Is that actually true? We got nervous, offered him a significant role and tied him down for fear he’d go to Inter Miami, as opposed to Inter Milan?
Laurie Whitwell explained it like that in an article a while ago on the Athletic, and on a podcast as well. He's normally pretty good with that sort of internal stuff.
I think Woodward heavily relied on Murtough for all sorts of admin reasons in those early years because he knew feck all about running a football club, whereas Murtough had worked within clubs for a long time before he came to United.
As others have already pointed out, he did do a lot of good work with the academy restructuring. I think he was behind bringing in Cox as academy director, which also led to a huge falling out with Nicky Butt. Not necessarily because Butt felt like he was more suited for the role, but because I don't think they were as transparent as they should have been and he felt forced out, whereas there probably was a place for him working with Cox.
It's ironic that he brought in Cox, who was well regarded as an academy manager from his time at Watford and Sheffield United, and didn't promote Butt because it wasn't his area of expertise, but was then promoted to a role he didn't have any experience in over other more suitable candidates, including the (supposedly) incoming Ashworth.