Ed Woodward | Post season 2017 edition

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I don't think he's been great as CEO tbh, but the work he did on revenue generation was unprecedented in football. He nearly tripled our commercial revenue in 7 years. I think he's at the right club, just in the wrong role.

Gill was a big hitter for sure. A right wanker, but a powerful CEO. Losing him and Fergie in the same year was a huge blow for us.
Exactly my point, he is a genius when it comes to the revenue side but the football side of the business he doesn't fill me with confidence
 
Where are the source that Ed is on vacation? It sounds like baseless speculation.

Ed can never be in a winning situation in here. If we are linked to a bunch of players it's embarrassing and unprofessional as there are leaks. When there are no leaks he ain't doing his job etc.

Some of the criticism towards Woodward is embarrassing. We have already bought one player. How many players have Real Madrid, Bayern, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs bought? It's not like the clubs mentioned above is finished in the transfer market this summer. It's a very good sign that we are running a silent ship now. It means we are working on our transfers without the press all over it and the added pressure of that.

Most of the criticism of Woodward is highly unrational. Supporters complain when transfer fees are high, if the club uses time to negotiatie getting a lower price it takes to much time.

It's fair giving our CEO legimate criticism, but coming to the conclusion he is bad at his job no one of us have any empirical evidence for. If he was a bad CEO, that hurt the business of the Glazers he would be removed from the position instantly.

What about having some patience and see where we end up this summer? Going by last summers activity I reckon we are going to be pleased and strengthened come the end of august.

To be fair, there was photos of him in NZ. I've seen them.
 
Where are the source that Ed is on vacation? It sounds like baseless speculation.
There's a photo of him on Twitter from a few days ago, apparently taken in New Zealand. Absolutely no evidence he is on holiday though, assuming it was in fact taken in New Zealand, and a few days ago, he could easily be there tying up a commercial deal, meeting an agent out there or anything else.
 
Ed got the shopping list while press getting a crumbs from Mou's trip to Italy and that's supposedly meant the club is after Perisic... lol

He already proved he can bring everyone after Pogba saga but it also showed that monster deals require greater amounts time and patience. Every world class player we'll bring will be occupied with a lengthy saga. (Griezmann, Morata, perhaps even James ?)

Even if he's on vacation it doesn't mean he won't have his cell with him... football deals are not literal queue in Tesco, ffs.
 
Do you happen to know what he's doing or if he's sightseeing all day long?

Do you honestly think holidays are more important than doing a good job for the Ceo of MUFC?! Or do you just crave signings so bad that you make stuff up? I'm sure the man can still work.

Why did you reply twice to the same message? Did I rile you up so badly that you had to come back for seconds?
 
Ed Woodward is on holiday.

What the hell is this guy doing? He has all year for that shit, and does it now when United need him to be working. No wonder we're under performing since this clown took power. Jose Mourinho must be very pissed off at him.

What an embarrassing post.
 
How do you know? How do you quantify 'footballing iq'?

Ed may be a connoisseur of football as everyone on the caf thinks we are.

Thats the thing it is difficult to quantity, but a good feel for the game.. most big head honcho's tend to lack this attribute tbh so I don't blame Ed but I feel it would aid someone in this role a great deal. You don't necessarily need a background in the game, but a good nose for a player/tactics etc would assist you in selling the team to a potential target and where they will fit in, and also push back on a manager's desire for a certain player if you feel it is a bad signing (can lead to conflict but if there is mutual trust here, this can be beneficial and lead to avoiding moves for bad targets).

I dont understand this criticism at all, in the context of general frustration at the lack of business being done. Unless your point is unrelated to that - in which case fair enough, but can you elaborate a bit on what you mean?

It seems to me that if deals are being held up because Woodward is trying to negotiate a lower price for players, to get a better deal for the club, that suggests he does understand what a player is worth. If he did what some people on here call for, which is pay what it takes to get deals done quickly, so we can have all our business wrapped up nice and early, weeks before pre-season even starts, thereby paying, say, £10m or £20m more, would that be a better understanding of player valuations?

