Thanks, la!
Woodward's summer objectives
- Thread starter deadrevelz
- Start date
You my friend, know your football. Unfortunately Woodward and the Glazers don't and can't be trusted to fix our team.
I see people repeatedly say this, but surely players and agents will simply say they've seen how much we are willing to pay someone, and whether they're there or not, it's already set the precedent.
"You paid 300-400k a week to Sanchez".
"Oh but he's gone now"
"You still were willing to pay it"
etc
With Liverpool the bulk of Klopps team was produced within a couple of windows. They had Salah but glaring holes. He bought Robertson, Mane and Firmino and they last season filled in the remining glaring holes with a quality centre back and goalkeeper, spent a lot but spent well and had the added bonus of Gomez and Arnold breaking through.
Remember only 18 months or so ago we were slightly ahead of them. I completely agree we have a few glaring holes, we do have two or three great youngsters ready to come through. I think we actually have a lot of depth in our squad, just not a great first eleven. Four quality signings in the right positions and there is no reason we cant compete. Problem is we have had similar a few windows and bought really badly in my opinion. I think the Pogba window was the only good one since Fergie retired, Miki didnt work out, Ibrahimovic was at the wrong age and Bailly just hasnt improved upon a good first season.....which being our best window, sums up how bad they have been
I understand the notion that the flood gates have already opened but no one is going to bat an eyelid if it's De Gea making that money, that's not the issue. It's the fact someone who's arguably our worst forward player is making that money. I'm not saying don't pay it, I'm saying pay it to the people that have earned it.
Completely disagree that we need 2-3 windows.
Take a look at Liverpool’s squad compared to ours. They’re able to challenge with only Virgil and Robertson as standout defenders, good but not exceptional midfielders and a very good front 3 with not much depth ib attacking positions.
Alisson, Simon Mignolet
Nathaniel Clyne, Virgil van Dijk, Dejan Lovren, Joe Gomez, Ragnar Klavan, Alberto Moreno, Andrew Robertson, Joel Matip, Trent Alexander-Arnold
Fabinho, Georginio Wijnaldum, James Milner, Naby Keita, Jordan Henderson, Marko Grujic, Adam Lallana, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah, Daniel Sturridge, Xherdan Shaqiri, Rhian Brewster, Divock Origi, Dominic Solanke
-
David De Gea,Lee Grant, Sergio Romero, Joel Pereira
Chris Smalling, Victor Lindelof, Eric Bailly, Phil Jones, Marcos Rojo, Ashley Young, Diogo Dalot, Luke Shaw, Tim Fosu-Mensah, Antonio Valencia, Matteo Darmian, Axel Tuanzebe
Paul Pogba, Andreas Pereira, Fred, Ander Herrera, Nemanja Matic, Scott McTominay
Alexis Sanchez, Juan Mata, Romelu Lukaku, Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, Jesse Lingard, Tahith Chong, Angel Gomes, Mason Greenwood
I’m convinced 2 quality players could take us into a title challenge. It’ll take many more windows for us to become a force in Europe again.
Well yes that's how it works if you haven't been paying attention to the last 3 managers, they give Woodward a list to work on, they don't change their list mid transfer season. Fabregas and Kroos were attainable and moved the following season, and Woodward seems to have no issue with Bale being a target. There was nothing egregious about Moyes' list, it was fair.
Liverpool have average midfielders if you ask me. If we can add just Sancho and Koulibally I think this squad can challenge, perhaps a younger replacement for Matic but McTominay may be able to fulfil that role..
It's a concern, but either way it's not going to hurt getting him off the books. He's one of our worst performing players anyway. Plus it shows that unless you are a world class player who earns it, you won't be getting those wages.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...ds-decision-get-technical-director-proof-can/
Jason Burt: United still intend on getting 'technical director', rather than Director of Football. Position will be on par with Ole, not above him. Will look at longer term goals but won't have more power than manager or Woodward, even on the football side of things.
Essentially Woodward believes he needs an advisor and someone to share workload / blame, but still sees himself as the real DoF.
Jason Burt: United still intend on getting 'technical director', rather than Director of Football. Position will be on par with Ole, not above him. Will look at longer term goals but won't have more power than manager or Woodward, even on the football side of things.
Essentially Woodward believes he needs an advisor and someone to share workload / blame, but still sees himself as the real DoF.
If he wouldn't have more power than Ed even on the football side of things it would be fecking ridiculous. Who the hell does Ed think he is?
The CEO of Manchester United maybe?
Ok and why does he think (I know it's speculation) that he deserves this amount of power when it comes to the footballing side? It's like its one big ego thing with him.The CEO of Manchester United maybe?
He has all the power, unless someone assassinates him he can do what the feck he wants, unfortunately.
Definitely ego. People find it hard to relinquish power. Sometimes especially when they are failing. It's possible he made the case to the Glazers before being hired that he had what it takes to control all aspects of the club... if he has to hand his influence to someone else maybe they would start questioning why they are paying Ed so much?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...ds-decision-get-technical-director-proof-can/
More points:
More likely that appointment of technical director will be made internally, though not certain. Club believes recent Ole resurgence shows that they need to stay within the United DNA.
