Blaming Woodward and all those above Ole

shamans

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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.
 

horsechoker

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The club lacks a modern structure that other clubs have, they have transfer committees and a director of football to ensure continuity. United have fallen behind the times and that is the fault of Woodward and The Glazers.

Moreover, Woodward blocked Mourinho from signing Maguire, only to go back for him a year later.

While Ole cannot be absolved of the blame, the Glazers and Woodward remain the constant in our downfall since Fergie'a retirement.

Arsenal likewise have the same problem, crappy board but Wenger and then Emery made terrible decisions.
 

owlo

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Yea I feel you.

First thing he did was pushed Fellaini out of the club as harshly as possible. Did the same to Lukaku in summer. 'Not Man Utd players.' Kicked Smalling out too, who whilst not great isn't much worse than slabhead. Gave new contracts to all manner of junk (Yes, that includes Mata)

Went on to buy players we needed less, and not ones we needed more.

Went into the season criminally underprepared, and has hung the kids out to dry. I want him sacked ASAP.

Guess I'm not a 'real' fan.
 

MrBest

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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.
Spot on and I agree. Woodward does not have a win percentage of below 30% since Ole became permanent. Woodward didn't set the tactics to match Sheffield United away from home. Yes the board need to pull there weight and hire a director of football but Ole has dug his own grave for me. He owned up to the fact it was his choice to not sign more players and he chose to have Andreas, Mata, Lingard and Young to his disposal. He is out of his depth and is playimg football manager with us. His tactics are strange, his philosophy does not exist and I do not see 10% of his so called strategy. We do not have a style of play and all we seem to do is manage games based in the oppositions style. Ole has made our squad worse than when Jose left, i do not see a happier or fitter squad. It is the same sht different day. Great post mate, you will get slated by haters but you are absolutely right, we can blame the board but Ole has dug his own grave with a lack of ability.
 

The Bloody-Nine

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Woodward is hopelessly incompetent when it comes to footballing matters. So is Ole.

Woody makes money, though, I guess. Let him concentrate on that, and get someone in who isn't a total f*cking doofus. Then we can get some progress.
 

fallengt

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Who hired Ole in the first place? And it was based on the merit that we beat PSG, in a match that they gifted us two goals. lot of United fans still can't see his incompetence.
, no wonder we're in shit spot when both fans and owners are both clueless.
 
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Bastian

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I'm totally with you that Ole is not up to the job. But I think you are absolving Woodward and his bastard clan too much here. LVG has stated in interviews that he did not get the players he wanted so that puts into question who decides on players bought, including under Mourinho and Ole.

Ole probably knew that the squad was too thin - that's my hypothesis anyway - but he's so desperate for the gig that he cannot even hint at anything not being fantastically amazing at board level. Of course it's on the board too to have completely fecked up this last window. We had many months to evaluate the squad, they knew who they wanted out, but faffed around for ages (Woodward specifically did so on Maguire, being told the price at the end of the season and ending up paying that same price at the end of the window). They knew Ander was off, they'd sold Fellaini, Fred had revealed himself to be worth maybe 10% of what we paid and Pogba was saying he wanted to leave. This is definitely not all on Ole. And given the sample size of their stay at United, I'd say Woodward is much further away in the incompetence race. He's sanctioned radically different managers back and forth, chopping and changing the squad, paying ludicrous wages to mediocre players, extending their deals to preserve some fix-the-books value, seeing other clubs gain on us commercially despite his much referred to commercial genius. He is a charlatan of the highest order. Ole is just a decent guy who is desperate to do well but comes up short. And he's trying to also please that charlatan and shield him and his masters from criticism.
 

AshRK

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I don't think people are defending ole when they are saying Woodward should resign. Woodward has done a shitty job and fans have to stop protecting the incompetent guy.

Also, who is stopping him from sacking ole and appointing a top manager. Who asked him to hire ole? Ole has been doing a bad job but to say Woodward has nothing to do with this doesn't make sense. This is not a one off failure. This is the 4th manager who has failed or has not lived upto the expectations and the constant figure in all of that is Woodward..So yes he does deserve to be blamed.
 

Red_toad

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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.
Van Gaal failed, Jose failed, Moyes failed, now Ole is failing. So yeah it's all the managers fault. Best look at whom appoints managers and who has final say on transfers, as there are constants involved in that loop (none of whom are the 1st team managers).'
Ole should never have been given the job on a full time basis. Does anyone think it's his fault he accepted his absolute dream job? Shame he didn't realise it's a vipers pit until bigger changes are made.
 

