Matt Judge resigns from role as Manchester United’s Head of Corporate Development

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I’m going to go against the grain and say our chief negotiator resigning 3 games before the end of the season isn’t great news at all.
 

Forevergiggs1

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It's not but these changes have been in the works for some time it appears. He's not been speaking publicly unlike Ralf but I think the credit should be attributed mainly to Murtough if anyone. He's also the one that was keen on and push through RR coming in the first place.
The main thing I like about Murtough is he seems to have the competence to see exactly why our club has been failing for the last decade and is acting on it by getting rid of key figures that have contributed to this failure in the first place. He obviously rates RR as it was (supposedly? ) him that brought him in in the first place so why wouldn't he listen to RR on matters that he has plenty of experience in?

We've no idea the input that RR has had in these changes but the people saying he has had little to no input are basing their assumptions more on agenda than on common sense but each to their own I suppose. The most important thing is the club finally seems to be moving in the right direction and if these changes gets us back on track then the credit should be shared all around no matter how hurtful that would be for some people.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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VDB was just an example. If we had gone and paid 50m for a Cancelo rather than AWB or 80m for a Van Dijk rather than Maguire, people would have had no complaints over the prices. The issue was that the wrong people chose the wrong players, and it was all done when everyone knew we were desperate.
Isn’t it why we sack or let go our chief scouts or whoever in charged in that scouting department? But you can’t ignore the fact that this guy took in charged for our wages which have been man united biggest problem. The main reason why players are getting crazy wages and we struggled to sell players are Judge’s responsibility and the damage done by him.
 

ArmchairCritic

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You have to assume this is Russel Arnold's influence, right? He clearly wants football-savvy people involved in transfers and contract negotiations rather than the travesty of Woodward controlling everything.

We're learning, slowly but surely.
No wonder we’re such a shambles if we’re being ran by ex Sri Lankan cricketers :)
 

sullydnl

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I’m going to go against the grain and say our chief negotiator resigning 3 games before the end of the season isn’t great news at all.
The news itself is good but the timing certainly isn't ideal given we'd already be working on our summer transfer work at this point. Ideally this would have happened months ago and the replacement would already be in situ.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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As a person who had worked under CEOs and GMs including some very bad ones I suggest that you do not believe everything being written. Businesses hate sacking high ranking officials. It make them look bad and it dents their reputation. Which is why they would do anything to embellish it. I saw Businesses clearly stating that they didn't want to lose such people when in reality they were pushing then out of the door
Whether what’s written is right or no, I don’t think that matters because the point should be whether Glazers are right to let Ed Woodward continued running the club for 7 years. So if you are on the same view as the other poster which he didn’t believe that Glazers actually wanted Ed to stay, why it took him 7 years until the super league incident to finally Glazers made changes?
 

Amir

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Isn’t it why we sack or let go our chief scouts or whoever in charged in that scouting department? But you can’t ignore the fact that this guy took in charged for our wages which have been man united biggest problem. The main reason why players are getting crazy wages and we struggled to sell players are Judge’s responsibility and the damage done by him.
There are many reasons we've struggled to sell players. One of which is that sometimes we didn't even try to sell them when we should have. Another is that they regularly look like crap when they play for us, so nobody wants them, certainly not for high wages.

Look, I'm not saying Judge was perfect or even good at his job. Just that he has a minimal role, at best, in our failures on the pitch. His departure is not a game changer or anything remote.
 

clarkydaz

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Whether what’s written is right or no, I don’t think that matters because the point should be whether Glazers are right to let Ed Woodward continued running the club for 7 years. So if you are on the same view as the other poster which he didn’t believe that Glazers actually wanted Ed to stay, why it took him 7 years until the super league incident to finally Glazers made changes?
let's not forget Ed walked after getting caught on the superleague. Glazers didn't change anything, they would have kept him in charge
 

Lentwood

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I’m going to go against the grain and say our chief negotiator resigning 3 games before the end of the season isn’t great news at all.
Its brilliant news. Good riddance.

Fans have called for change for a decade but its never gone far enough. It's 2022, you can't just change the Head Coach and a few players and think you can compete with the likes of City, Liverpool, PSG and Bayern.