Mourinho wanted a DoF, specifically one that he knew, Luis Campos. Ed disliked the idea because he didn't want someone who shared too much in common with the manager, as opposed to being independent. Doesn't mention if the problem was specifically Mourinho, but implies Ed would have this view regardless of who the manager was.
More points:
More likely that appointment of technical director will be made internally, though not certain. Club believes recent Ole resurgence shows that they need to stay within the United DNA.
Mourinho wanted a DoF, specifically one that he knew, Luis Campos. Ed disliked the idea because he didn't want someone who shared too much in common with the manager, as opposed to being independent. Doesn't mention if the problem was specifically Mourinho, but implies Ed would have this view regardless of who the manager was.
Probably because after he was made Executive Vice Chairman, the club hired Moyes, van Gaal and Mourinho. All failed appointments that sought out to replace SAF (an impossible task), instead of restructuring (like Arsenal i.e.) and which I think effectively had him take up more responsibilities from the manager on the behalf of the board.
He hired these managers. He should have less responsibility, not more.
That is a shared opinion on him, yes, but I highly doubt the board ever considered going this way under said managers.
Fixed
Yep. Don’t know why people don’t get this
This exactly, I don't get how people don't see this, head in the sand stuff. Some people feel if you break a glass and buy a new one the broken glass never existed.
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Agreed. I would argue the only window in which we've actually spent according to our wealth is in 2016 when we bought Pogba. Bailly and Mkhitaryan. And even during that window we had a normal net spend due to the sales of Schenderlin and Depay. Not sure we even had a net spend of 150m! Last summer we were outspent by Fulham, Wolves, and obviously Liverpool and Chelsea. Man City came close to outspending us again, even though we needed to revamp the entire team and they won the league by 17 points! If United spend 200m on the team this summer, they can win the league. If we have yet another summer of a net spend less than 50-100m, we'll struggle, regardless of the management staff. We require either two 100m players or four 50m players to succeed. RM, CD and CM are the priorities.
I agree, they’re nothing special. But about 4 of them (Winjaldum, Fabinho, Ox and Keita) could potentially force themselves into our starting midfield.
So maybe a bit above average.
I'd take Fabinho for Matic and no one else, don't rate any of them. VVD, Robertson and their front 3 is what makes them so good atm.
Fans still thinks that the club main goal is to perform on the pitch and win trophies, and not making money. LVG, despite all his faults, was spot on when saying that MUFC is not a football club, it is a business.
We should hope that potential transfer targets do not view the club in this light.
finally some sense. If we signed Hazard or Griezmann (assuming he performs to his Athetico levels) would we not be worth a challenge already? Ok worse case scenario we signed another class CM or CB. Would prefer a RB though.
Klopp has brought in 10 key players since arriving. Their depth in midfield is significantly better than ours and they have 3 attackers who could be argued to be as good or better than our best attacker (which protects them in a way from a lack of depth). We do need a nailed on attacker like you mention, unless Ole can find the cheaper versions like Mane and Salah and extract 15-30 goals out of them.
Who's on the board?
You know.
To top up his tan like the rest of us snowflakes.
I think they already do. Viz: Sanchez, albeit offset to a degree by no transfer fee. De Gea, possibly but he might not be stalling for more money, as most tabloids are saying but he probably wants to compete at the top and were not even certs to play in next years CL, never mind win it or the PL. Demands from player agents getting sillier, though. we’re really going to need to be level headed and hope our staff can pick a rising player who doesn’t act like he’s doing us a big favour. If they’re only here for the money, we shouldn’t be taking them on but it seems EW thinks their marketability outweighs their cost as well as contribution. We signed big players as well as rising players in the past but only recall Keane and Rooney pushing hard to break the pay threshold. It has become worse and will get worse still, particularly whilst our decision makers see it as a dick swinging exercise.
I agree that it was fair but that's why we had Fellaini in after his clause expired. We were still making bids for Fabregas.
In truth it isn't Woodward's money.
The problem is shown clearly as below (courtesy of Swiss Ramble):
@deadrevelz What Ed has done very well was to revamp the academy and scouting system. It was a mess when Gill left, RVP won’t even put his kid there.
It seems that Varane wouldn't mind to leave Madrid and Zizou doesn't consider him an untouchable Starting XI player anymore.
Wish he would sign for Utd.
Wish he would sign for Utd.
And how exactly is that Moyes' fault? Moyes isn't the one negotiating for players. It's reasonable to think that Woodwards inexperience led to a slow start in the transfer market.
It doesn't take multiple windows to transform an average team into a top one.
See: Real Madrid 2009.
It just takes mega investment.
Beyond what we will be willing to spend, that's for sure.
Bayern just paid £68m for a leftback.
A top attacker of a good age will easily run £150m (see: Coutinho, Dembele, Mbappe).
See: Real Madrid 2009.
It just takes mega investment.
Beyond what we will be willing to spend, that's for sure.
Bayern just paid £68m for a leftback.
A top attacker of a good age will easily run £150m (see: Coutinho, Dembele, Mbappe).
Bingo.
Pogba, Matic and Herrera, our first-choice midfield, are too inconsistent for me. We a couple of quality additions in that area if we are ever to sustain a title challenge.