People are frustrated we havent had more developments yet - me included. But while "who cares, its not our money" has become a bit of a mantra, and people talking about players not being worth x is often ridiculed, that logic cannot be applied to Woodward. It is, in a sense, his money, or at least he is responsible for managing it properly. If he thinks the fees being touted for certain players are unrealistic or do not represent value it is right that he tries to haggle it down, or pulls the plug and looks for deals elsewhere. Sure, if we end up with the season starting and no deals have been done that will be a problem. At one point he might have to overpay. But we havent reached that point yet.

So Ill reserve judgement on this transfer window, and Woodward generally, for now. It does seem he is on a steep learning curve at the moment, he has gone from cluelessness under Moyes, to laughable trigger-happiness under Van Gaal (remember that youtube video of him buying bars of chocolate and insisting on paying millions of pounds for them?) to now, apparently, trying to find a sensible middle ground. I think that's a healthy and positive development, I hope he gets it right because it will be better for the club in the long term if other clubs know they cant just add a 25% "Man United Tax" on top of valuations when dealing with us.

Unrelated to this transfer window. This transfer window has been incredibly slow for all top clubs so I don't blame Woody. I meant in general, he's been heavily reliant on manager input and its led to some very meh signings and him getting fleeced on a few occasions.

It does seem he is improving in this regard, but my general point was that being in charge of transfer negotiations etc it is such a massive role especially for a club this size and I would rather we have someone in there who combines footballing nous and business acumen. To be fair this is a general criticism which can be applied to a number of big clubs.

I also think the transfer window is becoming more and more of a nuisance rather than a gateway to thrilling transfers and it is leading to inflation all over the shop for mediocre players.

Not enough time to bring in players, get pre season done properly with new team mates, take your time to find the right players. It seems very rushed, and as the game is getting ever bigger, with tours during pre season etc.. either there needs to be an extension of the period or scrap it.
 
Thats the thing it is difficult to quantity, but a good feel for the game.. most big head honcho's tend to lack this attribute tbh so I don't blame Ed but I feel it would aid someone in this role a great deal. You don't necessarily need a background in the game, but a good nose for a player/tactics etc would assist you in selling the team to a potential target and where they will fit in, and also push back on a manager's desire for a certain player if you feel it is a bad signing (can lead to conflict but if there is mutual trust here, this can be beneficial and lead to avoiding moves for bad targets).



Unrelated to this transfer window. This transfer window has been incredibly slow for all top clubs so I don't blame Woody. I meant in general, he's been heavily reliant on manager input and its led to some very meh signings and him getting fleeced on a few occasions.

It does seem he is improving in this regard, but my general point was that being in charge of transfer negotiations etc it is such a massive role especially for a club this size and I would rather we have someone in there who combines footballing nous and business acumen. To be fair this is a general criticism which can be applied to a number of big clubs.
Incredibly slow? I don't remember it ever being any different before July.
 
Incredibly slow? I don't remember it ever being any different before July.

True, probably exaggerating because it is hard to keep perspective these days when someone like Pep makes his first signing so early, which distorts expectation.

Guess what I was trying to say was that no one has really gone out and brought multiple players yet, it is all very up in the air for a number of clubs as to what will happen this summer.
 
There's a photo of him on Twitter from a few days ago, apparently taken in New Zealand. Absolutely no evidence he is on holiday though, assuming it was in fact taken in New Zealand, and a few days ago, he could easily be there tying up a commercial deal, meeting an agent out there or anything else.

Yeah. I know about that. But as you say, it's all speculation what he is doing there.

I don't really care about it though. What irritates me is unfounded criticism of him. Sure he has had a steep learning curve and made mistakes on the way. But I think the criticism of him reflects badly on us supporters mainly because a lot of us are very spoilt.

