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

edcunited1878

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Woodward and Judge didn’t pick the players, the owners run a business not a football club. Contracts get renewed for financial reasons not footballing ones. If the owners don’t want that to change it won’t, Murtough and Arnold know that and will work within the parameters the owners set.

Arnold once said something like Utd were a team of George Clooney’s, he’s cut from same cloth as Woodward. Maybe he’ll convince the owners to change their ways to an extent but won’t hold my breath.
Woodward and Judge had too much influence on running the football operations of the club when they weren't fit to do it.

Arnold is allowing Murtough to run the football side within parameters such as total spend. Murtough is 100x more qualified to oversee the football side than Woodward and Judge were. They were heavily involved in player transactions and also the inability to shift the deadwood.
 

Revaulx

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Woodward ran the club how the owners wanted it to be run,
I’d be amazed if they had any idea of how they wanted it to be run.
he was highly rewarded and left of his own accord, if it was up to the owners he’d probably still be here.
That is scarily true.
When push comes to shove Arnold and Murtough will do the same, that’s why they’ve got the jobs. Ultimately a lot of the core issues will remain but maybe some better decisions will be made.
We live in hope!

Anyway they aren’t really doing the same; there’s a major shakeup under way. Arnold must have got the gravitas and tact to have persuaded the Glazers that a lot of what Darling Ed did needs ripping up and replacing. There’s no way the changes would have happened without the owners on board.
 

Roboc7

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Woodward and Judge had too much influence on running the football operations of the club when they weren't fit to do it.

Arnold is allowing Murtough to run the football side within parameters such as total spend. Murtough is 100x more qualified to oversee the football side than Woodward and Judge were. They were heavily involved in player transactions and also the inability to shift the deadwood.
That’s not correct, what we’ve heard is Murtough has more autonomy over football matters. That’s cleverly worded because everyone thinks it means he’s now in charge of transfers and contracts etc. But those are all commercial and financial matters as well as football matters so a lot of the same problems may well still exist.
 

edcunited1878

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That’s not correct, what we’ve heard is Murtough has more autonomy over football matters. That’s cleverly worded because everyone thinks it means he’s now in charge of transfers and contracts etc. But those are all commercial and financial matters as well as football matters so a lot of the same problems may well still exist.
I'm confused. Arnold oversaw the commercial department under Woodward, and Arnold knows how to make revenue for the club and has been a top executive for a while now. Which is a good reason to allow him to succeed Woodward.

Arnold wouldn't give Murtough autonomy over business related items such as the commercial side (i.e. sponsorship, tickets, media revenue).

Judge isn't being replaced because his duties are being filtered towards Murtough and the attorneys who support the legal side of contracts and transfers.
 

Roboc7

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I'm confused. Arnold oversaw the commercial department under Woodward, and Arnold knows how to make revenue for the club and has been a top executive for a while now. Which is a good reason to allow him to succeed Woodward.

Arnold wouldn't give Murtough autonomy over business related items such as the commercial side (i.e. sponsorship, tickets, media revenue).

Judge isn't being replaced because his duties are being filtered towards Murtough and the attorneys who support the legal side of contracts and transfers.
He also wouldn’t give Murtough autonomy over things like transfers/contracts that impact revenue, commercial value, monetising social media etc etc. Retaining players, renewing contracts is about book keeping as well so there’s no way that’s all up to Murtough now either.

People get massively carried away with what Murtough’s will actually be doing and power he’ll have, there’s no way he has parameters like total spend, he will be much more restricted. That’s one of reasons we probably recruited internally as
other candidates would have expected more power or less interference.
 

edcunited1878

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He also wouldn’t give Murtough autonomy over things like transfers/contracts that impact revenue, commercial value, monetising social media etc etc. Retaining players, renewing contracts is about book keeping as well so there’s no way that’s all up to Murtough now either.

People get massively carried away with what Murtough’s will actually be doing and power he’ll have, there’s no way he has parameters like total spend, he will be much more restricted. That’s one of reasons we probably recruited internally as
other candidates would have expected more power or less interference.
So you're saying that Murtough won't be given a general budget to work with, which would be impacted by ins and outs?

