Ed Woodward’s big comments

This topic contains 46 replies, has 15 voices, and was last updated by redblood redblood 4 years, 1 month ago.

Viewing 20 posts - 21 through 40 (of 47 total)
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  • #1825831

    happyhurling
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    Blacky – I think it will make a difference because the recruitment is different. We’re not signing the likes of Sanchez anymore we’re signing Fernandes. We’re not going for Darmian we’re going for AWB.
    Ole has nothing to do with the last 6 years or recruitment has he? Anyway it all seems largely irrelevant now as Ed is obviously in talks with Pochettino…

    #1825833

    Blacky
    Participant
    • :

    @happy – Take your head out of your arse for once mate, we massively overpaid for both Slabhead and AWB last summer, and it’s far too early to start trumpeting Bruno Fernandes as a top signing just yet.
    The same clueless wankers that have been pulling the strings over the last 6 years are still doing so now, Ole is just the convenient fall guy for when it all goes tits up yet again, simple as that.

    #1825850

    N1xer
    Participant
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    Dont know where the £200M is coming from. People falling for Ed’s media spin. If you count the Lukaku fee the total spend is about £120M. Through in the possible Smalling fee and other smaller outgoings and its under £100M. The summer before we spent about £70M. So yet again Ed is full of shit. We’ll fuck Pogba off in the summer and use the money to get Grealish and Sancho for a zero net spend. Anyone notice the part about how Fernandes was a summer 2020 target and signing. Subtly letting it be known that it’ll be one less in the summer because we got Fernandes in Jan.

    How anyone can fall for all Ed’s bullshit is beyond me when you look at the past 6 years of his tenure. That load of bollix he was waffling the other day was to keep the sponsors sweet. I am sure a few arses are twitching amongst them as they are paying Utd top dollar yet we are more like an also ran these days fighting with the likes of Sheffield Utd for league position.

    Now he has that prick Ashton there’ll be more of this nonsense. Giving ‘exclusive’ interviews and then the Mail and other rags that Ashton used to work for putting a positive spin on it. Fucking laughable

    #1825857

    happyhurling
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    N1xer – Yeah i get all that. The simple point i’m making here is – he’s backed himself into a corner like never before. There’s no way he could now go and spend 70m in the summer and get away with it. There’d be mass protests and walk outs surely? To retain the backing of the fans, whose patience is wearing very fucking thin, they have to go balls out in the summer. They have to land some serious fucking talent and at least show some sort of ambition to try to close the gap that Liverpool and City have opened up on us.

    I’d say right now Pochettino has been told that unless Ole does something miraculous, like wins the Europa league and FA Cup, he’ll be sacked and then the job is his. It’s a waiting game to see how the team finishes the season, if players come back and we go on some sort of run then maybe Ole will stay. But the more i look at it now it seems like the situation we had with LVG and Jose waiting in the wings.

    #1825858

    With Pocchetino pictured alongside Woodward’s advisor, think it’s a clear sign that Woodward is lining him up to replace Ole is things go tits up from now until the end of the season (i.e. no Champions League football).

    But if Pocchetino is in a position to demand that a DoF if installed before he takes his role on, would be a good thing all round for the club – anything to get Woodward away from the football side of things.

    #1825883

    hookeddevil
    Participant
    • :

    Ole to be moved upstairs to the DoF role and Poch to be bought in as Head Coach as part of a ‘management restructuring’? General face saving exercise all round, claim Ole has cleared out the squad and set recruitment in the direction of the type of player Man Utd want and reopened the link between the youth squads and first team. Poch to come in and coach these players to success?
    If this scenario (or similar) doesn’t happen at the end of the season then I think Ole will be given until the end of next season before his position is under threat ~ earliest next Christmas if we are in dire straits.

    #1825886
    killyboye
    killyboye
    Participant
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    Would Ole really want to be shifted to the side/upstairs here? I thought he’d be a good DoF before but I’m not so sure he’d be able to pull it off now. If he goes, he’s got to go as he’ll be a bit of a laughing stock come the end of the season, he’ll also be seen as a yes man and that’s not the position you want to be in as a DoF.

    #1825929

    nil
    Participant
    • :

    @happyhurling
    @steveosnakeeye

    “200m a year isn’t a bad budget for players though. Surely within 2/3 years that would lead to a good squad?”

