for preseason. You are not even sure to have them at all when you start that late.

ole had input in January about the clubs targets and in the summer said he would like things done early. It wasnt

 

[WolfInSharp'sClothing]

Ultimately, the buck stops with Woodward though, as the man who signs and sells players, extends contracts and hires and fires managers.

He gets a lot of criticism for his transfers in, but the main issue has been buying good players at the wrong time, not having a consistent enough approach to make the players he's bought work, not extending the right contracts or selling the wrong players at the wrong time.

Would this team give your current XI a run for their money?...

Johnstone

Rafael---Keane---Evans---Blind

Herrera---Schneiderlin
Di Maria

Zaha---Lukaku---Depay
​

If you're honest, it probably would.

Having Evans and Blind competing or starting at the back, Herrera and Di Maria competing or starting in midfield and Zaha and Depay competing or starting on the wings would close the gap on the top teams drastically.

 

[JPRouve]

Agreed. The board chose the manager and they keep chosing the wrong one. That's why if Poch is available you get him.

That's where I think that United fans are extremely precious. This board has appointed 3 managers in 6 years,(Moyes being a gift from the previous regime) that's not actually a lot and not enough to say "keep". The issue with our board is that they haven't exploited timing, Liverpool appointed 4 managers in the last 8 years but for the last one they jumped on the opportunity that luck presented, they went for Klopp when they had no competition due to other big clubs having their managers in relatively safe positions in October. Now, as I harshly said many times, I believe that this board is defined by extreme prudence(read cowardice), they are going to give Ole an incredible amount of rope and let other clubs have a go at Allegri and Pochettino.

 

[Russky14]

That's where I think that United fans are extremely precious. This board has appointed 3 managers in 6 years,(Moyes being a gift from the previous regime) that's not actually a lot and not enough to say "keep". The issue with our board is that they haven't exploited timing, Liverpool appointed 4 managers in the last 8 years but for the last one they jumped on the opportunity that luck presented, they went for Klopp when they had no competition due to other big clubs having their managers in relatively safe positions in October. Now, as I harshly said many times, I believe that this board is defined by extreme prudence(read cowardice), they are going to give Ole an incredible amount of rope and let other clubs have a go at Allegri and Pochettino.

Can't agree more.


But that is why I have posted the above. Stand up & be heard or just be brain washed. time to take vocal action that can be audibly heard on TV.

 

[elmo]

I for one don’t blame the Glazers, I know they left us in debt but we have invested heavily since SAF’s retirement so they are spending money it’s just spending it on the wrong players.
Woodward is a clown though he doesn’t understand football(great at business) we need a DOF and a world class manager then we will on our way

They're the one who lets Woodward do whatever he wants as long as the money keeps rolling in. They literally don't give a shit about the football, they deserve as much blame as Woodward.

 

[romufc]

That's where I think that United fans are extremely precious. This board has appointed 3 managers in 6 years,(Moyes being a gift from the previous regime) that's not actually a lot and not enough to say "keep". The issue with our board is that they haven't exploited timing, Liverpool appointed 4 managers in the last 8 years but for the last one they jumped on the opportunity that luck presented, they went for Klopp when they had no competition due to other big clubs having their managers in relatively safe positions in October. Now, as I harshly said many times, I believe that this board is defined by extreme prudence(read cowardice), they are going to give Ole an incredible amount of rope and let other clubs have a go at Allegri and Pochettino.

I agree, football has become a ruthless game and we need to stop living in the Fergie bubble.

All fans need to get in their head that was a one off, stop comparing the time Fergie got to Ole, that has to Stop now. They are not the same, or even remotely the same.

We give our players too much time and the manager.

I can see giving Ole rope whilst there is no other manager out there but if you named the 5 managers you would want, at least one of them is out of a job. Go and get him, Ole has won 4 PL games this season. Even worse if you look back to Feb last season.

We are in relegation form since Ole got the full time job, rebuild or not this is still Manutd.

Even clubs like Watford do better at this, sacked the manager after a few bad results from getting the job?

 

[Johan07]

Who's blaming them for poor performances?
But in the of the day who hired all these managers?

