Why is Richard Arnold getting a free pass from the fans?

RedDevil@84

Full Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2014
Messages
21,784
Location
USA
Murtough is getting criticised (righty so) but why is none of that directed to the guy directly above him?

Arnold and Woodward have been pals since the uni days. Both got key roles at the club at the same time in 2013. They are basically cut from the same cloth.

This guy is yet another PR merchant. "Secretly filmed" while talking to fans, the constant leaks about how there were going to be wholesale changes to everything at the club, new era etc. Fans fall for this nonsense every single time.

The only thing separating Arnold from Woodward is that the former has a lightning rod (DoF) which Woodward didn't have.
Because people don't know whom to blame really.
 

steffyr2

Full Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2005
Messages
1,778
Does anyone ever read the Utd yearly report? What's the organization listed there?
It seems like not bringing in desperately needed players would get that CEO fired -- because really, he has 2 jobs, maintain the outside sales and maintain the club. If you fail at 50% of your job, you're not doing it right.
 

caid

Full Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2014
Messages
8,358
Location
Dublin
I'm kind of assuming hes a feck up but ... he's the ceo they selected were stuck with him until he proves himself a feck up
 

Samid

He's no Bilal Ilyas Jhandir
Joined
Dec 12, 2012
Messages
49,705
Location
Oslo, Norway
I agree with the OP.

When you are CEO of a business, if a key department head or division chief is failing, everything that happens is on you.

Just picture this: Imagine Microsoft's Head of Software development was doing a poor job. Do you think the Microsoft Board would let the situation drift?

The main skill a CEO is expected to have is judgement. Most CEOs are not qualified to run every aspect of their business. Some are but a lot of them are not. They can be CEO of one type of company one minute, leave and become CEO of a completely different type of company the next. However, what they're meant to be able to do is lead, evaluate situations, make decisions.

When Arnold came into his job he could've looked at Murtough's CV, looked at the past eight years that Murtough had supported Woodward for and said: 'Sorry John, given where we are I think this job is too big for you. I'm either going to need to hire someone above you or need you to leave.'

You see this in a lot of companies. A new CEO will get appointed and there will be a corporate bloodbath. People will get fired, people will get replaced, new positions will be created, internal reorganisations will happen.

Arnold chose not to change course. He allowed the failing structure to continue more or less as is. We got a couple of token firings but that's all that's changed.

Arnold might not be a football expert but he should have the judgement to know United needed one heading their recruitment this summer. If he felt Murtough was expert enough that says a lot about his decision making. No amount of rounds down his local is going to change that.
Well said.
 

Suedesi

Full Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2001
Messages
23,884
Location
New York City
He’s pretty much done all he can to separate himself from the football decisions side of things. If the people he’s appointed end up being massive disasters then yes, it’ll rebound back onto him, but we’re not at that stage yet.

He’s not responsible for the final say in what our transfer budget is each year, that would be the American parasites. So he can’t really be blamed for our lack of spending power either.

He can only really be judged on keeping the business profitable, keeping those noodle partners rolling in, and also making some high level footballing decisions when required, such as replacing the DoF.
What does that even mean? How can a CEO a of a well established organization separate himself from the main operations of said organization? Can the Ford CEO separate himself from car production? Can Coca Cola CEO separate himself from soft drink manufacturing or the Bayer CEO from Aspirin making?

Arnold is the Man Utd CEO, if football side of things are struggling, the buck stops with him.


Football fans come with the hottest takes
 

Suedesi

Full Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2001
Messages
23,884
Location
New York City
I agree with the OP.

When you are CEO of a business, if a key department head or division chief is failing, everything that happens is on you.

Just picture this: Imagine Microsoft's Head of Software development was doing a poor job. Do you think the Microsoft Board would let the situation drift?

The main skill a CEO is expected to have is judgement. Most CEOs are not qualified to run every aspect of their business. Some are but a lot of them are not. They can be CEO of one type of company one minute, leave and become CEO of a completely different type of company the next. However, what they're meant to be able to do is lead, evaluate situations, make decisions.

When Arnold came into his job he could've looked at Murtough's CV, looked at the past eight years that Murtough had supported Woodward for and said: 'Sorry John, given where we are I think this job is too big for you. I'm either going to need to hire someone above you or need you to leave.'

You see this in a lot of companies. A new CEO will get appointed and there will be a corporate bloodbath. People will get fired, people will get replaced, new positions will be created, internal reorganisations will happen.

Arnold chose not to change course. He allowed the failing structure to continue more or less as is. We got a couple of token firings but that's all that's changed.