Merlin 1975-78

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No, we can't.
You have just beaten me to it there because I honestly belive that until that until those parasites & their puppet, Woodward do the decent thing & sell to the South Arabians or anyone else for that matter that can afford the £3Billion( that the greedy parasites would have the cheek to ask), without putting themselves & us into even further debts, then we are not going to be challenging for the title anytime soon sad to say! Talking of the South Arabians I don't think we can afford to be fussy otherwise we will be still stuck with those, Glazers/parasites in 10 or maybe even 20 years from now & Im sure none of us would be happy with the thought of them lot still running our Club into the ground at the start of next season, let alone still hanging around like a very bad smell in 2039/40 season!
 

He'sRaldo

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Defending the guy who was moaning about how hard it is to complete 3 signings in a summer? Which is his bloody job?

Sorry can't agree.
 

jem

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You have just beaten me to it there because I honestly belive that until that until those parasites & their puppet, Woodward do the decent thing & sell to the South Arabians or anyone else for that matter that can afford the £3Billion( that the greedy parasites would have the cheek to ask), without putting themselves & us into even further debts, then we are not going to be challenging for the title anytime soon sad to say! Talking of the South Arabians I don't think we can afford to be fussy otherwise we will be still stuck with those, Glazers/parasites in 10 or maybe even 20 years from now & Im sure none of us would be happy with the thought of them lot still running our Club into the ground at the start of next season, let alone still hanging around like a very bad smell in 2039/40 season!
How the feck can this be deemed decent?
 

jem

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You have just beaten me to it there because I honestly belive that until that until those parasites & their puppet, Woodward do the decent thing & sell to the South Arabians or anyone else for that matter that can afford the £3Billion( that the greedy parasites would have the cheek to ask), without putting themselves & us into even further debts, then we are not going to be challenging for the title anytime soon sad to say! Talking of the South Arabians I don't think we can afford to be fussy otherwise we will be still stuck with those, Glazers/parasites in 10 or maybe even 20 years from now & Im sure none of us would be happy with the thought of them lot still running our Club into the ground at the start of next season, let alone still hanging around like a very bad smell in 2039/40 season!
We can't be fussy about the murderous regimes that decide to buy our club?
 

Tel074

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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.

This is up there with the most ridiculous post I've ever read in the cafe . If you cant see this club needed a clear out then I don't know where you have been . If you don't realise that Ed and co. have spend close to 1 billion on complete shite then i dispair .
Do you really believe managers sign players ? Do you really think LVG asked to have Falcao and Do Maria ? Do you really think Ole wanted Herrara to leave for Lukaku and Sanchez not to be replaced ?

Ed and the Glazers have been bleeding our club dry for 10 years . We got away with it because Ferguson was a genius but since then dispite the money spent Ed and his board have failed in almost every transfer window .

You obviously are so far detached from proper United fans that you actually believe everything is the managers fault and that in itself is simply embarrassing ..
 

Snow

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Woodward was the one that hired Moyes and LvG and Ole and Mourinho whom he stopped backing which effectively doomed the season because not backing the manager is the same as sacking him. Woodward is the one extending contracts to players and he's the biggest reason why our wage bill has shot up. Our managers aren't the ones discussing wages which has one of the biggest feckups in recent years. Not even all the transfers were signings that the managers wanted.

Woodward has done a good job to matters no relating directly to football but for the position that he's in that's not good enough. All of this happened as soon as he took over and it has only gotten worse, not better. Still the discussion of DoF rages on with no progress on it, empty promises because the promises entail loss of power.

Nah man, apologizing for Woodward isn't the way to go and saying he's responsible for 20% less than the CAF wants to blame him for is splitting hairs.
 

Cloud7

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You obviously are so far detached from proper United fans that you actually believe everything is the managers fault and that in itself is simply embarrassing ..
Look at Mr Proper United Fan over here:lol:
 

Merlin 1975-78

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We can't be fussy about the murderous regimes that decide to buy our club?
Your entitled to your opinion mate in the same way that those of us that want to see, United back at the top of the table were we belong are A.S.A.P. are entitled to our's & sadly irregardless of weather we like it or not the The south Arabians are the only one's that seem to have the cash to buy The Glazers/parasites out & the best bit is they would be even richer than the arabs at, Man cITY & that would be an added bonus watching & hearing the the Bertie Magoo's winging about how unfair it all is & all the rest of the jealous rival fans of various clubs would be going into meltdown aswell & that would add to our amusment because back here in the uk us reds get a real buzz out of anything that annoys the jealous ABU Clowns, as we call them.
 

