Ed Woodward : Crowd Pleaser 


Manchester United have now appointed their 5th manager since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013. While managers have come and gone in this tumultuous period for the club, one thing has remained constant. And that's the club's executive vice chairman, Ed Woodward. 

After taking over from David Gill, Woodward never appeared to be a perfect fit in his role. His football background was questionable. But while his record in terms of managerial appointments and transfers is unconvincing, there is no doubt that he knows how to please the fans in the short-term.

 It is arguable that United's malaise began even earlier than his appointment. After years of frugal business in the transfer market, the club was  poorly prepared to deal with the inevitable retirements of club legends Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs. The decline of other senior players like Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra, Robin van Persie and even Wayne Rooney did not help matters in the slightest. United not only needed to find a replacement for one of the greatest managers of all time, it also needed to replace the core players which helped the club to only its second European Cup in 2008. 

The initial complaints against Woodward was that he didn't support David Moyes enough financially in his first transfer window. With Fergie, United could get away with not spending as much as their rivals in the transfer market because they had a manager who time and again showed that he could get players to play at a very high level relative to their ability. The likes of Anderson and Cleverley appeared to be world-beaters under him but their careers nosedived afterwards. The midfield was often shambolic but Fergie always managed to produce results in spite of it. United beat Arsenal in an FA Cup match with a midfield 4 of John O'Shea, Darren Gibson and the da Silva twins. 

After finding his feet, Woodward has proven to be both a ruthless businessman and a crowd-pleaser. He sacked Moyes before his first season even finished once it became clear that he was woefully out of his depth at the club. He sacked Louis van Gaal shortly after he won the FA Cup for underperforming in the league. Now, he has sacked Mourinho before the halfway mark in his third season. He responded to criticism about transfers in his first season by splashing out on a number of high profile players including the likes of Angel di Maria and Radamel Falcao. 

Despite the general displeasure amongst the fans with Woodward, they did appreciate the transfer business. United had seldom bought star names, let alone so many at the same time. And there comes the problem. United were now buying established stars for hefty fees and high wages. And they were just not coming off. Contrast this to a club like Juventus, who have been brilliant in the transfer market for several years now. Juve have splashed the cash every now and then but they have been mostly economical and well-thought out. 

It's easy to criticize Woodward in hindsight but majority of the fans would have supported his decisions at the time. And that's the problem. The image of the club has been given undue importance relative to the good of the team. United have found out that short-term measures like big transfers and changing managers have not brought success. Even the appointment of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is an attempt at appeasing the fans in the short-term. 

But one can hope that United deferring on appointing a permanent manager until the end of the season will provide enough time for Woodward and other higher-ups to reflect on what went wrong in the past few years and finally lay the groundwork to rebuild for the future. Woodward giving up control over transfers to a Director of Football might be a good start. United need to stop focusing short-term and finally do the rebuilding that should have been started 6 years ago.

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