All player and staff expenses from academy on up have a budget that is forecasted by CL qualification, shared TV rev, etc. This is all filterd to the person(s) who have oversight of the players expenses, which is Murtough. Yeah he has others supporting him, but he's the main man by all accounts.

How a club monetized digital, social, and owned media rights isn't Murtough's job, you're right. Nor should it be. That's business ops, not player ops. Revenue from owned revenue streams may dictate and influence player expense budget, which then Murtough has to go against, the budget set for player ops expenses like wages.
 

LordSpud

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Chris Wheeler (@ChrisWheelerDM) reporting that Matt Judge is still involved in active negotiations... why?
 

Loon

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He wants to go out on a convoluted transfer high and is currently negotiating for Frankie Dettori.
 

Zoo

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Brandsmiths website reads: 'In sport, Tom has vast experience in the football industry where he has become a trusted advisor and representative for household name players, managers and pundits.
'His work for these clients includes negotiating high value transfers, contracts and endorsement agreements.' Keane is also listed on the website of player agency New Era Global Sports as an FA registered intermediary.
 

simonhch

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He’ll be doing all the legal parts, fine contractual details etc. Not negotiating transfers in the way people might think. He’ll be getting the right protections in for the club, the right language etc. Advising on enforceability and clause details etc etc. There are several people involved in the transfer process. His previous work as an intermediary and player advocate is only a strength as far as I see it.

That’s my assessment anyway.
 

simonhch

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Good to know our recruitment is shite at every level. What a fecking joke. Pass up on actually seasoned pros to end up with inexperienced nobodies.
He’s a lawyer. You need lawyers for the legal paperwork etc. Chill all the way out mate. You’re getting in a tizzy and you don’t even know about what.
 

Ibi Dreams

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Love his work on Somewhere Only We Know and Everything's Changing. Wish him the best of luck in this new role

edit: that was Tom FROM Keane. my mistake. the sentiment still stands
 

tomaldinho1

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Immediately don't like the fact there's a family link to an academy player which will set off the 'jobs for the boys' comments again. Brandsmith's isn't amazingly prestigious either - they are tier 4 I think - but assuming he will have a lot of sports specific knowledge.
 

simonhch

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And like feck you do. Sorry are we suddenly meant to trust this club’s decision making?
He didn’t say he did. But you did. You said it was an example of shite recruitment, when you know nothing about what he will actually be doing or what his experience or skill is. You just jumped to a wild, emotional, knee jerk reaction.
 

simonhch

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He’s going to be negotiating a lot of our deals too. From the post above about him, it doesn’t fill me with confidence.
A generic article with no details. He’s a lawyer. Pretty obvious he will be working on the legal aspects of signing a player. Judge was an accountant. The vast majority of his duties have shifted to Murtough.
 

choccy77

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Impressive how many roles we have that get filled by people with prior links to the club
Tom Keane was actually rated as better than his brother but he wanted to become a Lawyer more than a footballer.
 

choccy77

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He’ll be doing all the legal parts, fine contractual details etc. Not negotiating transfers in the way people might think. He’ll be getting the right protections in for the club, the right language etc. Advising on enforceability and clause details etc etc. There are several people involved in the transfer process. His previous work as an intermediary and player advocate is only a strength as far as I see it.

That’s my assessment anyway.
And making sure Phil gets his new 5 year deal.
 

LordSpud

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As underwhelming as this is, it SURELY cannot be any worse than Matt Judge?
 

Josep Dowling

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So we’re now blaming somebody who hasn’t started work yet for… well nothing actually going wrong at all (so far at least)

Cool. Glad I understand.
Have I specifically blamed anyone? RedCafe seems to be full of people defending Arnold, Murtough, the Glazers. Simple fact is the board has changed but the amateurish approach to improving the squad remains. No one sold. No one bought. One at time approach. Holding out on one player and will pay the exact price the selling club wants whilst wasting 3 months. The only expected outgoing which isn’t a finished contract is Henderson. We can’t even get money for an English player in his prime years when City just sold their 3rd keeper for £15m.