Woodward resigned from the post of Executive Vice President of Manchester United after taking charge of Manchester United for nearly nine years, but what practical achievements did he achieve at Old Trafford?
If everything can be reopened and Ed Woodward will serve as the executive vice president of Manchester United again, he may make many different choices at Old Trafford.
Of course, all this is not surprising, because Manchester United has not won a Premier League trophy in the eight and a half years under his leadership, and in fact, they have never really come close to reaching the championship. Achievement.
As far as the Champions League under Woodward’s leadership is concerned, they did win the Europa League, the FA Cup and the League Cup, but they have never been able to challenge the champions in the Premier League or in the Champions League. Get rid of the identity of the loser.
This terrible return means that when he walks out of Mayfair’s office for the last time at the end of this month, he will leave with regret. The British failed to achieve his goal when he was appointed in 2013.
Looking back now, despite such a long time, Woodward has not even been able to get out of his first failed summer transfer window.
At that time, David Gill had just left Manchester United and Woodward also agreed to fill this position, but what he didn’t know was that the legendary coach Sir Alex Ferguson also planned to leave the coaching position.
Woodward admitted that the sudden departure of the Scot made his tenure very challenging and he was frustrated because he failed to work with this figure she regarded as a “genius”.
In the first few months, he could certainly accomplish his task with Ferguson’s help.
But when he bid farewell to the club’s trip to Australia before the start of the 2013-14 season, fans quickly lost patience with him. Supporters of the Red Devils expect it to complete the team’s emergency signing business, and they believe that at least one top star is about to land in the Dream Theater.
To the contrary, Woodward ended up only bringing Fellaini, which was a mediocre to terrible deal, which shaped people’s initial perception of the club’s top executives.
In fact, considering his background is investment banking rather than football, Woodward quickly became the scapegoat for every bad transfer at Manchester United, and there are still many such deals.
The 50-year-old executive vice president privately admitted that due to the club’s failure to win important trophies, his tenure will be remembered as a result of failure. He believes that it all boils down to one thing: weak signings.
He failed to find the right coach at the right time, nor did he sign the right player at the right time.
In fact, from his appointment of Lokomotiv Moscow Sports and Development Manager Rangnick as the team’s interim coach, what Woodward needs most is to understand everything about the club’s coach’s inheritance plan.
The club believes that the Germans are the first choice for Solskjaer’s successors before the end of the season, but if they can make a better decision before then, the Red Devils will not find themselves in such a desperate situation. The club’s long-standing problems need to be resolved.
Woodward admitted privately that if Manchester United made a different coach appointment, then they may have won the club’s 21st league championship.
He is a fanatical admirer of Guardiola and Klopp, who became the coach of the Red Devils’ rivals while he was in charge of the club.
Club sources described the dilemma encountered by the club, which means that in fact they have never come close to bringing the two world’s top coaches to Old Trafford, at the same time, they also missed the appointment of Conte.
Nevertheless, if Woodward should bear the main responsibility for not appointing a suitable coach, then Manchester United’s player signing plight cannot be entirely blamed on him.
When Ferguson left, many things about Manchester United needed to be changed. Ferguson and Jill are the glue that holds the club together. They are a duo that accomplishes everything, so they can be said to have shaken the core of Old Trafford at the same time.
The club admitted that the appointment of David Moyes as Ferguson’s successor was doomed to fail because there was no soil to support him, and then Louis Van Gaal. Woodward admitted that the Dutch have been given too much autonomy when it comes to signing players.
The Dutch need to be responsible for several of the biggest failed signings in the post-Ferguson era: Di Maria (£67.5 million), Rojo (£16 million), Memphis Depay (£30.6 million), Schneiderlin (31.5 million) British pounds) and Martial (54 million pounds).
In terms of transfers, Woodward had hoped that the success rate could reach 70%, but he admitted that in the era of Moyes and Van Gaal, only three out of every 10 transactions were considered successful.
Manchester United also spent a lot of money when Mourinho worked under him, bringing in Lukaku (76 million pounds), Pogba (89 million pounds), Fred (47 million pounds) and Mkhitaryan (3000 Ten thousand pounds) and other players, but also made some bad acquisitions.
Before Solskjaer was appointed, most of the above names could only be regarded as crazy consumption and failed to become the answer to the club’s real problem.
To a large extent, Manchester United has been trying to invest in those exciting young British talents, but in fact, the Red Devils still spent more than £1 billion during Woodward’s reign, but the team is now behind Manchester City and Liverpool etc. The team is “miles” away.
Woodward admitted frankly that even after his departure, Manchester United will still need to deal with the impact of the poor transfer transaction during his management in the next few years.
They are trying to get rid of those high-paying, substandard players, these players make their lineup too bloated, not enough to compete for important championship titles.
However, it is understood that Woodward wants him to make it clear that he is not the only person responsible for signings, because he believes that this will save him from some harsh remarks that have been directed at him and even his family in recent years.
Obviously, the incoming CEO Richard Arnold will adopt a more laissez-faire attitude in football matters.
However, when people talk about Manchester United’s huge failure in recent years that led to Woodward’s departure, no one can blame him except himself.
He once stood with Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli to promote the establishment of the UEFA Super League, and has been negotiating with all parties on this matter, but all this soon broke down, Woodward Acknowledge that he does not agree with the final form of this plan, so “has no choice” but to opt out.
As far as fans are concerned, this may be the last straw to overwhelm Woodward. Over the years, they have been questioning Woodward’s lack of football knowledge, so his rationality for playing such an important final in the club’s plan has been questioned.
Woodward admitted that he made several mistakes, but he believes he has also brought a lot of success to the club.
Although his excessive emphasis on business angered those fans who watched the game, it also provided the club with the final funds to sign players without the need for financial support from the club owner. Although cynics will argue that this approach will only further benefit the Glazer family.
Woodward regrets that commercial success has not had enough impact on the competitive level. However, he still emphasizes that the board must “fight for every penny”, and he will be proud of the increase in club income. Leave.
The response measures taken by the club during the epidemic, the freezing of ticket prices and the increase in fan participation, these are the highlight moments he spent at Old Trafford.
However, no matter how well his business transactions are performed, or how many improvements have been made in the signing process, people will still only evaluate his tenure in a failed way.
In eight and a half years, five coaches were appointed without any major trophies. The Woodward era has ended in failure, although he himself is reluctant to admit it.