Arnold might not be a football expert but he should have the judgement to know United needed one heading their recruitment this summer. If he felt Murtough was expert enough that says a lot about his decision making. No amount of rounds down his local is going to change that.
Good post
 

Samid

He's no Bilal Ilyas Jhandir
Joined
Dec 12, 2012
Messages
49,705
Location
Oslo, Norway
Does anyone ever read the Utd yearly report? What's the organization listed there?
It seems like not bringing in desperately needed players would get that CEO fired -- because really, he has 2 jobs, maintain the outside sales and maintain the club. If you fail at 50% of your job, you're not doing it right.
 

FujiVice

Full Member
Joined
May 8, 2013
Messages
7,341
It starts at the top. When you have gone this long being incompetent, the blame goes on the owners. They are the ones in charge. They are they ones putting managers and staff in impossible positions. They've made us a laughing stock.
 

#07

makes new threads with tweets in the OP
Joined
Oct 25, 2010
Messages
23,368
It starts at the top. When you have gone this long being incompetent, the blame goes on the owners. They are the ones in charge. They are they ones putting managers and staff in impossible positions. They've made us a laughing stock.
This is also true.

It is impossible for me to believe that Man Utd wouldn't be much better off if the ownership actually appointed a proper Board of Directors to oversee the executive operation of the company.

I struggle to think of any board anywhere, that isn't just made up of the owner's kids, that would allow Man Utd to be run the way its been run.

I always laugh when I hear people say the club is run like a business. No successful business is run the way Man Utd is run. Man Utd is run like an 19th century Victorian gentleman's countryside estate, which is struggling to keep up with the pace of industrialisation. However, its absentee landlord doesn't give a s-t cos he's off playing billiards and cards in London. As long as the estate manager sends the rents along to pay for his lifestyle he's not interested.
 

Samid

He's no Bilal Ilyas Jhandir
Joined
Dec 12, 2012
Messages
49,705
Location
Oslo, Norway
Arnold has rightfully distanced himself from the footballing side of the club, none of this is his doing. Well, maybe not convincing the Glazers to offer more money for transfers.
If it was an external hiring I would agree.

Look where we were 6 years ago. Arnold and Murtough have basically climbed the ladder despite the club being a laughing stock for close to a decade.

 

redcucumber

Full Member
Joined
May 18, 2022
Messages
3,262
This fecking thread :lol:

The man is barely been in the job for christ sakes.

Football fans are incredibly fickle and want instant success at the flick or a switch, funny thing is, real life isn’t like that.

I don’t think many of you could be Liverpool fans. You’d have given up with football long before the 30 year wait for a title came about.
How often do you go to games? I've already spent hundreds of pounds this season alone on the club. I cut a weekend away with family short to go to the game yesterday. That was obviously my decision to make, but fans put in a hell of a lot of time and resources into this supporting this club and it often feels like the club take it for granted. They hardly seem to know what the feck they are doing - it's been a theme ever since Fergie retired. It's very easy to criticise people that are disgruntled (you do it a lot), but is it really that surprising? Were you at the game yesterday?
 

Idxomer

Full Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2014
Messages
15,457
If they were serious about changing, no one from the old regime would've stayed.

It's not like there was any internal fighting, all those guys are friends and have been hired by Woodward.
 

Bastian

Full Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2015
Messages
18,649
Supports
Mejbri
I wonder how the fan-sentiment reader is working. We're all super happy here reading we're signing massively overpriced players in panic mode, after hearing the manager stating time and again that we'll only move for the right players.
 

pascell

Full Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2012
Messages
14,237
Location
Sir Alex Ferguson Stand
If it was an external hiring I would agree.

Look where we were 6 years ago. Arnold and Murtough have basically climbed the ladder despite the club being a laughing stock for close to a decade.

I still don't see the correlation between United being shit 6 years ago and United being shit now, has to do with Richard Arnold?

Was he DoF then? Nope. Is he DoF now? Nope.

He's part of the commercial side of the club, the part which has actually flourished the last 6 years.

Point the finger at Murtough, look at the guys resume, its fecking piss poor and he'd even look out of place as the DoF at Nottingham Forest.
 

hobbers

Full Member
Joined
Jun 24, 2013
Messages
28,709
You follow the structure. It's not complicated.

Arnold is in charge of Murtough. But he didn't choose Murtough, he inherited him. Woodward promoted Murtough.

So Arnold gets one chance to sack Murtough and bring in someone good to run the football side of things. If he persists with Murtough then it's on him. If the next DOF fails then it's on him.
 

BuzzKillington

Full Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2021
Messages
1,567
Location
Greater Manchester
What does that even mean? How can a CEO a of a well established organization separate himself from the main operations of said organization? Can the Ford CEO separate himself from car production? Can Coca Cola CEO separate himself from soft drink manufacturing or the Bayer CEO from Aspirin making?