We have had bankers and chancers playing a real-live version of Football Manager for too long and I think we'll look back at the departure of Woodward and Judge as one of the key milestones in turning this club around
 

devilish

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Whether what’s written is right or no, I don’t think that matters because the point should be whether Glazers are right to let Ed Woodward continued running the club for 7 years. So if you are on the same view as the other poster which he didn’t believe that Glazers actually wanted Ed to stay, why it took him 7 years until the super league incident to finally Glazers made changes?
From what I read financial wise Woodward knows his stuff. He was the guy who made the United deal happen, he was able to juggle the debt around making it serviceable and he was able to attract alot of sponsors to the club. So the Glazers owed the guy big time. Also note that the financial guy-football guy system had served United well through the past decades. Edwards, Kenyon and Gill were accountants and business men after all. Turned out that such outdated system (may I say) remained successful up until SAF was around. Woodward's inability to revamp the system coupled by the super league fiasco and probably a dip or at least a plateau in sponsorship money was the straw that broke the camel's back
 

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Well you've have to ask him. I guess not even SAF could give a second contract extension to someone whose illness had basically ruined his career at top flight.
But why not get him to retire as a player and find a backroom job for him?

Presumably Fletcher wanted to keep on playing for as long as possible and was happy to do so away from United. Which suggests that he’s at least able to decide stuff for himself some of the time. Consequently if he decides to follow a coaching/management career he’d have no hesitation to move away from United if that’s what it took.

My guess that he might want to go into coaching “properly” is nothing but a guess based on the fact that he clearly enjoys wearing a tracksuit and being close to players. I avoid Howson like the plague; he’s a shouty gobshite with ITK pretentions who’s even more annoying than Goldbridge.
 

Revaulx

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From what I read financial wise Woodward knows his stuff. He was the guy who made the United deal happen, he was able to juggle the debt around making it serviceable and he was able to attract alot of sponsors to the club. So the Glazers owed the guy big time. Also note that the financial guy-football guy system had served United well through the past decades. Edwards, Kenyon and Gill were accountants and business men after all. Turned out that such outdated system (may I say) remained successful up until SAF was around. Woodward's inability to revamp the system coupled by the super league fiasco and probably a dip or at least a plateau in sponsorship money was the straw that broke the camel's back
Absolutely.

Woodward’s problem seemed to be that he enjoyed playing real-life Football Manager too much.

I wouldn’t give Gill a free pass either though; if anyone was in a position to take control of the post-SAF transition it was him, and he utterly failed to do so.
 

devilish

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But why not get him to retire as a player and find a backroom job for him?

Presumably Fletcher wanted to keep on playing for as long as possible and was happy to do so away from United. Which suggests that he’s at least able to decide stuff for himself some of the time. Consequently if he decides to follow a coaching/management career he’d have no hesitation to move away from United if that’s what it took.

My guess that he might want to go into coaching “properly” is nothing but a guess based on the fact that he clearly enjoys wearing a tracksuit and being close to players. I avoid Howson like the plague; he’s a shouty gobshite with ITK pretentions who’s even more annoying than Goldbridge.
The answer to that might be quite simple. Players retire when they are ready to retire. Also note that a player's salary is far greater then that of a coach as well. So if WBA and then Stoke wanted to give Fletcher a shot then why should he turn that down? Those added 4 years of football career to his tally and bank account. It makes perfect sense to me and I fully agree with Fletcher's decision to do so.

Regarding Howson, well, the guy is a pretentious pomp. Once he said that he went to Carrington and players wanted to take photos with him. He also like to draw parallels between how his pub team and Manchester United which is like comparing a paddle boat to the HMS Queen Elizabeth. Having said that, his tactics are usually sound and tbf he's very pro Fletcher
 

devilish

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Absolutely.

Woodward’s problem seemed to be that he enjoyed playing real-life Football Manager too much.

I wouldn’t give Gill a free pass either though; if anyone was in a position to take control of the post-SAF transition it was him, and he utterly failed to do so.
I think there were three problems

A- United's system was heavily outdated. SAF made it work because the guy was a genius who came from an era were managers did everything themselves (Clough even drove the player's bus himself) but it was meant to collapse the moment the old man retired. No modern manager could do what SAF did simply because they lacked his brilliance but also the experience a typical manager from the 70s-80s would have. Take ETH as an example. He himself said that he relied heavily on the likes of Overmars and VDS.

B- Woodward had absolutely no football experience. Someone like Beppe Marotta would have immediately understood what was wrong, he would make amends and get the ball rolling. Woodward was literally on the job learning.

C- What makes sense marketing wise doesn't necessary makes sense football wise. A venture that create online presence, tweets and attract media attention is great from a marketing perspective but you certainly wouldn't want that in a dressing room. It distracts players, it hurts the manager's authority and guess what? It create leaks which in turn hit morale.
 

MrSingh2002

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Murtough, Rangnik and Ten Hag.

I can get behind that.

Thank you for the service Ole, Woodward, Judge, McKenna, Carrick and Butt.