I think you misunderstand what our Board of Directors actually do. Its a corporate board consisting of six Glazers, three independents and then Woodward, Arnold and Baty who are the only three that actually are involved with the clubs day-to-day business. If you think that footballing decisions are on the table during a board meeting you are a bit naive. If you think that there are more than a handful actual meetings per year you are also naive.
And as many others have said, the Board are the owners representatives, or in our case the owners themselves. Its a formal and corporate Board that has nothing to do with footballing decisions. The Board does not even have to take a formal decision on who to appoint as the manager for the club for example. Thats on the CEO.

 

[djembatheking]

How do you explain Inter now being on top of the league despite not finishing higher than 4th since 9 years?

Is it because they changed the ownership and made a complete overhaul, or appointed their first quality manager in 9 years?

I don`t follow Inter, I don`t care about Inter and Inter don`t have Glazers/Woodward so it is totally irrelevant to the situation at United .
Do you think United will win a league title under Glazers and Woodward?

 

[JPRouve]

I don`t follow Inter, I don`t care about Inter and Inter don`t have Glazers/Woodward so it is totally irrelevant to the situation at United .
Do you think United will win a league title under Glazers and Woodward?

At the risk of being pedantic but United won multiple titles under Glazers and Woodward.

 

[djembatheking]

At the risk of being pedantic but United won multiple titles under Glazers and Woodward.

We had SAF and David Gill then, no titles since Woody took over from Gill .
Do you think United will win a league title with Glazers/Woodward in charge?

 

[United Hobbit]

It is definitely part Ole, part Ed Woodward then probably partly the Glazers however we dont know just how much transfer budget they are sanctioning it may be for all we know limitless then Ole says he doesn't need it or Ed and co cant get the deals done we don't know

Ed is not managing the team, that is on Ole however he is mostly at fault for the fact we have Ole permanently which I'll get to shortly. It is Ole's job to do the best with what he has at his disposal, and if he said he was happy with the squad he has then the fact we are so short with injuries and even before is down to him. If this transfer strategy is Ole's choice then this is also down to him- I like the idea of young hungry players and his signings have been ok, James especially. However if he is ruling out the German and Spanish leagues especially, that is just silly and almost Fifa like- you could have a host of players you could find there who will probably be cheaper than the mark up on British players. You then ask the question are the scouts finding these types of players?

However Ed is to blame for Ole being here full time. Yes he went on that very good run which probably did lead to a lot of people wanting him, myself included I'll admit. However had he just waited until the end of the season he could have interviewed other potential candidates and seen how available they were. Ole would then either have continued his strong run, leading us to probably end up in the CL, leading us to be more attractive to "better" players, making transfers easier, or the run would have happened the same way, with Ole's results dropping off and he could have thanked Ole for all he had done, but advised he hadn't got the job permanently. We would have then remembered the good times as there would be a greater percentage of them eg his PSG win, the performance behind the wins wouldn't be looked into in greater depth and his time here would probably be remembered as a breath of fresh air
I think Ole has in some sense the right idea with only wanting players keen to play for the club however if it's true he only wants British ones he is massively restricting himself while having to play marked up costs- would Maguire cost as much if he wasnt British? He also perhaps has the right ideas but lacks the skills to implement them and is out of his depth
Also Ed Woodward refusing to appoint a director of football isnt helping however it is also the owners responsibility to make him do this. Of course he isnt going to want to drop his salary that a "lesser" role would give him. I have no problem with him staying on the corporate/ sponsorship side he seems to be good at it however the football side of things needs a proper revamp. We also need to think whether the state the way the club is in will put off potential managers or even players.

 

[JPRouve]

We had SAF and David Gill then, no titles since Woody took over from Gill .
Do you think United will win a league title with Glazers/Woodward in charge?

Gill was nothing special and often the target of fans, now some are rewritting history and make him sound like some sort of football hero, it's under his watch that the club's scouting and academy declined to ridiculous levels. And SAF was a great manager but the important part is that he was generally the best manager in the league, when he wasn't the best or someone was close like Wenger or Mourinho then we weren't guaranteed to win. Now to answer your question, if we have the best or without a doubt one of the best managers in the league then yes, we can win the league under Glazers/Woodward, from what I can see there is nothing that the club does that makes it inherently impossible to win, it doesn't make it easier though because the club gives too much room and responsibilities to managers which is what all of the ones we appointed wanted, they all mentioned that they wanted to be "managers".