Woodward has hired one of the most successful managers ever (did that to late though), broken the world record fee, is in the process of revamping both our youth and scouting structure (latest addition Peralta from Juve), record revenues year after year, backing our manager 100% and has shown he has both will and talent to make this football club successful again.

I don't buy the criticism that he is not a football man. He has advisors and a brilliant scouting department (that is getting better) which he can get any input he wants from.

Now it sounds like I am Woodwards greatest fan, I am not. But I like to show some patience in people, and a lot of the initiatives Woodward has started is to fresh to make any judgement on.
 
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Everyone seems to assume that Ed does the transfers, I'm pretty certain we have a team of people for that and work with the best agents. So if something doesn't go through it's cause it wasn't good for the club and not because one person is incompetent.
 
Some sensible posts in here to balance the hysteria in the Fabinho thread. The advent of social media has totally changed fans expectations of transfer windows. It was far more simpler when the first you heard of a transfer was the yellow ticker tape on skysports news or even before then in the paper. The constant regurgatation of ITK news across twitter has led to everyone having a say and in many cases armchair fans criticizing an experienced serial winner such as Mourhino as not having a clue, or why is he/why is he not buying player X. Same goes for Ed. Most on here havent the first clue about what is job entails but feel they can judge/criticize when theyve never been in a similar position.

There is a lot of rose tinted glasses re Gill. Has everyone forgotten "theres no value in the transfer market" mantra from 2009 to 2013. At least since Ed has come in we cant be accused of not being afraid to spend. Apart from his first summer when he was chasing dithering Daves targets, the guy has done ok.
 
There is a lot of rose tinted glasses re Gill. Has everyone forgotten "theres no value in the transfer market" mantra from 2009 to 2013. At least since Ed has come in we cant be accused of not being afraid to spend. Apart from his first summer when he was chasing dithering Daves targets, the guy has done ok.

Do agree with this. As much as I have concerns regarding this Summer, at least we know Ed will spend when necessary. We had so many bad Summers with Gill penny pinching.
 
Some sensible posts in here to balance the hysteria in the Fabinho thread. The advent of social media has totally changed fans expectations of transfer windows. It was far more simpler when the first you heard of a transfer was the yellow ticker tape on skysports news or even before then in the paper. The constant regurgatation of ITK news across twitter has led to everyone having a say and in many cases armchair fans criticizing an experienced serial winner such as Mourhino as not having a clue, or why is he/why is he not buying player X. Same goes for Ed. Most on here havent the first clue about what is job entails but feel they can judge/criticize when theyve never been in a similar position.

There is a lot of rose tinted glasses re Gill. Has everyone forgotten "theres no value in the transfer market" mantra from 2009 to 2013. At least since Ed has come in we cant be accused of not being afraid to spend. Apart from his first summer when he was chasing dithering Daves targets, the guy has done ok.
Great post, especially the second paragraph. I don't know what Gil did to achieve sainthood levels for United but my abiding memory is of the warchest that was never opened and missing the likes of Lucas, Hazard and Sneijder. Not saying he was a bad CEO just don;t see that he is the template to aspire to for Woodward.
 
Yeah. I know about that. But as you say, it's all speculation what he is doing there.

I don't really care about it though. What irritates me is unfounded criticism of him. Sure he has had a steep learning curve and made mistakes on the way. But I think the criticism of him reflects badly on us supporters mainly because a lot of us are very spoilt.

Woodward has hired one of the most successful managers ever (did that to late though), broken the world record fee, is in the process of revamping both our youth and scouting structure (latest addition Peralta from Juve), record revenues year after year, backing our manager 100% and has shown he has both will and talent to make this football club successful again.

I don't buy the criticism that he is not a football man. He has advisors and a brilliant scouting department (that is getting better) which he can get any input he wants from.