Murtough is proving to be a decent decision maker and now he is influenced by Rangnik we could finally come close to having the overhaul we've needed. Ole did a decent job of getting rid of deadwood but didn't replace them with much better players.

Fingers crossed for the summer.
 

glasgow 21

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I always assumed it would just be a given that Phelan was going to leave at the end of the season.
04 October 2021 Phelan signed an extension to 2024. why is anyones idea but they gave him one. Will probably require yet another bounty to move on.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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There are many reasons we've struggled to sell players. One of which is that sometimes we didn't even try to sell them when we should have. Another is that they regularly look like crap when they play for us, so nobody wants them, certainly not for high wages.

Look, I'm not saying Judge was perfect or even good at his job. Just that he has a minimal role, at best, in our failures on the pitch. His departure is not a game changer or anything remote.
Liverpool managed to sell all their deadwoods that played crap with ease, so don’t use that excuses since other clubs have proved it that they can sell players that played crap. Crap players shouldn’t be getting high wages, yet we gave them high wages. We can’t sell deadwoods while others can. We give these what you called ‘’crap’’ players ridiculously high wages while Liverpool don’t for example how the feck Robertson and Mané have lower wages than Maguire, Shaw, Martial and Rashford. Struggling to sell deadwoods and wages + contract‘s issue have been the biggest issue at Man United, and that‘s Matt Judge responsibility.
 

fezzerUTD

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Murtough, Rangnik and Ten Hag.

I can get behind that.

Thank you for the service Ole, Woodward, Judge, McKenna, Carrick and Butt.

Murtough is proving to be a decent decision maker and now he is influenced by Rangnik we could finally come close to having the overhaul we've needed. Ole did a decent job of getting rid of deadwood but didn't replace them with much better players.

Fingers crossed for the summer.
Giving someone praise based on your own suspicions? Geez no wonder we are totally fecked. The last 3 members of staff have left the club on their own accord yet this guy is getting praise.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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From what I read financial wise Woodward knows his stuff. He was the guy who made the United deal happen, he was able to juggle the debt around making it serviceable and he was able to attract alot of sponsors to the club. So the Glazers owed the guy big time. Also note that the financial guy-football guy system had served United well through the past decades. Edwards, Kenyon and Gill were accountants and business men after all. Turned out that such outdated system (may I say) remained successful up until SAF was around. Woodward's inability to revamp the system coupled by the super league fiasco and probably a dip or at least a plateau in sponsorship money was the straw that broke the camel's back
What you are saying is that Glazers‘ priority is to make lot of profit without paying the club’s debt directly but use sponsorship to pay the debt, which is why they are fine with how the football club ran in the past 7 years. Any Football related weren’t their concern as long as they can achieve the priority.
 

unplayable

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Imagine resigning from a high responsibility job and your company doesn't even see the need to replace you. How bad do you have to be at your job for that to happen?
 

pcaming

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I’m going to go against the grain and say our chief negotiator resigning 3 games before the end of the season isn’t great news at all.
It's not a difficult job, it's not like he's been saving us money. He's just written up lucrative deals that have left the club hamstrung with overpaid, egotistical players.
 

Revaulx

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I think there were three problems

A- United's system was heavily outdated. SAF made it work because the guy was a genius who came from an era were managers did everything themselves (Clough even drove the player's bus himself) but it was meant to collapse the moment the old man retired. No modern manager could do what SAF did simply because they lacked his brilliance but also the experience a typical manager from the 70s-80s would have. Take ETH as an example. He himself said that he relied heavily on the likes of Overmars and VDS.

B- Woodward had absolutely no football experience. Someone like Beppe Marotta would have immediately understood what was wrong, he would make amends and get the ball rolling. Woodward was literally on the job learning.

C- What makes sense marketing wise doesn't necessary makes sense football wise. A venture that create online presence, tweets and attract media attention is great from a marketing perspective but you certainly wouldn't want that in a dressing room. It distracts players, it hurts the manager's authority and guess what? It create leaks which in turn hit morale.
Oh I quite agree. The thing with A though is that there were other people employed in senior positions at United other than SAF. Surely Gill would have been aware of the impending meltdown; he was “well regarded” in the wider football world and must have been aware if the changes that were happening at other clubs. And yet he jumped ship at the last minute rather than take action.
 

Fridge chutney

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I hope these changes are indicative of the club building a modern and sustainable operating structure.

It is hard to see the woods through the trees yet, but as long as progress is being made, we should be encouraged.
 

