James Robson: Man Utd have left Ole with a bloated & imbalanced squad wasting over £1m p/w in wages

RooneyLegend

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We really are going nowhere slowly. If the Glazers were a smart bunch they'd realise Woody is actually costing them money.
 

Buster15

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You misunderstand this entire debacle.

He's not an arrogant guy mistakenly thinking he knows better than his club's manager what will take this club to the top.

He's a money man who's been hired by the Glazers to keep us moderately competitive whilst saving as much money as possible.

It's all about money, and that comes from above Woodward's deck.
Nowadays, football is primarily driven by money. That is perfectly clear.
However, not sure I agree with your point about saving as much money as possible.
Were that the case, then why lavish very average players with such massive wage deals.
Why not clear out those players who stand little chance of becoming first team regulars.

Really intelligent owners/investors understand exactly what needs to be spent to achieve their defined objectives.
But. The United owners seem to just scatter gun their funds in no particular direction and with no particular plan.
They are getting with making extremely good returns on investment simply because they happen to own such an important team and not because of their business acumen.
Ole needs to concentrate all of his efforts on coaching the United players to improve performance and results.
Someone else needs to be recruited to sort out the mess of a squad.
 

Red Stone

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This club will never be successful as long as that clown Woodward has the final say which players we sell or sign and which managers we sack or hire. I'm absolutely convinced of that. He's had more than six years so far to prove me wrong and all he's managed to do is to prove me right. It doesn't matter who the manager is because Woodward is going to keep actively sabotaging them with his incompetence.
 

stepic

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This is what is wrong with this forum. A Manchester United message board with "Robson" in the title, and we're meant to assume its a journalist and not the best captain in our history.
I’m guessing there was an edit?
 

AltiUn

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I fully back the club that we shouldn't be low-balled just to get rid of players, I'm fecking sick of getting rinsed by everyone over and over again only for us to have our players taken off us for pennies. If they want one of our players then they pay the price we ask. I think Robson's full of shit anyway, I've said it all summer but he's got no information whatsoever and everything he says is conjecture, I've voted he be blacklisted personally, he loves pissing out articles about the doom and gloom around OT.
 

Cassidy

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I fully back the club that we shouldn't be low-balled just to get rid of players, I'm fecking sick of getting rinsed by everyone over and over again only for us to have our players taken off us for pennies. If they want one of our players then they pay the price we ask. I think Robson's full of shit anyway, I've said it all summer but he's got no information whatsoever and everything he says is conjecture, I've voted he be blacklisted personally, he loves pissing out articles about the doom and gloom around OT.
So instead of not being low balled. We extend a players contract (Darmian) a player who is surplus to requirements and refuse the bids that come in. Doesn't that cost you more money in the long run ?
 

Alabaster Codify7

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Why? If he doesn’t get rid, he still pays wages, and they will leave as free agents later - it’s much more expensive then dispose of to cut price now

Money. Replacing players is more expensive than keeping them. Think about it, of the crop I just named, several would need to be replaced in the squad and if there's no youngster present, we have to spend.

Selling Smalling to Everton for £20m? Replacement will be £40m at least in the current climate. Club is £20m down, for example.

Selling Jones to X for £15m? See above.

Fred? Replacement will be around £50-60m at least in the current climate.

In other words, it saves United money to keep these players. When your board isn't prioritising winning trophies, it's the right decision to make for them.
 

Hammondo

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You misunderstand this entire debacle.

He's not an arrogant guy mistakenly thinking he knows better than his club's manager what will take this club to the top.

He's a money man who's been hired by the Glazers to keep us moderately competitive whilst saving as much money as possible.

It's all about money, and that comes from above Woodward's deck.
We have spent a ton of money.
 

Infra-red

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We really are going nowhere slowly. If the Glazers were a smart bunch they'd realise Woody is actually costing them money.
He's made them absolute fortunes. We've been pure shite on the pitch for over six years now and yet in that time, annual revenues have grown from £360m in 2013 to £600m+ this year.