 

[AshRK]

@Keefy18 will be proud of this thread considering he loves the work Woodward has been doing.

 

[Icemav]

Good to see this debate keeps running and running....

1. Its not the managers fault its the CEO/owners

2. Its not the CEO/owners faultits the manager

Answer: we are a poorly run club who botched the transition from Fergie to the next managers. It put us in a hole which our inexperienced amateurish CEO and owvers have not been able to recover from as they lack footballing nous and they refuse to delegate responsibilities. Their strategy is that they have no strategy apart from pretend they are competent on footballing matters and pray a manager bails them out, whilst at the same time being incompetent with managerial appointments and not knowing how to support them skillfully. LVG said the interview with United was the only time he had never been asked about his footballing vision and philosophy/style he would bring to the club. That sums things up. Dont worry though... after a few more years they will perhaps run out of mistakes to make and become good at what they are supposed to do.

 

[Josep Dowling]

Ole is already begging for Woodward to do his job properly...but when it doesn’t happen, fans will blame Ole.

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Fair to say this thread backfired?

One reporter writing a story on transfer targets most of us want doesn’t make it fact. Why the hell would either player come to us in our current state? They will have offers from all over Europe.

Those two transfers doesn’t correct the glaring hole in midfield either.

 

[Adnan]

I think that we're tackling this the wrong way. We're currently 10th in the EPL table with points set to be lost in the next 2 games. We shouldn't be aiming at world beaters since

a- we probably won't get them
b- most big name players interested in us will come for the wrong reasons (last pay cheque etc)
c- we won't be winning any trophies anytime soon which in turn will piss those big name players off (ex Pogba)

Instead we should

a- remove the deadwood. That will forward the message that we mean business and that complacency won't be accepted anymore
b- we should aim for players who provide value and who can help us close the gap to top 4

That's exactly what Sir Alex did during the 1988 and 1989 transfer windows when he bought a looping 11 players in total. Some were top players (Hughes, Pally, Ince, Sharpe) but some were duds (Milne, Maiorana, Donaghy). That didn't matter. What mattered was that the team suddenly learnt that the manager mean business, that he's properly backed by the owners and that 1 mistake might be enough for him to replace them next summer. Instead we've got a CEO who said that he'll have to give contract extensions to current players irrespective of their performance mainly because he won't be able to replace them.

So who should we look at next season? Id say we should aim at players who are heading towards the end of their contracts (Meunier (RB), Sarr (CB-LB), Tonali (MC), Eriksen (AMC), Fraser (LW), Milik (FWD)), players who are on the transfer list (ex Can), players with minimum fee clauses (Pellegrini?), players from leagues that provide value (Dutch/Italian/German league) and promising kids. Who should leave? Any sort of deadwood whose been stealing a living at the club (Jones, Mata, Lingard, Matic, Sanchez, Shaw etc) who isn't good enough (Rojo etc) or who doesn't want to stay here anymore (Pogba)

I agree, with a £150m to spend he (Ole) should've bought alot more efficiently. Targeting the supposedly 'right' players has seen us get taken to the cleaners by Leicester and Palace for players that aren't even close to justifying their pricetags. And all because he set a criteria to change the culture in the team.

 

[peridigm]

Good to see this debate keeps running and running....

1. Its not the managers fault its the CEO/owners

2. Its not the CEO/owners faultits the manager

Answer: we are a poorly run club who botched the transition from Fergie to the next managers. It put us in a hole which our inexperienced amateurish CEO and owvers have not been able to recover from as they lack footballing nous and they refuse to delegate responsibilities. Their strategy is that they have no strategy apart from pretend they are competent on footballing matters and pray a manager bails them out, whilst at the same time being incompetent with managerial appointments and not knowing how to support them skillfully. LVG said the interview with United was the only time he had never been asked about his footballing vision and philosophy/style he would bring to the club. That sums things up. Dont worry though... after a few more years they will perhaps run out of mistakes to make and become good at what they are supposed to do.

2 world class managers on their day, a manager that was capable but made the wrong decisions and a manager that is too green for a project this size.