Now it sounds like I am Woodwards greatest fan, I am not. But I like to show some patience in people, and a lot of the initiatives Woodward has started is to fresh to make any judgement on.

I agree. Especially about the bit in bold. That also relates to what you were saying @Raees, I think you make an interesting point but it is ultimately flawed for a reason you yourself acknowledge but glass over: it risks becoming a source of conflict between an owner and a manager. It is the seed that could grow into the kind of situation you have with Abramovich, an owner thinking he knows better than the manager he pays to look after the football side of the club. Maybe in some instances it could work but itd be throwing a thousand darts over your own shoulder with your eyes closed, just because one hit the bullseye doesnt make it a sensible way to play darts. The best solution is to hire a manager you trust and believe in and then give him space and be a facilitator to help him achieve his vision.

Anyway, Ive had my ups and downs with Woodward, I dont think he has been consistently good at all, as I said before i think he's had a steep learning curve, and Im not 100% convinced he is a Grade A student of football executiveship just yet, but neither is he a proven failure. Judging him now would be like standing behind a student half an hour into a two hour exam, deciding they arent far enough through the questions yet and marking them down as a fail. What we need to do is wait for the student to hand in the paper, read it, and then decide. Or, in this case, wait until the end of the window and then judge how well he did in it. If he gets close to how he did last summer we have very little to complain about.

Sorry @Lemansky I replied to you but 99% of my response is actually aimed at Raees.
 
Im on holiday at minute, go this time every year. And every year its the same in that im checking twitter all time for updates and i can remember doing this all the way back to 2011 when it was the Sneijder saga. We had one poor window in that time in terms of numbers (not quality) and that was the moyes disaster. Jose is not Moyes and Ed is more experienced. This summer will work out ok.
 
I agree. Especially about the bit in bold. That also relates to what you were saying @Raees, I think you make an interesting point but it is ultimately flawed for a reason you yourself acknowledge but glass over: it risks becoming a source of conflict between an owner and a manager. It is the seed that could grow into the kind of situation you have with Abramovich, an owner thinking he knows better than the manager he pays to look after the football side of the club. Maybe in some instances it could work but itd be throwing a thousand darts over your own shoulder with your eyes closed, just because one hit the bullseye doesnt make it a sensible way to play darts. The best solution is to hire a manager you trust and believe in and then give him space and be a facilitator to help him achieve his vision.

Anyway, Ive had my ups and downs with Woodward, I dont think he has been consistently good at all, as I said before i think he's had a steep learning curve, and Im not 100% convinced he is a Grade A student of football executiveship just yet, but neither is he a proven failure. Judging him now would be like standing behind a student half an hour into a two hour exam, deciding they arent far enough through the questions yet and marking them down as a fail. What we need to do is wait for the student to hand in the paper, read it, and then decide. Or, in this case, wait until the end of the window and then judge how well he did in it. If he gets close to how he did last summer we have very little to complain about.

Sorry @Lemansky I replied to you but 99% of my response is actually aimed at Raees.

Agree on that point, more often than not it is a recipe for disaster but if you can find someone who can respectfully offer an opinion and knows when to toe the line, then you could have a spectacular duo in charge of transfers. Safer solution is to hire a manger you trust and believe in.

Out of interest, how do Bayern conduct transfers? how do we compare in general to our european rivals in terms of process.
 
Would people be quick to praise Woodward if we were to sell Pogba, replace him with Danny Drinkwater, and bring in Jermain Defoe on a free transfer?

The reason I'm asking this is because we did something very similar under Saint David's stewardship. The only reason we didn't pay a heavy price immediately (we did years down the line) is because Ferguson was brilliant. Both Gill and the Glazers owe that man a hell of a lot, otherwise their reputations would be in tatters.
 
Agree on that point, more often than not it is a recipe for disaster but if you can find someone who can respectfully offer an opinion and knows when to toe the line, then you could have a spectacular duo in charge of transfers. Safer solution is to hire a manger you trust and believe in.

