Okay I want to have a meltdown.
Woodward is not at fault here.
Since he took over, he managed to sign players of high profile, I never recalled us fans having a go at him bar this year due to all the media circus and people blaming him for our dire form.
When it was LVG, he set out targets and Woodward got them (Martial, Schneiderlin, Depay, Blind, Falcao, DiMaria, Herrera, Shaw, Schweinsteiger are those that I remember).
Those players were LVG players that were bought because they fit with his way of playing (otherwise he wouldn't have got them).
So far, there is nothing with Ed Wooward here.
LVG at the end of the day wasn't up for it and did not play the football we wanted nor got the results required given the investment made.
Our lucky FA Cup win meant us playing Europa League, after two years in charge, that is what we got. The only bright thing was Martial's first season and Rashford's emergence.
Then came the Mourinho appointment. With City getting Guardiola and Liverpool getting Klopp and Chelsea getting Conte, we had to bring a profile of high caliber to match because obviously nobody saw LVG as a right fit to guide us forward, players didn't like his methods and he never managed us properly.
Now, Mourinho comes in, Ed signs Ibrahimovic, Mkhitaryan, Pogba, now before continuing with the rest, just re-read those again, 3 excellent players of a very high profile that could have gone anywhere but we were able to pull them.
First year in, Mourinho wins the Community shield (Ibra), League Cup (Ibra), Europa League (Mhki and Pogba). It was also the year of love between Mourinho and Rashford, and the dissing of the younger players such as Shaw and Martial (and the saga of the number 9 picked by Ibra etc etc)
Second year in, Mourinho wants more signings with Ibra getting that horrible injury (Unfortunate as I feel one more season of him would have done us good) we had to sign someone.
Mourinho wanted Lukaku, Ed got him despite him being destined to go to Chelsea, again we were able to pull one off. Then Lindelof, touted as one of the best CBs in Portugal, Mourinho asked, Woodward got him.
Then we got Matic, also a Mourinho request, lucky us Chelsea were on LSD when we inquired about him.
The only signing we failed to get was Perisic apparently. I don't think us getting him would have won us the league or improved his to the extent that we could have gone toe-to-toe with City or even progressed past Sevilla.
We started the season okay, all the players were doing their job everyone was happy. Lukaku drops gear for 8 games, nothing is mentioned, Pogba/Mkhitaryan/Martial/Shaw have one bad game, they're out.
Not only that, but Mourinho likes to make sure the public knows, which is complete crap and such a weak thing to do when you are a Manager (not just in football)
Then comes the Christmas period, Mourinho asks for Sanchez, in a swap deal for Mhki (that nice guy with weak mentality remember him?) and all of a sudden Mkhitaryan became the enemy of the club and we were all raving about Sanchez, who again was supposed to be an upgrade on Mkhitaryan. What happens next? Well you know it! Martial is all of a sudden fighting for his place on left side because it turned out to be Alexis' favorite position (awww), I mean the squad was in harmony and everything was going forward for us, why feck it up in the middle of the season just to accomodate the highest-paid player at the club despite not being the best (DDG IS! feckING HELL!)
It was at that period that Mourinho got his extension, the team was doing well, Woodward got him the Sanchez upgrade he wanted:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/manchester-united-financial-results-6-11991096
Just so people who claim Woodward stabbed Mou in the back etc etc. When Mourinho got his fecking extension, we were doing really well and just got Sanchez, happy times everywhere.
Woodward couldn't have perceived that the second period of the season will see us crumble against Sevilla, then our Manager slating the club saying it's nothing new to Manchester United, again in public.
League cup we were humiliated by Bristol City (can't remember), was it Woodward's fault?
FA Cup final, we lost 1-0, a fecking final we lost it to a penalty in the first half, we couldn't score 1 fecking goal during the whole game, 1 fecking goal, 1.
Second year recap, we finished second behind City and we qualified for the CL, that was it. All those fecking players above and this is what we got and a rift in the squad between our most talented profiles (Pogba, Martial, Rashford) and the Manager who failed to see Lukaku's shit of a form but still had it in him to constantly criticize his own players in public. Would Pep/Klopp/Wenger do that? I mean those are your players, they feck up, roast them in the dressing room, why would you go all critical on some players while others get away with it, and in public?