All have failed in their own way. I’d say Jose was the least of the failures due to the EL win and 2nd place in the league.

However, you cannot ignore the commonality in all of this. We will never know if the transfers we got were each managers first choice or whether there were players the manager didn’t even want but was forced on him for one reason or another. They sign hush clauses I’m sure so the details won’t ever be known but the way we’ve recruited many players that failed is grounds enough to look beyond the manager. They can’t all be shit at selecting players can they?

 

[tjb]

I've had enough of people shoving all the blame on Ed Woodward and defending Ole with this whole "until Woodward resigns". Complete nonsense. I'm not here to say Woodward has done a great or even good job but it is nowhere near the incompetency Ole has shown.

Woodward backed every LVG transfer till the end. Backed Mourinho with all sorts of players he wanted that turned out to be garbage. Mourinho was not backed for one season because of his failed transfer record. Yes Woodward made a mistake giving Mourinho that long contract and I said it back then as well but at the time it did make sense.

Now he has made (in hindsight) the mistake of appointing Ole but put yourself in Woodwards shoes. Imagine not giving Ole the contract back then and getting another manager in who may also have failed. We would have slaughtered Woodward for "what could have been" with how Ole was winning every game. Still, Woodward does take some blame for not giving him a shorter contract or waiting till the end of the season.

When it comes to summer 2019 transfers I simply do not understand how Ed Woodward is getting the blame. Time and time again, press conference after press conference Ole has shown his naive approach when it comes to judging players. Ole truly believed we would be fine going in this season with youth like Greenwood and Perreira. Okay, Wan Bissaka Maguire and James are good transfers but they cost a fortune -- any of us could have known Wan Bissaka or Maguire would be good fits. A top manager would (such as Poch) would find a low price bargain. Someone like a Soyuncu.

Ole chose to let Fellaini and Lukaku go and replace them with youngsters from the academy. If Ole identified targets such as Dybala, Bale and/or Modric and the board failed to get them that is not the boards fault. Identifying world class players can be done by any of us on here. The manager failing to identify realistic targets is another blunder on his part.

Furthermore, Woodward is not to blame for Ole playing Perreira on the wings, Mata on the right and back three's when we don't need it.

Yeah feck Woodward but Ole's failure has nothing to do with him. We can be a very successful club even with a shitty board.

I agree to an extent, particularly with how he is judged in regards to past managers, but at the same time, you cannot deny that something is wrong with the negotiation function of our club. We take ages to make signings, something that Ole admitted in his latest press conference. Mourinho and Moyes also made this complaint. We could say that this happens for all transfer, but when you look at other clubs and the ease at which they can find top talents ( that everyone already knows would fit at their clubs) and proceed quickly makes you question that function for us. I do not blame him entirely for the poor signings we made under both LVG and Mourinho, but how he negotiated for those transfers and the fact that better options did exist in the market at the time also puts a light on his failure to sign a director of football who would have been responsible for sourcing these talents.

On Ole, I think you are being incredibly harsh on him as well. He would have loved us to sign a striker to replace Lukaku, and reports and his statements back this up. Our squad was also poor last season, so expecting it to miraculously improve was misplaced without us signing a boatload of players ( which he is not responsible for). If Pogba had been fit for the majority of the season, I do not believe that we would have been as poor as we have been throughout the campaign. He was helping us control games and his partnership with mctominay was working. We may have lacked creativity as he was played deeper, but his presence deeper in the pitch allowed us to control games, with which the addition of signings in defence, would have helped us not to lose games. We may not have scored too much more than we have at the moment, but we would have had kept a lot more of our leads than we have without the pressure brought by not controlling games.

Both parties started off their relationship with the idea that this would be a complete rebuild, so maybe it is harsh to judge them too harshly at this juncture. Ole does make late substitutions and has not been as free in giving the younger midfielders a chance as I and some others would have hoped, but I do not believe that any manager, those with tactical superiority or better man management, would have gotten united to a decent league position given the circumstances and the talent currently available to Ole.