Out of interest, how do Bayern conduct transfers? how do we compare in general to our european rivals in terms of process.
No idea on that, Ill let someone else answer it. But back to your original point, thinking about it, it sounds a bit like @devilish's triaste system idea which I think is based on how Juve operates.
 
I am not a fan of Ed but people who are blaming him for everything are forgetting the fact it was not long ago the fans wanted glazers out with all green and gold scarf, our club was in massive debt and we were signing average players and we never invested back the money we got from ronaldos sale on big signings. If it wasnt for his commercial skills we would have been another liverpool.

He promised to revamped the academy and did it big time with all the changes he made in less than 2 years. We are spending big every summer. Last season he delivered all the sigings what jose asked of him, this year we are dealing with real and perez after the de gea saga we should know real will not let us sign any player from them with ease, people who are criticising him doesnt even know whats happening behind the doors.

Even if he fails to sign the targets jose asked of him this season he has set our club brilliantly for the future. He is the biggest reason we are competing with real and barca for the transfers
 
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Yeah. I know about that. But as you say, it's all speculation what he is doing there.

I don't really care about it though. What irritates me is unfounded criticism of him. Sure he has had a steep learning curve and made mistakes on the way. But I think the criticism of him reflects badly on us supporters mainly because a lot of us are very spoilt.

Woodward has hired one of the most successful managers ever (did that to late though), broken the world record fee, is in the process of revamping both our youth and scouting structure (latest addition Peralta from Juve), record revenues year after year, backing our manager 100% and has shown he has both will and talent to make this football club successful again.

I don't buy the criticism that he is not a football man. He has advisors and a brilliant scouting department (that is getting better) which he can get any input he wants from.

Now it sounds like I am Woodwards greatest fan, I am not. But I like to show some patience in people, and a lot of the initiatives Woodward has started is to fresh to make any judgement on.

This is one of the best post I've read on here and probably should be threadmarked in ever Ed Woodward thread.

Yes he had some mistakes but from the last two windows, he has given his manager everything they've asked for plus seems to have rebuilt our scouting and youth department.

Also David Gill is the world's most luckiest man, he had nothing else to do when Ferguson was here. The praise he gets is laughable.
 
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I am not a fan of Ed but people who are blaming him for everything are forgetting the fact it was not long ago the fans wanted glazers out with all green and gold scarf, our club was in massive debt and we were signing average players and we never invested back the money we got from ronaldos sale on big signings. If it wasnt for his commercial skills we would have been another liverpool.

He promised to revamped the academy and did it big time with all the changes he made in less than 2 years. We are spending big every summer. Last season he delivered all the sigings what jose asked of him, this year we are dealing with real and perez after the de gea saga we should know real will not let us sign any player from them with ease, people who are criticising him doesnt even know whats happening behind the doors.

Even if he fails to sign the targets jose asked of him this season he has set our club brilliantly for the future. He is the biggest reason we are competing with real and barca for the transfers

Top post mate
 
Where are the source that Ed is on vacation? It sounds like baseless speculation.

Ed can never be in a winning situation in here. If we are linked to a bunch of players it's embarrassing and unprofessional as there are leaks. When there are no leaks he ain't doing his job etc.

Some of the criticism towards Woodward is embarrassing. We have already bought one player. How many players have Real Madrid, Bayern, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs bought? It's not like the clubs mentioned above is finished in the transfer market this summer. It's a very good sign that we are running a silent ship now. It means we are working on our transfers without the press all over it and the added pressure of that.

Most of the criticism of Woodward is highly unrational. Supporters complain when transfer fees are high, if the club uses time to negotiatie getting a lower price it takes to much time.

It's fair giving our CEO legimate criticism, but coming to the conclusion he is bad at his job no one of us have any empirical evidence for. If he was a bad CEO, that hurt the business of the Glazers he would be removed from the position instantly.