Arnold is the Man Utd CEO, if football side of things are struggling, the buck stops with him.


Football fans come with the hottest takes
During his ill feted pub meet up with the fans he was quite clear that he will not be getting involved in transfers beyond what was absolutely necessary. He also won’t be picking the team or taking coaching sessions and he was scathing over the amount of input woodward had on the football side of things. He’s appointed Murtough to deal with that side of things and said his involvement stops at facilitating the cash and the operational stuff for the football side to operate in.

As for your comparison, no I don’t think the CEO of Bayer is getting involved in deciding what ingredients go into the aspirin and I don’t think the ceo of Coca Cola is taste testing the stuff himself and deciding what the recipe will be. That’s just my “hot-take” though so maybe they are. Maybe he’s spraying the fecking cans himself.
 

NK86

Full Member
Joined
Sep 16, 2012
Messages
10,438
To continue to overly criticise the club which usually falls into a conspiracy theory about why the club isn’t doing as well as it should about something made up in the fans head? No, I’m sorry but I can’t do it.

I’ll criticise it when needed, overly inflated contracts to fringe players, I’m not overly excited, if at all by Arnaoutovic/Rabiot but I’m not gonna over react and call the club officials or thr manager a fecking “fraud” over it.
Who's called the manager anything? This thread is about Arnold, who may be having a new designation but has been at the club for a long time.
The point is not about one transfer, it's about how we seem to have no clue about what we want to do.

Their thinking seems to be - Frenkie not going through, let's get in Rabiot.
After all the talk of "right players", they are targeting Arnautovic.

We basically have the same approach (maybe even somehow worse seeing as our squad has weakened considerably over the summer) as with under Woodward. I understand you cannot revamp everything overnight but to be still making the same mistakes and doing it at a time when the club needs a good window just shows Arnold is basically Woodward but without being stupid enough to try and hog the limelight.
 

clarkydaz

Full Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2013
Messages
13,464
Location
manchester
If they were serious about changing, no one from the old regime would've stayed.

It's not like there was any internal fighting, all those guys are friends and have been hired by Woodward.
its simply been a cabinet reshuffle. Musical chairs
 

Greck

Full Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2016
Messages
7,099
Because the timer on his assessment only just started. Mind you he didn't even appoint Murtough, Fletcher or anyone. He met the structure in place, if he doesn't improve it or its efficiency he'll be next for scrutiny.
 

Rayman96

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
Messages
1,327
Location
Glasgow
Supports
Also supports Rangers
Watching Goldbridge on The United Stand right now and while its hilarious he is spot on when he says that Richard Arnold is the worst CEO we have ever had.... after a few months.
He is making Ed Woodward look like a devastating loss for the club.
 

Suedesi

Full Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2001
Messages
23,884
Location
New York City
During his ill feted pub meet up with the fans he was quite clear that he will not be getting involved in transfers beyond what was absolutely necessary. He also won’t be picking the team or taking coaching sessions and he was scathing over the amount of input woodward had on the football side of things. He’s appointed Murtough to deal with that side of things and said his involvement stops at facilitating the cash and the operational stuff for the football side to operate in.

As for your comparison, no I don’t think the CEO of Bayer is getting involved in deciding what ingredients go into the aspirin and I don’t think the ceo of Coca Cola is taste testing the stuff himself and deciding what the recipe will be. That’s just my “hot-take” though so maybe they are. Maybe he’s spraying the fecking cans himself.
If the core operating part of a business is badly languishing, the CEO cannot simply say I've let Murtough deal with it. And if Mourtough cannot deal with it, the CEO cannot simply say well the guy I delegated this task to didn't do a good job, I'm no to be blame here. :lol:
 

charlenefan

Far less insightful than the other Charley
Joined
Aug 17, 2005
Messages
33,052
Free pass? He’s been in the job a short amount of time, made a bunch of change already that unfortunately takes time to see the merits of.

As shit as everything is right now, the damage was done in the last 8 years, not the last 6 months.

Screaming at the new guy and making life hard for him isn’t conducive to a successful environment.
This summer has nothing to do with past regimes it's all happening on Arnold's watch. Right now he's enhancing Woodwards reputation
 

Samid

He's no Bilal Ilyas Jhandir
Joined
Dec 12, 2012
Messages
49,705
Location
Oslo, Norway
I still don't see the correlation between United being shit 6 years ago and United being shit now, has to do with Richard Arnold?

Was he DoF then? Nope. Is he DoF now? Nope.

He's part of the commercial side of the club, the part which has actually flourished the last 6 years.

