Telegraph: Gary Neville calls for Ed Woodward to be sacked for Manchester United's 'unforgivable' recruitment

[Crashoutcassius]

A lot of that wage bill is sat on the bench at Inter Milan. That was a great buy Ed. Problem we have is that it has been allowed to escalate, so the only thing Manchester United have to offer is money. If they had got the right manager who was good at choosing players in the first place we likely wouldn't be in this mess. The first mistake has dragged the club further and further into the mire.

At most top clubs do the managers do the scouting and signing of players ?

 

[Crashoutcassius]

Would never dream of calling for the head of a manager but apparently it’s okay with a club executive.

I don't think he named Woodward tbf

 

[Bojan11]

Meh, its a bit pointless to focus on just one guy, whats actually needed is calls for the owners to feck off and a push for fan ownership. I get the feeling 90% of United fans(Including Neville)would be more than happy with owners similar to the ones Pool have.

There are million issues with United and the on field stuff is near the very bottom of the list.

The only difference between pool owners and ours is they hired a world class manager in his prime.

They were making mistakes galore also before Klopp. I remember after Suarez left they were signing Balotelli and Benteke. They spend £35m on Carroll.

 

[Jeffthered]

A lot of that wage bill is sat on the bench at Inter Milan. That was a great buy Ed. Problem we have is that it has been allowed to escalate, so the only thing Manchester United have to offer is money. If they had got the right manager who was good at choosing players in the first place we likely wouldn't be in this mess. The first mistake has dragged the club further and further into the mire.

And that's my worry. And that is something the Board should control. That's their flaming job... EdW is CEO, so he has to answer to that. How much are we paying players? WHo are we paying so much? Pogs? DDG? Sanchez? How much are Rash, Martial, Jones etc on...?

This is ridiculous. We are fighting for fifth spot!

 

[Champagne Football]

Ed's biggest failure hasn't been the wasted money, it has been appointing the wrong managers. The likes of Di Maria, Zaha, would have been a huge success here had we appointed Pochettino instead of Van Gaal.

 

[Castia]

Problem is the Glazers probably don’t have a clue where to start in replacing him.

Why Ed didn’t appoint a DoF 12 months ago is beyond me. Gives the club some sort of structure whilst taking the footballing responsibilities away from him considering he hasn’t got a fecking clue about that side of his job.

 

[Coxy]

Better late than never - thanks Gary

 

[Offside]

Why Ed didn’t appoint a DoF 12 months ago is beyond me.

It's certainly not beyond me. You can just by looking at his smug mug the ego the man has.

 

[Paxi]

It's irrelevant whether he names Woodward or not, everyone can deduce about whom he's talking about. Every man and his dog know Glazers and Woodward and their incompetence relating football matters.

This is not going get Woodward to get sacked but it might make him appoint a DoF knowing how reactionary he is. We can only hope we can stumble our way into right direction finally.

 

[Bilbo]

Don't disagree with the tone of the message, but I do with the timing of it. Its quite clear that we are trying to do something about the wage bill now - this message would have been more appropriate when we gave Sanchez 10's of millions to come here.

 

[roonster09]

People might have difference of opinion on managers, players, coaching staff and other club related issues but end of the day Woodward is responsible for running the club. If the manager is shit, it's Woodward's mistake for hiring him. If manager is great then credit for him for signing him.

We have spend so much money and have insane wage bill but the quality of the squad is poor and also very thin squad.

By extension it's Glazers fault considering they have changed nothing in last 6-7 years even though we are in such a free fall.

 

[groovyalbert]

If we go into the Burnley match having made no real advances in the transfer market, the atmosphere could be toxic towards the board

 

[royboy16]

Bit too late Gary.

 

[fergiesarmy1]

Also being the highest paid CEO while presiding over this shit show is worthy of the sack in any normal business but while he’s making money for the Glazers he’s bullet proof.

Time he wasn’t made welcome at any games with full out revolts.

 

[JPRouve]

I agree with him but his main argument is based on something that I have been saying for years now which goes totally against what he and many others people said in the last years with their "the club is not backing the manager" narrative. The issue isn't a lack of investment, it's that when you back a manager that has no clue about how to manage a football club, you end up wasting an incredible amount of money, that's why most clubs have a structure that is independent to the head coach who is "just" there to coach players on the training pitch and on match days. The shareholders should fire Woodward because he wasted their money and fans should want him to be sacked because he is useless but our managers are also responsible, they have been the main driving force behind our purchase, contract extensions and our wage bill incredible increase, Woodward is just the idiot that backed them and now we are kind of screwed because we absolutely need to get rid of a good 100m in wages before starting to splash big again.

 

[Judas]

If we go into the Burnley match having made no real advances in the transfer market, the atmosphere could be toxic towards the board

Think it will be regardless thankfully.

 

[Skills]

Wasn't he crying about Mourinho not being backed last season? Did he not know our wage bill back then?

 

[DoomSlayer]

Finally Woodward is getting called out. He is the first man that needs to be sacked, then all of his loyal cronies that have also failed throughout the last 6-7 years.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

And that's my worry. And that is something the Board should control. That's their flaming job... EdW is CEO, so he has to answer to that. How much are we paying players? WHo are we paying so much? Pogs? DDG? Sanchez? How much are Rash, Martial, Jones etc on...?

This is ridiculous. We are fighting for fifth spot!

They don't seem to grasp that without CL it could be hard to recruit players, maybe EL. If we get neither I cannot see how we will sell the club to players with Ole in charge, because players will just think he is failing. They will not look at is as a rebuild, that is for the fans. Players who are not fans of United will just see a club going down the pan. All we have is money, the club just think past glories is enough for players to fall over themselves to sign for us. It isn't. They will want to see a top coach/manager in place with a definitive style of play that they feel they can slot into.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

If we go into the Burnley match having made no real advances in the transfer market, the atmosphere could be toxic towards the board

Just a bit. That is an understatement.