The Glazers will be delighted with Woodward - none of them could care less about how good the football is or whether we actually win anything, as long as the money keeps rolling in as it has been.
 

RedStarUnited

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Money. Replacing players is more expensive than keeping them. Think about it, of the crop I just named, several would need to be replaced in the squad and if there's no youngster present, we have to spend.

Selling Smalling to Everton for £20m? Replacement will be £40m at least in the current climate. Club is £20m down, for example.

Selling Jones to X for £15m? See above.

Fred? Replacement will be around £50-60m at least in the current climate.

In other words, it saves United money to keep these players. When your board isn't prioritising winning trophies, it's the right decision to make for them.
Smalling and Jones examples don't really work. We have 7 CBs, we could sell Smalling and Jones and keep Tuanzebe + Bailly/Rojo and we would be financially much better off. We don't have to replace Jones and Smalling and we would have got their (assumed) higher wages off the books.
 

Coops73

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Nothing we all don’t already know. Woodward and the Glazers are fecking idiots, end of.
 

dev1l

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He's made them absolute fortunes. We've been pure shite on the pitch for over six years now and yet in that time, annual revenues have grown from £360m in 2013 to £600m+ this year.

The Glazers will be delighted with Woodward - none of them could care less about how good the football is or whether we actually win anything, as long as the money keeps rolling in as it has been.
Exactly they don't care what happens on the pitch as long as profits continue to go up
 

Thepinhead

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I trust in Ole. I like the type of players he wants. I just don't have confidence in Ed getting rid of the other players and bring the right in soon enough before the fans will turn on Ole
 

Waynne

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Jesus. I will hold onto Sanchez, Rojo and Jones if it meant Woodward takes a hike.
As much as I hate the above players in the Jersey, I hate the pencil pushing prick even more.
 

Alemar

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Money. Replacing players is more expensive than keeping them. Think about it, of the crop I just named, several would need to be replaced in the squad and if there's no youngster present, we have to spend.

Selling Smalling to Everton for £20m? Replacement will be £40m at least in the current climate. Club is £20m down, for example.

Selling Jones to X for £15m? See above.

Fred? Replacement will be around £50-60m at least in the current climate.

In other words, it saves United money to keep these players. When your board isn't prioritising winning trophies, it's the right decision to make for them.
If a manager decides to never play them again, it doesn’t save club a penny even. It doesn’t matter if this player is still in the team if he never gets selected (and if OGS ever wants to achieve something, he must be ruthless with dross)
 

dev1l

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If a manager decides to never play them again, it doesn’t save club a penny even. It doesn’t matter if this player is still in the team if he never gets selected (and if OGS ever wants to achieve something, he must be ruthless with dross)
Ruthless with dross? And if the team still performs badly? Then he LL get a lot of stick for not using experienced players
I agree with you but it s easier said than done
 

RooneyLegend

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He's made them absolute fortunes. We've been pure shite on the pitch for over six years now and yet in that time, annual revenues have grown from £360m in 2013 to £600m+ this year.

The Glazers will be delighted with Woodward - none of them could care less about how good the football is or whether we actually win anything, as long as the money keeps rolling in as it has been.
But our revenue has started to stagnate. We're now 84 million euros behind Madrid on the moneylist. It hasn't grown for the past 2 seasons.
 

crossy1686

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Nothing new but unfortunately some fans think it is Ole's job to do the clear out. Blaming the manager has become a norm with this fan base when in reality we are run by incompetent people.
I've said it time and time again, we're becoming Chelsea where all our problems begin and end with the manager. People need to wake up to the reality of the situation that every manager will fail until the boardroom gets sorted.
 

bond19821982

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Click bait article. Number is huge only because of Alexis wage. If someone was expecting 4 midfielders to be cleared out, then they are clueless.

