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Will Ed Woodward leave Man United?
The news that Ed Woodward will leave Manchester United at the end of the month was discussed by Gab and Julien. (0:55)
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You're immediately greeted by replicas of the Premier League and the European Championship trophy when the elevator doors open on the third floor of Manchester United's offices in London's exclusive Mayfair district. For the past eight-and-a-half years, Ed Woodward has had to walk past them every time he arrived for work as United's executive vice-chairman, the man who has held the responsibility of running the club for almost a decade.
The trophies are a constant reminder of what United want to win, but have failed to do throughout Woodward's tenure. The good news is that Woodward won't have to walk past those trophies again when he leaves later this month.
The bad news? There's a lot. Although Woodward is one of the most personable executives in football, his time in charge has been a story of underachievement on the pitch, a succession of sacked managers and far too many expensive mistakes. Both Manchester City andLiverpool enjoy continued success.
Woodward has long been a lightning rod for United fans' frustration, and he has been the target of much of the criticism from outside the club for failing to keep the trophy room as stacked as it had been for years prior to his appointment. At that time, United didn't need to remind themselves of their past glories. Sir Alex Ferguson and David Gill were the men who made the club 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465, as the club had become 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 in 20 years.
The club's owners promoted Woodward from his role in charge of the commercial department to run the club on a day to day basis after Ferguson and Gill stepped down. Selling shirt space to sponsors and negotiating for the world's best players are two different responsibilities for Woodward, who had made United the most powerful money-making machine in the game.
As Woodward prepares to walk away, he will admit to friends that his time in charge has been spent on the pitch and not on the commercial side. Woodward has signed many players for United, including Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba, but they have not won a trophy.
Is that fair? Is Woodward misrepresented? The truth can be found in many layers, but first impressions tend to last and, for all of 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167 800-244-0167
The fight for the soul of Man United is being fought by Wright Thompson.
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Ed Woodward struggled in the transfer window.
The start to the job was horrible.
The wheels fell off for Woodward and Manchester United at the Park Hyatt in July of 2013). He had been in charge of the club for less than a month and it was clear he had been given a bigger challenge than he could have imagined.
According to sources, Woodward believes that the mistakes made in the first summer after Ferguson's retirement impacted the club's psyche and that David Moyes was given the job.
Ferguson left behind a winning machine on the pitch, but a club without a modern structure off it. Sources said that Ferguson leaving was like losing the key to a vault of treasure.
Woodward wanted to launch the new era with a box-office signing to help make up for the loss of Ferguson's presence and aura, but the caution of Moyes, who vetoed a deal for Barcelona's Thiago Alcantara, combined with Woodward's transfer market naivety left United humiliated. The United was encouraged by the targets of Cesc, Cesc, Cesc, Daniele, and Bale.
Woodward left Australia to go back to Manchester to try to land a big signing, but nothing happened. The only deal that came off was the signing of Marouane Fellaini fromEverton, three minutes before the transfer deadline, after agents played United and Woodward against other clubs.
Woodward's reputation was never recovered after he and his boss made a huge mess of their first transfer window. Woodward has been unable to shake off the reputation of being a man who can't strike a deal without unnecessary drama despite completing deals for the likes of Pogba and Ronaldo.
The arrival of Marouane Fellaini was not what United fans wanted.
He told friends that Ferguson's departure gave him a "horrific" start to his job, denying him the chance to work with a "genius" and be guided by his experience and knowledge. Ferguson told Woodward that he was going to retire immediately after sitting down at a lunch arranged by Woodward to get to know the man he expected to work with. Woodward's biggest regret is not being able to work with Ferguson.
Woodward admits that he made recruitment mistakes for the first three years of his time in charge, and that his initial belief that United's wealth and financial power would enable them to take a shortcut back to the top was misguided. He told reporters that United were too powerful to suffer more than a single season blip.
The club lost its way under Louis van Gaal because he was given too much control over player ins and outs.
A United source said that the club's transfer strategy in recent years has only been able to be looked at now.
It has taken a lot of hard work to get to the point where United believe they are able to recruit players stealthily and successfully. The lessons include telling Jose that they wouldn't make a similar mistake if they signed a player from Germany three years later.
When Real Madrid and their president Florentino Perez had a summit that lasted 13 hours, United and Woodward were wary of attempting to do business with their fellow super-club.
The United recruitment team won the race to sign Atalanta's Amad Diallo in 2020, but failed to convince Jude Bellingham to join United when he left in the same year.
The failure to sign Erling Haaland in 2020 was due to the fact that he chose to leave FC Salzburg and join Dortmund. United are interested in the Norway international, but they are in a crowded field and the managerial uncertainty at Old United is unlikely to help.