    @steveosnakeeye provided a list of transfers from SAF stopped up until and including OGS signings. We’ve all been over that list countless times in debates on this forum and, quite frankly, it’s not a pretty sight. When I measure those players, I look at two aspects:

    Category 1) Have they displayed ability and consistency in keeping with the United standard: Meaning, have they had an impact and overall played in a way that could help United challenge for major titles.

    Category 2) Have they had a successful stint at United: Meaning, even if a player is found wanting in terms on living up to the United standard, has that player still played to the best of his ability and done well for the team. (not performed to the United standard, but still done well for the team).

    For the purposes of this argument, I divide the list of transfers into before and after OGS became manager.

    Before OGS
    To only me only one player falls in Category 1, Zlatan, and only 3 players falls in Category 2, Herrera, Romero and Fred (with the latter still being under scrutiny).

    Everyone else has overall, in different ways, been unsuccessful at United.

    That’s a list of 25 players where only 1 – an aging stop-gap solution – has played to the United standard; and only did so for 1 year. And where only 3 other players can be said to have had a successful stint at United.

    In short: If you happen to be head of United’s scouting and recruiting, you’re just not very good at your job.

    After OGS
    A much shorter list made up of James, Maguire and AWB. None of these players seem to fall into Category 1. They’ve only been with us for half a season+, but there aren’t any real indicators that we have a new Ferdinand, Evra and Giggs on our hands with those three. I’d say that James and AWB narrowly makes it into Category 2 thus far, with Maguire being mediocre.

    Where does that leave us?
    When you have displayed a hit and miss ratio like the above, you instill fans with very little hope that splashing more cash will help United get back to where we belong: Consistently challenging for major titles.

    Woodward and Co. seem to be very bad at spending money on players.

    What about OGS?
    I can’t figure it out. Is he learning how to handle the job or is he just out of his depth? He’s inconsistent, that’s for sure. Beat Pep and Mourinho inside the space of one week, next week results are horrible. Right now, his results leave little hope that he is simply learning how to handle the job and that he can become a success as manager at Old Trafford. And in a time where fan patience, including my own, is wearing thin, that’s not an attractive quality. Maybe I’m being naive, but I’m still undecided, and I’d be in favour of giving him more time. Let him have two full seasons in charge and see what the results are. Mostly because of this:

    It seems to me that OGS has done two things that other managers haven’t quite managed to do to the same extent:

    1) Decrease the amount of deadwood at the club (still a loooong way to go before all deadwood is gone, of course) and

    2) increase the number of players in the starting 11 that actually give a damn about being on the pitch: Fred, McT, Rashford, James, AWB, Maguire et al.

    That’ll only take us so far, granted. We need better players who give a damn about being in the starting 11 and wearing our shirt. And given our transfer record as described above, we need a massive overhaul of the club at management level before we can take real steps towards getting better players and getting back to where we belong. And I don’t like the odds of that happening.

    But it’s imperative that start doing better in the transfer market. 4 out 25 simply isn’t good enough.

    #1826052

    hookeddevil
    Participant
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    IF (big if) Ole were to move upstairs to the DoF role then the PR machine would kick into overdrive to dress it up as being part of the ‘plan’. Something like this – Ole has used his time as manager to evaluate the players and develop a squad that fits into Utd’s DNA. Player sales and recruitment have and will continue to be geared towards creating a squad that fits the clubs DNA. The squad is now ready for the next coach to come in and lead the team to success while Ole continues his work identifying players/coaches/mascots/programme sellers etc that fit with the clubs DNA etc, etc.
    And just like that any perceived failings of Ole as a manager will be whitewashed out of history as being part of the ‘plan’ to redevelop the squad.

    #1826056

    happyhurling
    Participant
    • :

    Nil – Good post. Although I’m not sure how Fred can be ahead of Pogba in any category whatsoever! I s’pose the other thing that your post doesn’t account for is the emerging talent that’s come through such as Rashford, Tuanzebe, Greenwood, McTominay etc. And David de Gea who, as discussed previously, is probably stuck here for the rest of his life. That’s half a team.

    Although I agree that 4 out of 25 is a very bad return, could it be argued that Lukaku was a relative success in his time with us? Category 2 maybe. Mata and Matic have both had decent spells with us – category 2?