There is nothing wrong in setting a price for the players to be sold. It's not like they are bringing Ole down. Statement is clear- enough of the talk and show it on the field. If we see huge progress, I am pretty sure he will backed in Jan or Summer.
 

Champagne Football

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For the first time since Fergie retired, the club is finally making correct decisions. Moving forward will be snails pace, but we are moving forward.

Once it became clear that West Ham and Newcastle would not sell us their young central midfielders at any price, there was no point doing a Mourinho style panic buy special and blowing 70 million on Nainggolan, just because we can't be bothered waiting a year for Garner. It's that type of madness that makes the hole we're in much deeper.

This whole mess is not as much Ed's fault as is made out. The moment Moyes dumped Phelan and the backroom team, and replaced them with Steve Round and co. was the moment this club went into free fall. That's like Roy Hodgson taking over at Man City and ditching Arteta to replace him with Neil Lennon. The fans begged Ed for Van Gaal, then begged for Jose after that, So Ed just granted the fans their wish.

James Robson is a twat. Ole is a step in the right direction and is getting a lot of things right quickly. Even if he fails, the likes of James, Greenwood, Chong, Gomes will be experienced PL players for the next manager, and some of the Mourinho nonsensicle disasters will have been offloaded.
 
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noodlehair

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I actually think this is Jose's legacy. Don't get me wrong Woodward as well but Jose would have us pay Willian a million pounds a week to back him. The club's finances simply didn't matter to him and the wages skyrocketed past any manager that's been here since SAF retired
Mourinho doesn't decide how much players get paid. If he did he'd have been on more than any of them.

I keep saying this every few months but Woodward's incompetence has been clear since the first transfer window under Moyes. He isn't going to learn at this point and it doesn't seem anyone at the club is willing to tell him how clueless he is.
 

noodlehair

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Click bait article. Number is huge only because of Alexis wage. If someone was expecting 4 midfielders to be cleared out, then they are clueless.

There is nothing wrong in setting a price for the players to be sold. It's not like they are bringing Ole down. Statement is clear- enough of the talk and show it on the field. If we see huge progress, I am pretty sure he will backed in Jan or Summer.
It's quite difficult to bring players in without clearing others out though. Even United have budget limits and squad size limits...and you would have trouble justifying to the money men why you're paying x player £100,000 a week and haven't even included him in your Premier League squad list, and aren't willing to sell him more readily either.
 

Bwuk

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We don’t have a bloated squad at all. We are very thin going forward. The only position we have real depth is at CB and majority of them are utter shite.
 

Wednesday at Stoke

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Jones
Rojo
Darmian
Sanchez

Who else we we supposed to sell? It's not that long a list to be honest. And Jones signed a contract recently for no apparent reason.
I don't think either Matic or Smalling are in the plans either. Smalling hasn't even made the bench yet this season.
 

FerociousCorgis

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i mean clearly we need to sell a CB, it is ridiculous the amount we have allowed ourselves to bloat up to there. How is darmian still here? He is legitimately stealing a living at this point. We could sell rojo and darmian for literally anything and not have to spend a dime to replace them. The wages we save and even the small transfer fees of like a rojo/darmian/matic sale could fund an actual deep midfielder to unleash pogba.
 

Jericholyte2

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I think, once we get to Europa, even the deadwood will prove useful. If we get rid of all of it at this point we we have a ridiculously wafer-thin squad and more injuries will occur.

We need a second XI to dedicate to Europa / Carabao Cups:

———————Romero
Dalot——Jones——Smalling——Young
—————Fred——Matic
——Mata———Pereira———Chong(?)
——————-Striker?

You could also use these to blood in Tuanzebe, Garner, Gomes, Chong and Greenwood in their ideal positions.
 

R'hllor

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Lets not pretend there are no personal interests in play.

When it comes to squad, majority of those who were in the squad after last season were stealing wages.
 