 

[Jaqen H'ghar]

- Let Moyes replace the successful backroom staff and let senior players' contracts expire
- Aimed for Fabregas, Thiago and Bale, ended up overpaying for Fellaini
- Overpaid for Mata and set a precedent that he'd trust the manager (Moyes) for signings even on high wages even if they don't fit in
- Failed to recruit Klopp with Disneyland comments, failed to recruit Pep by laying out a structure for him
- Awarded Wayne Rooney a contract that would collapse our wage structure and haunt us in retrospect for years
- Showed no vision or consistency after we sacked Moyes and hired LVG who played tumescent, boring football
- Continued the precedent to trust the manager for most signings who don't fit in again, but identified targets poorly, didn't get who LVG wanted
- overpaid for those that we did acquire with not much foresight as to if they're long term recruits or if their motivation is simply money (AdM)
- Let go of key players without thinking of a possibility where the next manager could use them, only to sack the current manager within a season
- Lost faith in LVG after boring football and a fifth placed finish and sacked him unprofessionally right after a trophy, less than a season after we let expensive players leave based on his judgement
- No footballing vision or long-term plan when we hired Mourinho, another manager who traditionally doesn't trust youth, leaves teams broken after 3 years and plays conservative football
- Smashed the wage structure again by signing Alexis Sanchez with a contract that left the likes of De Gea with extremely high bargaining power
- Failed to learn from previous mistakes and again let key contracts run down losing bargaining power along the way, and eventually Herrera as well
- Once again, awarded the likes of Jones, Rojo, Smalling, Lingard new undeserved, overpaid contracts, unnecessarily boosting player power
- Gave Mourinho a new contract, but suddenly broke the precedent of trusting the manager with signings with Maguire, Perisic and allegedly Willian
- In the most crucial, marketable summer since SAF (a top manager, a squad with big name players and a 2nd placed finish, rivals strenghtening) we bought an overpriced CM and a backup RB/GK and set the clock back by years again
- After triggering Mourinho's meltdown, signed a rookie manager from Molde on the sole basis of him being a United legend, in another departure from consistency in footballing style
- Ended up signing the previous managers targets for higher, record transfer fees (Maguire)
- Did not have the foresight to at least wait out the rest of the season before hiring Ole fulltime
- Suddenly decided to balance the wages by by stripping the squad down to the bare bones in one go without replacing the big names that have left
- Left the squad massively imbalanced and extremely thin going into the season, despite Ole publicly promising a massive turnover


I don't think Ole is responsible for any of the above.

The bolded point hurts the most for me. We could have pushed on from 2nd place, we could have backed Jose properly and avoided the toxic meltdown. That is a moment to look back on and wonder what could have been if we'd gotten him Perisic and Maguire along with Fred and Dalot, and then spent again next summer. We may have stopped Liverpool's rise if we did that, and possibly stopped them from winning another CL.

Parts of the 'heritage' presser from Jose come to mind:



Jose couldn't use Depay, Rooney, Schneiderlin or Schweinsteiger. And Ole couldn't use Lukaku, Matic or Sanchez. That's 200m without any return right there.
And that's a direct reason for why Woodward is responsible.

Thanks for taking the time to write this well thought out and detailed post.

 

[Suedesi]

Get a grip

Ed is the ever present, self appointed, inexperienced DOF at one of the biggest clubs in the world.

He has been responsible for identifying and hiring three failed managers (four if you are counting Ole), and then backing them to the tune of 1 Billion.

Read that last sentence again because in a nutshell that is the epitome of failure, made worse by it being a self appointed responsibility instead of hiring a DOF well before now.

Furthermore if he had accepted his limitations and hired a DOF the continuity of our recruitment would have been far better over the course of these failed managers, leaving every new managerial appointment a better chance of success.

I can’t tell you how much money he’s made United in that period but I’m willing to bet the £1 Billion wipes that out entirely.

You can argue that Ole isn’t the man for the job but placing the blame for the above on each new budding managers shoulders without giving them multiple windows to correct it is simply naive in the extreme.

Ed coined the Disneyland term for our spending approach. This and his woeful spending has meant selling clubs hike prices hugely when we enquire about players further weakening our position as a club to correct his mess.

