Eh, I'm not too hard on Woodward about the Maguire signing because he didn't want it. We said nah when Mourinho wanted Maguire. Ole was the one that pushed for it - and to avoid "didn't back the manager" allegations - we ended up buying him - for a ridiculous fee mind. Ole also said Maguire was his number one transfer target.
It was like that but that just shows what a shit and weak CEO Woodward was. He was right on not buying Maguire when Jose wanted, and he was wrong in then buying him when Ole wanted. Should have sticked with the original ‘No’.
But then it does not seem that Murtough/Arnold are doing better in this aspect, just that hopefully ETH is better than Jose and Ole in finding targets. Still IMO we operate in a massively outdated way when the manager finds the targets.
Hardly what happened. We said no to Mourinho’s transfer wishes because the relationship with the manager was turning sour and all the players he wanted at the club ended up performing badly, to the point where he wanted them replaced. Hell bent on signing Sanchez, who ended up playing (badly) on the left wing and having a negative impact on both Rashford and Martials form, a star signing underperforming so badly, and at extreme wages, it was hardly much of a surprise that the higher ups weren’t eager to jump on any of his other wishes. We had just spent large fees on both Bailly and Lindelof, neither of them performing well, and then his solution was to spend a record fee on a player that he could’ve signed instead of either Bailly or Lindelof, for much less money, as Maguire moved to for around £12mill the same year we spent £30mill on Lindelof, a year after we signed Bailly for over £30mill.
In terms of Maguire now, he’s in a hole he’s never digging himself out of, his performances are miles below what he’s capable of but he looks devoid of any confidence whatsoever.