Foxbatt

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We don’t have a bloated squad at all. We are very thin going forward. The only position we have real depth is at CB and majority of them are utter shite.
Spot on. Why on earth do we have so many CBs? We have let go of two midfield players and did not replace them. We have sold our CF and did not replace him. (That I do not mind as much as not bringing in two midfield players). We have bought a RB and still have three players who are Rbs. We have a lb and still have two who can play at lb.
We have 5 Cbs. We have no one to replace Matic yet did not buy anyone. I do not care about anyone saying about our bloated squad but if the manager decides to get a midfield player in place of another position he has the final say. To Woodward it is not the position that is important but the money. So instead of buying James and Maguire we could have got a quality midfield player. Not Longstaff but an International player.
 

finneh

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We don’t have a bloated squad at all. We are very thin going forward. The only position we have real depth is at CB and majority of them are utter shite.
I'm not sure that's true at all.

We have De Gea, Romero, Grant, Henderson and Pereira; all of whom are 22 or older. Two should be gone.

We have Jones, Rojo, Smalling, Tuanzebe, Maguire, Lindelof and Bailly; In a few weeks all will be 21 or older. Three shoud be gone

We have Young, Darmian, Dalot, Shaw, Fosu-Mensah and Wan-Bissaka; all or whom are 21 or older. Two should be gone.

In the number 8 position we have Pogba, McTominay, Fred and Pereira. I'd argue one should be gone.

That's 8 players in the squad, plus Sanchez which is 9; who need replacing with maybe a right winger and two midfielders.

The irritation is that I'm sure it's wage limits that are having a greater effect on signings than transfer fees. However lets just say worst case ww got rid of Rojo, Jones, Bailly, Young, Darmian, Romero, Pereira x 2 and Sanchez and it was totally cost neutral (any fees uses to pay off Sanchez contract).

We go into next summer over £50m lighter on the wage front which allows us an incredible amount of headroom to address the weaknesses people have moaned that we haven't addressed this year.

Woodward is such a victim of the sunk cost fallacy.
 
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Sterling Archer

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Nothing new but unfortunately some fans think it is Ole's job to do the clear out. Blaming the manager has become a norm with this fan base when in reality we are run by incompetent people.
There's a strong base of us on the forum calling for Woodward's head for some time now. We've hoped that Ole would be the case where fans would finally turn to the folks above the manager and hold them accountable at last. I don't know if I'll be able to handle it with any sort of grace if Ole gets sacked before Ed.
 

rotherham_red

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And yet we still have the Ole out idiots who call him a yes man and apologist for the Glazers and blame him for the current predicament we're in...
 

Real Madras

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what’s funny is we get rid of players like Nani and RVP for pittance but seem to want 15m for Rojo, 30m for Smalling, 12m for Darmian and so on. It’s all a bit naff to be honest with you as both the players that were sold for so little, were much more important to the team. It’s bloody Ed Woodward. Richard Arnold popped up on my LinkedIn this morning asking me to congratulate him for 12 years at the club. I was inclined to message him congrats for the first 6 years but questioning him for the last 6 years. I obviously bottled it as all his pals were congratulating him and I didn’t want to be the odd one out.
 

fergiesarmy1

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Does anyone know who Woodward actually supports if anyone, pretty sure he’s a plant by the scousers the baldy bastard (I’m bald before someone starts :lol:)
 

Jimmy_Bond

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what’s funny is we get rid of players like Nani and RVP for pittance but seem to want 15m for Rojo, 30m for Smalling, 12m for Darmian and so on. It’s all a bit naff to be honest with you as both the players that were sold for so little, were much more important to the team. It’s bloody Ed Woodward.
It's a good point. Dead wood was never hung onto and priced out of moves away when Gill was here and the Glazers were. Think he's a bigger problem than them to be honest, which is a good thing as it's more likely that he goes than them. Personally don't think we can moan about post Fergie spend. We can most certainly moan about how it's been spent. That buck stops with him.