I'm not impressed at all with his CV. He was a tax accountant at PWC of which there are thousands, then joined JPM on M&A (again not Goldman or Morgan Stanley) which is where he met the Glazers who onboarded him onto the club structure. From commercial and media operations, he was appointed CEO when Gill departed, and as such is responsible for all commercial and footballing aspects of the club.

Commercially he's done OK - it's not like he had to build a brand new stadium, expand or revamp existing facilities. United have been a commercial juggernaut and have had an amazing brand recognition since the advent of the Premier League in the 90's, so it's not like he's reinvented the wheel.

On the football side, he - as the head of the club structure including scouts, negotiators etc - has been an unmitigated disaster - we've net spent $800mm with an FA Cup, a League Cup and an UEFA Cup to show for it. And managing to go from 1st in the league to 10th. That's Ed Fckn Woodward for you - a total turd.

Manager	NET amount spent (in $ millions)
Moyes	($85.88)​
LVG	($166.54)​
LVG	($61.48)​
Mourinho	($157.04)​
Mourinho	($174.31)​
Mourinho	($59.45)​
OGS	($102.03)​
Total NET EXPENDITURE	($806.73)​

 

[RedDevilUnited369]

One reporter writing a story on transfer targets most of us want doesn’t make it fact. Why the hell would either player come to us in our current state? They will have offers from all over Europe.

Those two transfers doesn’t correct the glaring hole in midfield either.

You missed the point of the story. Forget the targets.

The point is Woodward dithers around in the transfer window.

 

[Ban]

I think you misunderstand what our Board of Directors actually do. Its a corporate board consisting of six Glazers, three independents and then Woodward, Arnold and Baty who are the only three that actually are involved with the clubs day-to-day business. If you think that footballing decisions are on the table during a board meeting you are a bit naive. If you think that there are more than a handful actual meetings per year you are also naive.
And as many others have said, the Board are the owners representatives, or in our case the owners themselves. Its a formal and corporate Board that has nothing to do with footballing decisions. The Board does not even have to take a formal decision on who to appoint as the manager for the club for example. Thats on the CEO.

Do you think the board and the CEO are doing a good job?

 

[Carl]

I've had enough of people shoving all the blame on Ed Woodward and defending Ole with this whole "until Woodward resigns". Complete nonsense. I'm not here to say Woodward has done a great or even good job but it is nowhere near the incompetency Ole has shown.

Woodward backed every LVG transfer till the end. Backed Mourinho with all sorts of players he wanted that turned out to be garbage. Mourinho was not backed for one season because of his failed transfer record. Yes Woodward made a mistake giving Mourinho that long contract and I said it back then as well but at the time it did make sense.

Now he has made (in hindsight) the mistake of appointing Ole but put yourself in Woodwards shoes. Imagine not giving Ole the contract back then and getting another manager in who may also have failed. We would have slaughtered Woodward for "what could have been" with how Ole was winning every game. Still, Woodward does take some blame for not giving him a shorter contract or waiting till the end of the season.

When it comes to summer 2019 transfers I simply do not understand how Ed Woodward is getting the blame. Time and time again, press conference after press conference Ole has shown his naive approach when it comes to judging players. Ole truly believed we would be fine going in this season with youth like Greenwood and Perreira. Okay, Wan Bissaka Maguire and James are good transfers but they cost a fortune -- any of us could have known Wan Bissaka or Maguire would be good fits. A top manager would (such as Poch) would find a low price bargain. Someone like a Soyuncu.

Ole chose to let Fellaini and Lukaku go and replace them with youngsters from the academy. If Ole identified targets such as Dybala, Bale and/or Modric and the board failed to get them that is not the boards fault. Identifying world class players can be done by any of us on here. The manager failing to identify realistic targets is another blunder on his part.

Furthermore, Woodward is not to blame for Ole playing Perreira on the wings, Mata on the right and back three's when we don't need it.

Yeah feck Woodward but Ole's failure has nothing to do with him. We can be a very successful club even with a shitty board.

Moyes, van Gaal and Jose fecking Mourinho have all failed under the current structure. 2 of them amongst the most successful coaches of the last 15 years.