 

[Bestietom]

Woodward deserves all the criticism in the world. But it's quite ironic to bring this up now. United have been burning money at a record pace ever since SAF retired, yet this year it could be said that the attempts to trim the squad/wage bill left the squad too thin in some areas.

Yes, your right, It has left us too thin but we are still not good enough, and need to get rid of a whole lot more deadwood. When you look at our bench, you realise how bad off we are for more GOOD players.

 

[groovyalbert]

Think it will be regardless thankfully.

I would take genuine enjoyment in seeing Woodward being escorted by security out of the stadium a la David Gold at West Ham a few seasons ago.

 

[Albin Johansson]

Omg finally. I don't know how this stuff works but until now I was absolutely sure the 92'ers was paid not to voice their opinion on woodward/Glazers. Hopefully it can make some serious damage. Surely it can't be only fans and bojan djordjic seeing the obvious?

 

[KekiZeki]

Ed Woodward has too much power I am afraid, he also has a permanent scapegoat in the form of any manager we hire, getting him out won't be as easy as just Gary Neville having a go at him. Mass stadium walk out would be needed at half time or something.

 

[RUCK4444]

Just when I think he couldn’t be any more stupid!!!! .... HE GOES AND TOTALLY REDEEMS HIMSELF!!

 

[Infra-red]

The rest of us have been saying this for five years. Still, better late than never, Gary.

 

[Skills]

I agree with him but his main argument is based on something that I have been saying for years now which goes totally against what he and many others people said in the last years with their "the club is not backing the manager" narrative. The issue isn't a lack of investment, it's that when you back a manager that has no clue about how to manage a football club, you end up wasting an incredible amount of money, that's why most clubs have a structure that is independent to the head coach who is "just" there to coach players on the training pitch and on match days. The shareholders should fire Woodward because he wasted their money and fans should want him to be sacked because he is useless but our managers are also responsible, they have been the main driving force behind our purchase, contract extensions and our wage bill incredible increase, Woodward is just the idiot that backed them and now we are kind of screwed because we absolutely need to get rid of a good 100m in wages before starting to splash big again.

This. And the primary driving force of this 'back the manager' crap is our idiotic fanbase who have a fetish for whoever sits in the job.

 

[roonster09]

I agree with him but his main argument is based on something that I have been saying for years now which goes totally against what he and many others people said in the last years with their "the club is not backing the manager" narrative. The issue isn't a lack of investment, it's that when you back a manager that has no clue about how to manage a football club, you end up wasting an incredible amount of money, that's why most clubs have a structure that is independent to the head coach who is "just" there to coach players on the training pitch and on match days. The shareholders should fire Woodward because he wasted their money and fans should want him to be sacked because he is useless but our managers are also responsible, they have been the main driving force behind our purchase, contract extensions and our wage bill incredible increase, Woodward is just the idiot that backed them and now we are kind of screwed because we absolutely need to get rid of a good 100m in wages before starting to splash big again.

Spot on.

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

Seriously how can we have so high wages now after Lukaku left. I can't imagine it.

City, Barca, Real Madrid, PSG have 100% more wages than us. City and PSG might pay it behind the curtains so to speak.
Messi alone makes insane money.

 

[tenpoless]

The first time I agree with him for ages. Don't just defend Ole, blame the board, make them pay for it.

 

[Gazautd18]

About time.
Looks like "them" singing "We're gonna win the league!" against us at Anfield has woken Neville out of his slumber.

 

[Bobcat]

Good. Hes been the one constant these past 6 years and its long overdue he got replaced

 

[roonster09]

Seriously how can we have so high wages now after Lukaku left. I can't imagine it.

City, Barca, Real Madrid, PSG have 100% more wages than us. City and PSG might pay it behind the curtains so to speak.
Messi alone makes insane money.

These are last year reports, this season report will be published later. The one that is published will include all the loaned out players.

 

[100]

Seriously how can we have so high wages now after Lukaku left. I can't imagine it.

City, Barca, Real Madrid, PSG have 100% more wages than us. City and PSG might pay it behind the curtains so to speak.
Messi alone makes insane money.

Its definitely bollix or tax laws.
No way do we have a higher wage bill than city. City have strength in depth everywhere and nobody kicks up a fuss.

 

[Skills]

Seriously how can we have so high wages now after Lukaku left. I can't imagine it.

City, Barca, Real Madrid, PSG have 100% more wages than us. City and PSG might pay it behind the curtains so to speak.
Messi alone makes insane money.

We signed the most expensive defender in the world in that time.

 

[Red_toad]

If we go into the Burnley match having made no real advances in the transfer market, the atmosphere could be toxic towards the board

They don’t care, the crowd didn’t want them to buy the club, there were mass protests. They’re in it to make money and while they are they shall remain.

 

[dwd]

If we go into the Burnley match having made no real advances in the transfer market, the atmosphere could be toxic towards the board

Yep. Should be fun, as a small bonus.

 

[Catt]

We like Gary again now?

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Would never dream of calling for the head of a manager but apparently it’s okay with a club executive.

He has a never sack physiolophy which is the daftest thing I've ever heard of. After pineapples on Pizza.

 

[ravi2]

The only difference between pool owners and ours is they hired a world class manager in his prime.

They were making mistakes galore also before Klopp. I remember after Suarez left they were signing Balotelli and Benteke. They spend £35m on Carroll.

Didn't ed try to hire klopp but klopp was put off by eds 'Disneyland' sales pitch?
Our problems run much deeper than just hiring a new manager