From the above, I still do not see anything wrong with Ed Woodward. He even fecking managed to get us good value on players like Depay, Schneiderlin, Blind to name a few.
Recently Woodward said that regardless of the results, the club can still generate revenue, so the idea of us not having funds to buy players is just bullshit:
http://www.espn.com/soccer/manchest...-make-money-regardless-of-results-ed-woodward
Summer transfers come in, Mourinho asks for more, we get Dalot, touted as the next big thing in defense in Portugal, again we got him despite interest from other clubs, and him being injured already.
We also got Fred, who City were destined to sign him at some point. Few people say no to being coached by Pep in all honestly, still we got him, money or not, Mourinho asked, Woodward got him.
Mourinho asks for a RW, a position that Sanchez could possibly play in?, more defenders, despite us having 10 already: Bailly, Lindelof, Darmian, Smalling, Jones, Rojo, Young, Valencia, Shaw, Blind (before being sold), and the defenders we were linked in are not long term solutions, just a patch given their age. 10 defenders and we want more? How about we ship some of them out before increasing our wage bill and paying 12 defenders so 3-4 of them can play?
Did we do that? No we did not. We did not even look at giving the youngsters a chance, we just loaned them out again (Tuanzebe and TFM). Now this kind of decision is not taken by Woodward, it is down to Mourinho.
Woodward obviously is reluctant to proceed because the signings we made during the second year didn't turn up and the evidence is us winning feck all, rifts and criticism of both players AND club by the Manager
Why would we invest more then there are rifts between the manager and players and that are going public? At the end of the day when this happens, it's always the manager who gets the boot. Mou had this at Chelsea, Conte too, when you lose your dressing room it does not matter who you are anymore. Why would we pay 70-90 mil to get defenders when the system itself is not working?
When the relationship between our most valuable assets and the manager is frail? When the manager goes berzerk on the players, club and management just because he cannot accept that his tactics and the signings he made were not good enough?
Is it Woodward's fault that Lukaku cant control a fecking ball for 75 mil? That he can't finish properly? That he misses easy chances?
Is it Woodward's fault that Lindelof is not good in physical battles?
Is it Woodward's fault that Bailly is not good in the air?
Is it Woodward's fault for Pobga not turning up or Martial or Rashford?
Is it Woodward fault for Sanchez not turning up the player we were supposed to see?
Is it Woodward's fault that players like Fellaini get a contract extension despite doing feck all? Just because he's the good soldier. Just show me how much of an impact Fellaini had for us, how many times his presence won us games. He's just the hoof-ball option when everything goes wrong, which is quite frequent.
All the above are signings picked by Mourinho, so people should fecking have a reality check, I seriously can't believe we can hold Woodward at fault when this nagging fecker constantly moans about his own players in public.
In preseason, he was nagging that he this is not his team, he wants more signings, the squad will struggle etc etc. So say we got Alderweireld or Boateng or Godin, would have this changed the result against Brighton? Would Pogba have played better? Would Rom have finished his chances? We conceded a goal that started with a pass going between Mata's legs, then the cross going through Bailly's legs till it reached Murray.
Second goal, we conceded a corner, we failed to clear the ball 3 times in our own box. We conceded a penalty due to DDG's poor pass to Fred (I suggest you watch where Perreira and Pogba were at the moment Fred received the ball)
This is all the players' fault so far. Second half comes in, we barely improved, is that Woodward's fault? Jose should get the best out of his players, motivate them, have better tactics, I mean Brighton pressed us high, we should have thought of how to get out of this in the second half, we didnt, the score was 3-2 but we scored a fecking penalty at the death! when the game was already lost!
The players did not turn up but it is the job of the manager to lift them back up. How many times have we read how SAF used to manage the players, we heard this from top players who played for our club even.
Mourinho does not deserve any single penny until he wins back the dressing room and shows his players that he believes in them, which is quite hard given all what has been said and all that has happened in the public.
If Woodward does want to sack him, it is not a matter of Yes/No. He sacked LVG right after winning the only trophy for us, so wielding the axe is not the issue here but having harmony in the squad is what the management wants before giving more funds to his nagging fecker,
Mourinho needs to shut the hell up, put an arm around his players and motivate them, have them more focused and try to give us a good season because we fecking deserve it, otherwise he can feck right off, I am interested to see which club will get him after all this fiasco, for us any manager would welcome the idea to coach our club.