What about having some patience and see where we end up this summer? Going by last summers activity I reckon we are going to be pleased and strengthened come the end of august.

I quite like ed, but you can't give him credit for a silent ship. There are quite a few parties to a transfer, both clubs, maybe a number of agents and the player themselves as well as potential other players being lined up by the selling club to replace the departee. If it's quiet it's more likely due to there being feck all going on and the players mentioned already are the ones we are after, on which there has been lots of press speculation.
 
Ed Woodward is on holiday.

What the hell is this guy doing? He has all year for that shit, and does it now when United need him to be working. No wonder we're under performing since this clown took power. Jose Mourinho must be very pissed off at him.

Never liked Ed, I think he is totally out of his depth at utd and would suit a smaller side. Bring back David gill

I don't think he's been great as CEO tbh, but the work he did on revenue generation was unprecedented in football. He nearly tripled our commercial revenue in 7 years. I think he's at the right club, just in the wrong role.

Gill was a big hitter for sure. A right wanker, but a powerful CEO. Losing him and Fergie in the same year was a huge blow for us.

Like I said in another thread, can't help but get the feeling of concern at the moment in regards to this Summers activity (or lack of). It's a strange situation in that there isn't much going on, but that isn't an excuse for us to sit back on our heels. Simple fact is, our team needs major work and its not looking likely to be resolved this Summer if things stay as they are, and that is worrying.

I think if it gets to this point next week and we are no further on then there is definitely a problem somewhere.

Exactly my point, he is a genius when it comes to the revenue side but the football side of the business he doesn't fill me with confidence
you guys need to chill and you also have absurdly short memories. Ed has provided managers with the biggest outlays in our history and you lot are complaining? He signed us Di Maria and Falcao with no champs league. Also Pogba, Miki and Zlatan too. he has convinced the glazers to loosen the purse-strings every season despite our terrible seasons year on year. I don't know what you are expecting. He broke the British transfer record twice already (a world one also), both times when we were out of the champions league. Are Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs or Chelsea's men (DOF/CEO's) doing this? very ungrateful indeed.
 
you guys need to chill and you also have absurdly short memories. Ed has provided managers with the biggest outlays in our history and you lot are complaining? He signed us Di Maria and Falcao with no champs league. Also Pogba, Miki and Zlatan too. he has convinced the glazers to loosen the purse-strings every season despite our terrible seasons year on year. I don't know what you are expecting. He broke the British transfer record twice already (a world one also), both times when we were out of the champions league. Are Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs or Chelsea's men (DOF/CEO's) doing this? very ungrateful indeed.

Erm Chelsea won the league last year and spurs have a very good sqaud , we need to improve our team a lot so that's one reason why they haven't improved there teams yet, Chelsea and arsenal are both active making bids and will improve there teams so I dont see your point
 
If he signs two deals in next 20 days he will be again the King of the market, Big Ed, the Money man. This thread went up from yesterday and the only thing that has changed is that we didn't sign Perisic for whom he didn't do exactly what everyone was complaining and that is put 50million bid.
 
Erm Chelsea won the league last year and spurs have a very good sqaud , we need to improve our team a lot so that's one reason why they haven't improved there teams yet, Chelsea and arsenal are both active making bids and will improve there teams so I dont see your point

Yeah arsenal bid and lost on mbappe. Wish I could be like them
 
If he signs two deals in next 20 days he will be again the King of the market, Big Ed, the Money man. This thread went up from yesterday and the only thing that has changed is that we didn't sign Perisic for whom he didn't do exactly what everyone was complaining and that is put 50million bid.
Its like the opposite of the scouser boom bust cycle. Every summer fans call him crap and call for Gill to come back and then he signs some big players and he's King Ed.

Having a post mortem for the transfer activity when there's 2 months left to go is ridiculous. We don't even know what are targets are and are putting too much faith in the gossip sites.
 
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