Adnan

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The board have stuck to the structure that we've always enjoyed under the likes of Busby and Fergie and it can work as proven by both legends. But for it to work it needs the manager to at least hit the required target(top 4) to keep him in the job. And with the funds allotted to them it could've worked but they failed after flushing £ millions down the toilet.

The board are culpable of showing naivety in the last 4 years that is unmatched at any other top club. It was pretty clear a DoF type figure was required at such a club with the manager model failing badly. But currently we've given Ole £130m to spend on two players who aren't even close to being the best in their respective positions which is hugely concerning IMO.
 

Adnan

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Your entitled to your opinion mate in the same way that those of us that want to see, United back at the top of the table were we belong are A.S.A.P. are entitled to our's & sadly irregardless of weather we like it or not the The south Arabians are the only one's that seem to have the cash to buy The Glazers/parasites out & the best bit is they would be even richer than the arabs at, Man cITY & that would be an added bonus watching & hearing the the Bertie Magoo's winging about how unfair it all is & all the rest of the jealous rival fans of various clubs would be going into meltdown aswell & that would add to our amusment because back here in the uk us reds get a real buzz out of anything that annoys the jealous ABU Clowns, as we call them.
The West Arabians might be a better bet than the Southern ones I'd say.
 

tenpoless

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Woodward's mistake last season was appointing Ole.

From that point on it's Ole's faults mostly. If He didn't ask to get rid of Lukaku, Fellaini, Smalling (Yes, shite players yada yada yada), Woodward would have never forced him to sell/loan them. Now We're very thin in numbers and have only one way to score goals.

It's better to have several average players than a few average players. What was He thinking? that Sancho would've joined us? Rice would've joined us? Longstaff would've joined us? Brave but stupid. We're standing on one leg.
 
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shamans

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Woodward's mistake last season was appointing Ole.

From that point on it's Ole's faults mostly. If He didn't ask to get rid of Lukaku, Fellaini, Smalling (Yes, shite players yada yada yada), Woodward would have never forced him to sell/loan them. Now We're very thin in numbers and have only one way to score goals.

It's better to have several average players than a few average players. What was He thinking? that Sancho would've joined us? Rice would've joined us? Longstaff would've joined us? Brave but stupid. We're standing on one leg.
He played it like FM. He genuinely thought he would get dybala and fast pacey youngsters would do the rest.
 

bonothom

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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.
When Solskjaer was announced as full time manager United had already started to lose games. I think they had lost to Arsenal then Wolves. The signs of the wheels coming off were already there. Woodward had no reason not to wait until the summer. Had he waited I don't think he'd have got the job as United were absolute shite from mid march onwards.
 

shamans

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When Solskjaer was announced as full time manager United had already started to lose games. I think they had lost to Arsenal then Wolves. The signs of the wheels coming off were already there. Woodward had no reason not to wait until the summer. Had he waited I don't think he'd have got the job as United were absolute shite from mid march onwards.
It was a mistake in hindsight. I agree we needed a DOF or similar figure. I will have no complaints against Woodward getting fired. Such mistakes should not go ignored. Still, the current blame lies on Ole and not Woodward.
 

ash_86

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We've failed for 7 seasons since SAF retired and we have hired 4 managers in this period. Who is the common denominator in this period?

Woodward wouldn't relinquish power and that's the problem. Backing managers means feck all as he has absolutely no football knowledge and wouldn't know if the manager is investing on right players. That's why we've spent close to billion pounds and still have Pereira as our midfielder.
 

Waynne

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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.
Is this the Onion? I mean who hired Ole?

It was a mistake in hindsight. I agree we needed a DOF or similar figure. I will have no complaints against Woodward getting fired. Such mistakes should not go ignored. Still, the current blame lies on Ole and not Woodward.
In order to fix the mess the club currently finds itself in you have to start fixing it at the root cause. There is no use directing all your anger at Ole. He will go and we will be left with Woodward who has royally fecked the club over the last 6 years. Since Fergie left we have no direction, ambition or plan to build a championship winning team. This squarely falls on the shoulders of the executive board and Woodward. When these issues get address, managers, backroom staff and whatever you need to run a modern football club will fall into place and we wouldn't be having debates every 2 years of who will be next Man United manager.
 