    The only straw that I can clutch onto is that there was a terrible habit of letting LVG and then Mourinho choose quick fix players to try to win the league. Splattered with a couple of Ed’s shirt sellers! It was a mishmash of crap and I believe there’s a new strategy in place that isn’t panic buying Alexis Sanchez or scouting Eric Bailly and thinking he wouldn’t be made out of glass. It’s not buying grade 3 players like Darmian or Schneiderlin.
    It remains to be seen if said new strategy will work but it’s definitely a new strategy nonetheless.

    #1826069

    Poltier
    Participant
    • :

    Love the idea of OGS being made DOF. Think how he would bring all the wealth of experience derived at football giants, Cardiff City (relegated) and Molde (average gate circa 8,000), of wheeler-dealing with some of the biggest clubs in the world in order to secure some of the best players in the world. The idea is really quite asinine. Oh sorry, I nearly forgot; he is a “club legend”. Therefore, by definition he clearly has the necessary clout and experience to take on the role of DOF. Seems that is the way you guys like to “run” your club. Quite hilarious. However, it would obviously very much suit Ed Woodward. He would then have his yes man continuing to work under him whist giving “the club legend” a fancy title with no power. It would also avoid the ignominy of his having to sack a fifth manager in as many years. Perfect!!!

    #1826072

    nil
    Participant
    • :

    @happyhurling

    Good points. You’re right that I only wrote about players that have been bought since SAF left. As such, I don’t take DDG into account for example.

    Building a succesful team will also depend on talent development and getting players like McT and Rashford to come good. However, being adept in the transfer market will, in my opinion, arguably have a bigger impact on how well you fare in terms of achieving that. To that end, my post was a commentary on how well we’ve managed that task since 2013.

    Also, I include some measure of relativity in my evaluations. To put it bluntly: If you had signed Messi for record breaking fee 5 years ago and he had managed 15 goals and 15 assists per season on average, would you then consider it a succesful purchase? I judge Pogba, Mata and Lukaku more harshly because of the circumstances under which they were bought and how they were, quite reasonably so, expected to perform. With Matic, you’re probably right. He could be a Category 2.

    #1826084

    jm1502
    Participant
    • :

    Solskjaer DoF? Fuck me, the world’s gone fucking bonkers. On what basis would you make that stuttering halfwit DoF? Because he put Teddy’s flick on in the German’s net? And only after Teddy had rescued us with the equaliser of course. By the way, not keen on the term legend in the first place, but certainly not when it’s bandied about as liberally as it is these days. But either way, Solskjaer most certainly doesn’t qualify.

    #1826098

    Blacky
    Participant
    • :

    Get a fucking grip fellas!, Ole is even less qualified to be a DoF than he is to be our manager, and that’s saying something!! It’s nothing more than a ‘jobs for the boys’ culture that started with Ferguson appointing his brother Martin as chief scout, and then giving his mate Moyes the job of succeeding him as manager.
    That all turned out really well for us now didn’t it?!😱😱😱

    #1826122
    redblood
    redblood
    Participant
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    jm1502-I agree about Ole being called a club legend,its far too easy being offered around these days.He will defo not have my vote to being labelled a legend.

    #1826123
    redblood
    redblood
    Participant
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    Mata & Matic have been nothing but a waste of money,time & space,a colosal waste of close to £80m,fact!

    #1826128

    happyhurling
    Participant
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    That’s not a fact, that’s your opinion. As is the nonsense about Ole.

    #1826129
    redblood
    redblood
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    No its not,only a cunt like you would believe otherwise.Most Chelsea fans I know cant believe we gave them a present of £80m for those 2 useless shite.

    #1826149

    happyhurling
    Participant
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    I bet those Chelsea fans you know are absolute fucking rent boy pricks. Which is why you hang out with them!
    😂

    #1826156
    Zico
    Zico
    Participant
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    A proper DoF will have a network in the market who knows which players are suited to his style of play and imo he with his network should take care of the scouting at Man United too. Sorry to say Ole has neither of this just have a look at his 3 signings.
    A RB who cant attack,a slow oaf as a CB and a duracell rabbit on the wing. Cant have Ole as DoF boys simple as that.

    Our transfer strategy sucks if we have any at all. Our right side of attack is appalling and its been like this for many many years. So when i read that Chelsea have captured Hakim Zijech it makes me sick i just want to puke.
    Here you have a goal and assist machine avaiable in January and we dont do anything about it? How on earth is that possible? This club is rotten from top to bottom.

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