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Giovanni Branchini is an agent for a football team.
Man United is trying to create a new identity.
Woodward has fired four managers in eight years, which is not a good record.
A United source said that Ed wanted a manager for six or seven years. There have been some real sliding doors with some of the best coaches in the game, but the dots never joined up when they needed them to.
After less than a season in charge, David Moyes was sacked by United, and Woodward has made it clear to the West Ham manager that he feels the club let him down. A group of players who were ill-equipped to move on after Ferguson and a club searching for a new identity all made it impossible for the former manager.
Woodward consulted Ferguson, Gill, Sir Bobby Charlton, and Bryan Robson to come up with the requirements for the next manager. Sources have said that United needed to change the engine while flying, so they turned to the experience of Van Gaal. Two years after winning the FA Cup, Van Gaal was dismissed by Woodward because the players didn't like the sterile football that he had created.
After City beat United in February of 2016 to sign Guardiola, United turned to a figure known for winning, but winning ugly, in an attempt to take another shortcut to success. Woodward read eight books on the former Real Madrid coach before hiring him, according to sources. The source said that Ed knew what United was getting. He gambled that he would win the title before it all went bad. That didn't happen.
It had been obvious for weeks, even months, that the appointment wasn't working, yet all remained in post until a bad situation had become irretrievable.
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Manchester United did not have a backup plan to remove Solskjaer.
Woodward found himself in that position again with Solskjaer earlier this season, as history tends to repeat itself at United. TheSolskjaer oversaw a loss to City and a win against the Reds, both of which were at home. He had failed to win a trophy during his almost three years in charge and the lack of style improvement in the team made his exit inevitable.
Woodward refused to dismiss Solskjaer until he had to. Why? Sources say that Woodward believes Solskjaer was a good man who gave everything.
Solskjaer had done so well as interim manager that United didn't want him to take over from Pochettino. They did not want to remove Solskjaer for Pochettino when he left Spurs in November 2020, or to have Tuchel replace him when he was sacked by Paris Saint-Germain. Since then, Tuchel has taken the club to a title.
"Ole had us near the top of the table when the two managers were available," a United source told the sports network. The club couldn't sack him in that situation. It was like God was trying to destroy us.
Sources said that Woodward and his fellow executives believed Antonio Conte to be too demanding for the squad he would inherit, despite the fact that he had a winning track record.
Woodward will not be involved in the process of finding a permanent successor to Solskjaer this summer. Sources say that Richard Arnold, his successor, and the Glazers will make the final decision and that Mauricio Pochettino will once again be prominent in their discussions.
One United can't afford to get wrong, as another summer brings another crucial appointment. That's not the first time you've heard that message.
Where will United go next?
Richard Arnold is taking over when Woodward leaves.
Woodward will leave United when he leaves his post. Sources say that he will take a break before making a decision about his next steps.
Woodward and his wife have invested in a winery in Portugal's Douro Valley, but the former investment banker still wants to work in football. Sources have said that he resigned from United as a point of principle because he couldn't support the ESL plans.
Mark Ogden is a senior writer for the sports network.
A source said that he couldn't throw his weight behind a competition that didn't have a place in the top flight and would leave clubs like West Ham andLeicester with no hope of ever competing at the top again.
Despite the perception that Woodward has failed in his time in charge of United, his loss is felt by the Glazers, who regard him as having driven the club's commercial growth after initially advising them on their 2005 takeover while working for JP Morgan.
Ed would be the last man standing if the Glazers had 800 staff and had to make 799 redundant, according to a source. This is a big moment for the owners because Ed is trusted by the owner.
Arnold followed the same career path as the man who was going out the door, going from Bristol University to the banking sector and then to Manchester United. He is seen as a clone of Woodward, an executive who only acts as the gateway to those who make the big decisions. According to sources, Arnold is a more demanding figure than Woodward, so there may be a subtle change in approach to the way the club is run and how managers and players are recruited.
The new man will have to emerge from his predecessor's shadow and assert his own personality because of Arnold's connection with Woodward.
Woodward has been criticized for being too accessible in his early days, while Arnold is less likely to encourage supporters and the media to offer their opinions. Arnold is more likely to kick you out of a room than Woodward is. The big office at United, the one that has not won a trophy, will soon be his.
There is a framed photograph on Woodward's desk that reads "Olympiakos 2 Manchester United 0." The idea was that it would be a constant reminder of the lowest point of his time in charge as United were trailing in their European tie against Greek champions. It's a reminder that things got worse.
Arnold will not be able to get rid of the two trophies, but he can start by taking the photograph and hoping it will inspire others in the future.
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