Eckers99

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It's hard to tell how things were going behind the scenes to really judge who was calling the shots, but at the end of the day this has been an era of failure for the club so it's good to see the old guards leaving. Hopefully we have a replacement in mind before the start of the summer.
Pretty much how I feel. We all read and hear rumours about off-field incompetence, but its hard to say definitively where the real issues have resided. A root and branch overhaul was well overdue though, so let's see if things actually change, starting this summer. Here's hoping.
 

Blood Mage

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Imagine resigning from a high responsibility job and your company doesn't even see the need to replace you. How bad do you have to be at your job for that to happen?
Yeah that's the biggest indicator that Judge is a clown stealing a living. Hopefully we create a new head of recruitment role and appoint someone like Paul Mitchell or Lee Dykes from Brentford.
 

devilish

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Oh I quite agree. The thing with A though is that there were other people employed in senior positions at United other than SAF. Surely Gill would have been aware of the impending meltdown; he was “well regarded” in the wider football world and must have been aware if the changes that were happening at other clubs. And yet he jumped ship at the last minute rather than take action.
Who exactly? The only person I could think of was Sir Bobby Charlton who was quite elderly himself. Woodward came in and SAF practically recommended Moyes to him. Moyes went 'rogue' by firing most of Sir Alex's man and since we had a system were the manager called most of the shots (football wise) we agreed to his plan. What was left was a manager and his coaching staff all of whom were clearly out of depth. I can understand Sir Alex for not wanting overheads (DOF, technical directors etc). However this mess was long coming. SAF warned us about it and Gill left the sinking ship before it dragged him down with it.

Dont take me wrong, Woodward made LOOOOAAAAADDDDDDS of mistakes. However our previous system could only work with SAF on board
 

devilish

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What you are saying is that Glazers‘ priority is to make lot of profit without paying the club’s debt directly but use sponsorship to pay the debt, which is why they are fine with how the football club ran in the past 7 years. Any Football related weren’t their concern as long as they can achieve the priority.
I don't think that they are fine with how things are run. Else why they wanted Woodward gone? Lets face it mate no one likes to have 1 billion pounds of his own money thrown in the bin and most of his clients hating his guts. What I am saying is that Woodward did them an enormous favour by coming with a plan on how they could buy and retain Manchester United on the long term. At one point though the mismanagement became so obvious and the situation grew so toxic that he needed to go. Think of him as moe greene. The guy was a visionary but he couldn't run his very vision to success
 

Kellyiom

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Why does Ralf get the credit for Murtough’s work?
I don't think he is getting any credit wrongfully, I think it's more simple that the two have been asked for their honest opinions independently, as 'outsiders' and have both reported their conclusions and it's become painfully evident that Big changes have to happen on the pitch and in the office. Really hoping this will manifest as the beginning of our awakening!
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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I don't think that they are fine with how things are run. Else why they wanted Woodward gone? Lets face it mate no one likes to have 1 billion pounds of his own money thrown in the bin and most of his clients hating his guts. What I am saying is that Woodward did them an enormous favour by coming with a plan on how they could buy and retain Manchester United on the long term. At one point though the mismanagement became so obvious and the situation grew so toxic that he needed to go. Think of him as moe greene. The guy was a visionary but he couldn't run his very vision to success
If they are not fine and still let it continue for more than 7 years, then they must be idiot owners. Let's be honest, their prioritise wasn't for football in these past 7 years, thus that's the main reason why they let the mess continue for more than 7 years.
 

Andersons Dietician

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I’m happy there seems to be a major shake up happening but it’s about getting the right people in those positions now as Ragnick, Murty and ETH can’t do it all. Sure Fletcher will fit in there somewhere but a Mitchell would be a good appointment and maybe hijack what’s her face from Chelsea.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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If this summer window doesn't go well then he's already fighting a losing battle with the fans.....Good luck John.
What could go worse than overspending like 80m on Maguire, giving players 200k-400k p/w wages, and unable to sell players?
 

Tango80

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I’m happy there seems to be a major shake up happening but it’s about getting the right people in those positions now as Ragnick, Murty and ETH can’t do it all. Sure Fletcher will fit in there somewhere but a Mitchell would be a good appointment and maybe hijack what’s her face from Chelsea.
We know there's a deputy sporting director on the way who will help with Mitchell, and I presume the like for like replacement doesn't necessarily mean we aren't replacing him full stop. More likely it'll be a role where negotiations are a small part of that, rather than the main thing.

Does any other club have this head of negotiations role anyway?
 

jimmyb2000

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I’m going to go against the grain and say our chief negotiator resigning 3 games before the end of the season isn’t great news at all.
Is it possible to explain this statement using facts or shall we just go with your personal emotions which in the light of things have absolutely no relevance whatsoever?