Ogden: Six years of mistakes, bad signings and wasted money. Last night was a positive step for Manchester United, but how have they fallen so far?

[Alabaster Codify7]

Actually think you're 1000% spot on.

This superfluous emphasis on culture is ridiculous. Dare I say the same thing that defines success in "our" culture is the kind of work ethic and grit that would make a player successful at most of the other top tier clubs.

I'll go one further. If LVG or Jose had signed AWB for £50m (and I like AWB a lot by the way) fans would be more critical of the signing. "oh, they've just gone and signed the hot topic of the month for more than he's worth, anyone could do that". Woodward is an absolute genius, man. He's put an incredible spin on this and people have bought it. Jose wanted Maguire for 60m and got denied by Woodward. He buys him for 80m for Ole, tells the fans 'its a new approach' and suddenly we've got a thread about how amazing Ole's transfer strategy has been.

Woodward = best CEO in football. Absolute legend at what he does.

 

[momo83]

Actually think you're 1000% spot on.

This superfluous emphasis on culture is ridiculous. Dare I say the same thing that defines success in "our" culture is the kind of work ethic and grit that would make a player successful at most of the other top tier clubs.

Exactly.. Liverpool, City, Juventus, Barca, Bayern et al also have a criteria and culture that looks at a players personality, work rate and desire to play for the club but we don’t hear them bang on about it.

This isn’t to complain about signing AWB it’s actually to show how naive Woodward is with that statement. If he’d just said “ AWB was the only RB the manager wanted so we got him” etc it make more sense and wouldn’t seem like we had and a scouting and analytics department that was a waste of time or unable to identify hidden gems that are undoubtedly already on its database.

 

[Beachryan]

The only novel thing I took from the article - which is a fine summary and well-sourced it appears - is that Ed isn't malicious, just not very capable.

Always thought he looked a bit of a d*ck, but I guess he's just in over his head.

 

[momo83]

The only novel thing I took from the article - which is a fine summary and well-sourced it appears - is that Ed isn't malicious, just not very capable.

Always thought he looked a bit of a d*ck, but I guess he's just in over his head.

Great at business. Crap at the business of football

 

[sugar_kane]

The article is a good reminder of how weird and shit things became under LVG.

The insistence on taking two touches thing is bonkers, remember the clip of him trying to teach Rooney how to shoot in one of his first training sessions in pre-season? So bizarre.

It's mad he still insists that he was trying to play attacking football - either he's being incredibly disingenuous or he is genuinely deluded.