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SteveW

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We're crap because Moyes, LVG and Jose wasted a billion pounds between them.
 

Teja

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In what other business does a CEO keep his job when things have been going so poorly for his business with no sight of a turn-around? Sure revenues are growing but ever since he took over, it's been one bumbled decision after the other on the football side, both in terms of player recruitment and manager recruitment. How long are revenues going to continue to grow when the football is so dire? We're a football club afterall and the quality of our product informs how much money we make and the chickens *will* come home to roost at some point. How much revenue did we lose by not qualifying for the CL? Even evaluated purely on business terms like valuation growth, stock price, revenues etc. he's been a failure. The tractor / noodle sponsorships don't change that.

The most generous interpretation is that he's a smart guy and he might have learned from his mistakes, but a CEO gets judged by the decisions he got right, not by the amount of learning experience he's had on the job. Looking forward, I don't have any belief that he has any clue on how to turn this ship around. The promised "structure" at recruitment sounds awful lot like bizspeak to buy a couple more years from his boss.

Yes Ole's not up to scratch, we need a better manager, but he's a symptom of the rot under Woodward.

The Glazers are a different (much larger) problem altogether. We shouldn't confuse Woodward's incompetence for Glazers' debt saddling ways.

Woodward out first. Then the Glazers.
 

manutddjw

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I agree. We invested a lot of money into a large scouting staff who identify and suggest players to the manager. If the manager feels strongly about a player not being scouted (James) we still go for that player. It’s a collaborative effort between the manager and scouting department to ensure that players being looked at fit the managers vision and the manager has a say in who comes in. I continuously read how our structure is broken and it’s the cause of all our problems. Do you think Mourinho would’ve taken kindly to us just handing him players he didn’t ask for? No he just wouldn’t play them and we’d of just wasted money as was the case with Filipe Luis and Baba Rahman. Having a collaborative effort between all phases of management is having a good structure which we have.

Ed doesn’t give team talks, identify targets, devise tactics or select the lineups.If we had a better manager capable of coming up with ideas on how to best utilize what he has at the moment we’d be better off. Did Brendan Rodgers need 3 windows to have Leicester in Champions League spots and playing his style of football?

Ed’s role is to act as a liaison between the club and the Glazers. What has he done wrong in that respect. Every manager has been backed and we’ve spent more than everyone except City. If Ed was the Glazer puppet leech he’s made out to be, we’d of spent half that. He’s done his job ensuring every manager we’ve had was given every chance to succeed. It’s sad but since Sir Alex left, we’ve spent over 250 Million on defenders and our defence is no better now than when we first appointed LvG.
 

BaneIsPain

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All I see is a same constant failure since Sir Alex retired which is Woodward. He still reluctant to appoint DoF yeah? He wants absolute control of the club
 

Florida Man

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No, no, no. It’s the fans’ fault for being spoiled and having too high expectations.
 

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Of course Woodward is not the reason for all our troubles, our managers both former and current are all culpable to some degree, but he and the board have been the one constant the last 6 years so i just find it bizarre to absolve them of all blame.

If a company is doing poorly, its usually the higher ups and not middle management that gets put under pressure. We on the other hand just sack the middle management and then carry on as we did. All our former managers since Fergie have ended their jobs here on poor terms with the board and Woody, none more so than Jose.

Sorry, but i just find it very hard to believe that there simply was no more than 50 million available in the 2018/19 window when we only ended up with Fred, which ended up with the manager self sabotaging because he saw no hope in continuing the project. Yes the former managers are guilty of doing some poor transfers, but the board more than anyone are guilty of the lack of support around those managers.

Lets be real here. All Woody and the owners care about are the numbers of the bottom of the sheet at the end of the fiscal year. The club is making more revenue than ever, yet we cant afford to hire more personnel both on and off the pitch?
 

Bojan11

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What could have been?

We started our losing run and Woody then hands Ole the contract. Genius work there.

He could have waited and see how it folded out. Not like Barca were coming for Ole, so there was no rush.
 

Gandalf Greyhame

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Red Card for Casemiro!
- 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:

“Do you know how many of United players that left the club last season? See where they play, how they play, if they play,” he said, referring to the likes of Wayne Rooney, Memphis Depay, Morgan Schneiderlin and Bastian Schweinsteiger. “That's football heritage.”
“One day when I leave the next Manchester United manager will find here Lukaku, Matic, of course [David] De Gea from many years ago,” he said. “They will find players with a different mentality, quality, background, with a different status, know-how.”
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.
 
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