Point the finger at Murtough, look at the guys resume, its fecking piss poor and he'd even look out of place as the DoF at Nottingham Forest.
The correlation is that these guys have been playing musical chairs in the hierarchy ever since Fergie left. Just because Woodward is gone doesn’t mean the problem is solved. The core is still rotten with his mates stinking up the place.

Manchester United is a football club. A football club has to flourish on the pitch. The commercial side is flourishing solely because of the past glory on the pitch. Arnold played no role in any of that past glory.

He is the CEO now and is responsible for the DoF position. Just a month ago he was quoted saying the DoF is working hard day and night to get the transfer business done. So he seems satisfied with the work his DoF is doing.
 

pascell

Full Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2012
Messages
14,237
Location
Sir Alex Ferguson Stand
The correlation is that these guys have been playing musical chairs in the hierarchy ever since Fergie left. Just because Woodward is gone doesn’t mean the problem is solved. The core is still rotten with his mates stinking up the place.

Manchester United is a football club. A football club has to flourish on the pitch. The commercial side is flourishing solely because of the past glory on the pitch. Arnold played no role in any of that past glory.

He is the CEO now and is responsible for the DoF position. Just a month ago he was quoted saying the DoF is working hard day and night to get the transfer business done. So he seems satisfied with the work his DoF is doing.
We're making money now because we last won the league nearly 10 years ago? Yeah, that's not how business works.

What point are you trying to make exactly? You want Arnold to sack Murtough right now?

Arnold was merely just trying to calm some hyseterical fans down with what he said. The amount of hours somebody works isn't going to be the barometer he'll be using when weighing up whether this transfer window was successful or not ffs.
 

Yakuza_devils

Full Member
Joined
Oct 30, 2016
Messages
3,147
Now the shit got serious. I bet he wouldn't like to go to pub spouting his lies again to the fans' anytime soon.
 
Last edited:

devilish

Juventus fan who used to support United
Joined
Sep 5, 2002
Messages
61,762
I'll give Arnold a free pass for this season if he sacks that sad joke of a DOF and employ an experienced/effective one.
 

Mindhunter

Full Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2013
Messages
3,635
Because he had a couple of beers with the lads and paid for it himself.
 

Champ

Refuses to acknowledge existence of Ukraine
Joined
Jun 17, 2017
Messages
9,888
Another shout at the clouds thread.

I suggest people actually have some patience with Arnold and the changes he has implemented, give them time to actually bear fruit.
 

Gentile’s Ghost

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Dec 2, 2021
Messages
39
What is almost as worrying for me is this. With reportedly at least 2 “bargain basement” signings due, this is adding to an already massively bloated squad that is stuffed with mediocrity. The bulk of that bloat is comprised of players who are so poor that no other clubs seem to want them on loan or even a free. This appalling transfer & scouting policy, that is now seemingly in the process of signing further “has beens”, is now endemic at the club and is cyclic and self perpetuating and is driven from the very top. Is this actually a club worthy of actually being supported anymore or are fans merely supporting the name of the club? Sad. So very sad.
 

The White Pele

Full Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2006
Messages
4,951
He gets a free pass from me for now because he has at least put a structure in place where he is not responsible for the football decisions. He also said that funds had been made available this summer and I’m inclined to believe him.

He will lose his free pass if he tolerates people beneath him doing a crap job. He has to at least give Murtough this summer but he shouldn’t be afraid to swing the axe if this window closes and we haven’t improved the squad. There has to be accountability. We can’t continue to accept abject dealings in the transfer market.
 

Vapor trail

Full Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2022
Messages
1,280
Richard Arnold isn't a new guy. He has been at the club since 2008 and been group managing director since 2013 where we would’ve been working closely with Woodward.

If you want to clear up 8 years of damage you don’t promote a bloke to CEO who is mates with the guy largely responsible for those 8 years of damage.
Facts internal promotions from individuals within the background of the hierarchy isn't going to change anything. United should have outsourced the DOF position to those who have shown competence at other clubs. Newcastle looking for Dan Ashworth, Chelsea looking to appoint Michael Edwards and Glick who was an executive at City. You can almost guarantee that both clubs will show more competence in their operations 24 months down the line due to the changes being made.

The notion that things take time is also rubbish, Spurs were an absolute mess under Nuno, they appoint Paratici and the narrative had totally changed almost immediately. United is full of the wrong people from the Glazers down to just above the first team.
 

Ayoba

Poster of Noncense.
Joined
Feb 2, 2021
Messages
8,587
Can he meet me the pub? I have a few questions
 

Castia

Full Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2011
Messages
18,475
Imagine if he ran into the fans now. Would get bottled.
 

Rightnr

Wants players fined for winning away.
Joined
Jan 25, 2015
Messages
14,582
And to think people were standing up for this fraud.