 

[djembatheking]

Gill was nothing special and often the target of fans, now some are rewritting history and make him sound like some sort of football hero, it's under his watch that the club's scouting and academy declined to ridiculous levels. And SAF was a great manager but the important part is that he was generally the best manager in the league, when he wasn't the best or someone was close like Wenger or Mourinho then we weren't guaranteed to win. Now to answer your question, if we have the best or without a doubt one of the best managers in the league then yes, we can win the league under Glazers/Woodward, from what I can see there is nothing that the club does that makes it inherently impossible to win, it doesn't make it easier though because the club gives too much room and responsibilities to managers which is what all of the ones we appointed wanted, they all mentioned that they wanted to be "managers".

So do you think United will win a league title with Glazers/Woodward in charge? I still say no.

 

[JPRouve]

So do you think United will win a league title with Glazers/Woodward in charge? I still say no.

I already answered.

 

[djembatheking]

I already answered.

You half answered as you said if we get a top manager and then we can but do you think we will , a straight yes or no .

 

[Johan07]

Do you think the board and the CEO are doing a good job?

I think the board are doing what is required by them from a corporate point of view. As far as I know, its not like what they have got us de-listed from the NYSE so far.
Its you who have a delusional take on what a Board of Directors for a NYSE listed multinational company should be and actually are doing.
As for the CEO, vice executive chairman or whatever you want to call Mr Ed; that one can certainly can discuss. Which has been done plenty on the Caf. What I will say is that responsibility and accountability are two very different things that posters like you dont understand to keep separate.
Stop moaning and present a credible alternative to Mr Ed, or the Board or even the Glazers. Because if you cant, moaning is all that you are doing.

 

[Morpheus 7]

It's a hierarchy of blame and it starts at the top. The Glazers along with Ed Woodward and Matt Judge have created a mess. A mess in there appointments of management, scouting and securing the right players. It's been a reactive unplanned mess. They told us that they would wait to the end of the season to appoint a permanent manager. They didn't and results and form fell of cliff. Another summer of lack of investment in replacing had seen us lacking depth and quality. Ole has failed progressing this team, the lack of support in bringing in players is a factor too. Dickheads in here saying he was happy with Periera and Greenwood are delusional. He can't say I didn't get what I wanted, we seen how that went down with the board and players.

It's Ole's fault for starting Young tonight. It's Ed Woodward and the boards fault for allowing this to continue. The man clearly is struggling but don't forget who appointed him so quickly. Years of mistakes have got us where we are not Ole.

 

[golden_blunder]

This town needs an enema

 

[Ban]

I think the board are doing what is required by them from a corporate point of view. As far as I know, its not like what they have got us de-listed from the NYSE so far.
Its you who have a delusional take on what a Board of Directors for a NYSE listed multinational company should be and actually are doing.
As for the CEO, vice executive chairman or whatever you want to call Mr Ed; that one can certainly can discuss. Which has been done plenty on the Caf. What I will say is that responsibility and accountability are two very different things that posters like you dont understand to keep separate.
Stop moaning and present a credible alternative to Mr Ed, or the Board or even the Glazers. Because if you cant, moaning is all that you are doing.

Oh really? If I don't present an alternative to Mr Ed I'm moaning. Interesting, Mr Ed himself wouldn't put it better.

 

[JPRouve]

You half answered as you said if we get a top manager and then we can but do you think we will , a straight yes or no .

So you want an answer without caveat to something that is in the future based on parameters that aren't set? Then the honest answer is, I don't know.

 

[djembatheking]

So you want an answer without caveat to something that is in the future based on parameters that aren't set? Then the honest answer is, I don't know.

Fair enough, I still say United won`t win a league title as Woodward won`t allow those parameters to be fulfilled. Do you think Woodward will bring in a top manager? Would a top manager want to work under Woodward?

 

[JPRouve]

Fair enough, I still say United won`t win a league title as Woodward won`t allow those parameters to be fulfilled. Do you think Woodward will bring in a top manager? Would a top manager want to work under Woodward?

To answer your questions, yes top managers would want to work under Woodward, top managers have worked with genuinely dreadful characters and will in the future. The way some you are speaking you would think tht we are talking about Zamparini and not about a CEO that offers big wages and let manager spend fortunes without putting any public pressure on them which isn't the case in clubs like Barcelona, Real Madrid, PSG, Bayern and many others.