Strange business, the transfer window. Take Manchester United’s executive vice chairman, Ed Woodward, for example. Ostensibly charged with executing the Glazer family’s commercial vision, Woodward has been roundly lambasted for his performance in the transfer market over the past year. Indeed, few executives other than in football are judged – by outside parties at least – so keenly on the purchase of significant, but non-material assets. Yet, it is a spotlight that continues to burn brightly on the Essex-born accountant.
Last summer’s tragicomic omnishambles in the transfer market ended not only with United failing to patch up significant holes in the club’s squad, but with a desperately late, hugely overpriced, deal for Marouane Fellaini. It was a failure in strategy that contributed not only to United’s dismal season in 2013/14, but is set to cost millions more when the Belgian finally moves on at a huge loss.
In the intervening months Woodward has overseen, although not always personally driven, the acquisitions of Juan Mata, Luke Shaw and Ander Herrera. Each should contribute more positively to United’s cause in the post David Moyes era than Fellaini ever has.
The trio represents £100 million invested in new talent that should have done much to allayed fears United is slipping further behind rivals at home and abroad. Not least because further spending is repeatedly promised.
Yet, there is the nagging sense that United’s transfer business under Woodward is anything but strategic; a scattergun approach driven by personal whim, player availability and preferred agents. Mata was acquired without a plan to extract the best out of the Spanish playmaker; Shaw and Herrera with Louis van Gaal’s blessing, but not at his expressed request.
Friday’s breakdown in the long-running behind-the-scenes move for Arsenal captain Thomas Vermaelen is further evidence that all is not quite right with the club’s approach. United believed a deal probable. Arsenal and Barcelona drew a very different conclusion. Not for the first time Woodward was outsmarted by rivals.
It is a challenge that the former JP Morgan banker must fix rapidly, with a week until United kicks off the new season and just 23 days until the window closes for the summer. As it stands the club’s squad is missing an experienced central defender, a high-quality midfielder, and remains lightweight in wide areas. van Gaal may talk about a challenge for the Premier League, but United remains far behind domestic rivals.
Elsewhere, United’s alternate options remain thin, with Germany’s Mats Hummels unwilling to leave Borussia Dortmund without the club’s blessing and United unprepared to meet an asking price commensurate with the player’s status. Neither will the Reds find it easy to prize Mehdia Benatia away from Roma, nor Eliaquim Mangala from Porto, even if the latter is further down the list of priorities.
Meanwhile, in midfield a long-mooted and hugely expensive deal for inspirational Juventus star Arturo Vidal is seemingly no nearer to completion; each party holding out for the best deal and United keen to ensure the player’s fitness is without question, especially with memories of Owen Hargreaves still fresh.
Memphis Depay, Daley Blind and a clutch of Dutchmen may be on the radar, or may not. Take your pick.
Vermaelen was, perhaps, an odd choice for a United centre-half in any case. Experienced, but seemingly past his peak at just 28, the Belgian has suffered for poor form and dubious fitness, leading to just seven starts for Arsenal in the Premier League last season. Vermaelen possesses two qualities van Gaal is seeking though: a left-foot and an enviable range of passing. Yet, also, a notable tendency to lose concentration, wander out of position and gift the opposition chances. The Belgian was probably always a second choice behind Hummels.
Primary candidate or not, failure to bring in the Belgian leaves Woodward under increasing pressure to deliver, even if the 42-year-old remains on a high after securing the most lucrative kit deal in football history. Not least because Adidas’ £75 million annual contract with United also comes with an intriguing clause: a 30 per cent reduction in fees paid should the Reds miss out on the Champions League in consecutive seasons. The Glazers’ business model doesn’t need trophies, but it does require a top-four finish.
van Gaal should boast enough resources to deliver a place in the 2014/15 Champions League although, ceteris paribus, the Dutchman will have to displace one or both of Liverpool or Arsenal to do it. There is some irony in United’s lack of European football being the Dutchman’s ace in the coming season.
Domestically, Manchester City’s strength-in-depth and Chelsea’s smart spending should be too much for United, unless Woodward can pull off three spectacular deals in the next month. The odds against a United Premier League title remain long.
City has spent conservatively this summer, acquiring the defensive midfielder Fernando from Porto, a back-up goalkeeper in Willy Caballero, and Arsenal’s Bacary Sagna on a free transfer. Should the Blues secure Mangala, or another central defender of equal standing, then Manuel Pellegrini’s side will begin the season as favourites to retain the Premier League.
At Stamford Bridge José Mourinho has bought well though, replacing Frank Lampard with Cesc Fabregas to add goals from midfield, and bringing in Diego Costa and Didier Drogba to fill Chelsea’s problem up front. Fillipe Luis is an experienced replacement for Ashley Cole at left-back. Add Thibaut Courtois as challenger to Petr Cech and Chelsea now boasts all the ingredients of a typical Mourinho side. It will be a major surprise if the west London outfit is not a title challenger to the final day next season.
It is fortunate for van Gaal that Liverpool and Arsenal remain short. The Scousers will certainly not easily replace Luis Suarez’ goals; few clubs, United’s included, truly benefit from selling their best player. Meanwhile Alexis Sanchez adds genuine quality to Arsenal’s challenge, but does little to fix the lack of steel in north London. The smart money might be on Liverpool dripping out of the Champions Leagues places, and United challenging Arsenal for third.
Greater progress requires further investment though. Much as supporters want to see youngsters such as Reece James, Tyler Blackett, Michael Keane and James Wilson progress, the club remains short of world-class players in at least two key positions. Bridging that gap is largely down to Woodward. It is time to deliver on all those promises. There are certainly few excuses left.
Woodward dithering will cost united again this season
#GOTNOBALLS.
The guy is a clown. All talk and no action.
That’s one very, very badly-constructed website!!
FFS – I already told this guy to stop spamming. He got a free link, but now its every comment. 1) link deleted, 2) placed on permanent moderation queue 🙂
Agreed. This clown hasn’t the faintest clue what the football world at this level is about. The last season was a joke and this season isn’t much better. As long as he remains in charge of transfers MU can kiss good bye to any revival.
I can’t agree. He was blasted for overpaying for Fellaini, so he (or LvG) did the right thing by walking away from Vermaelen.
Agreed
Can’t agree with what exactly?
United didn’t “walk away” – this was nice spin by the club’s PR dept but in reality United spent the past few weeks pressing Arsenal to sell and they wouldn’t. United offered more than Barca. Wenger, seeing United as a direct threat for the Champions League places, vetoed any deal.
It wasn’t a failure to offer enough money this time, and at no point in this piece do I say that it was, but of believing a deal could be done when it could never be. As I said in the piece Ed was “outsmarted”…. not for the first time. Let’s stick this in the ‘blame others’ box alongside Fabregas, Herrera (last summer), Khedeira, De Rossi, etc, and so on.. shall we?
Personally I’m relieved. Vermaelen might be flexible and a nice passer, but he’s no kind of defender. Perfect for Barca then.
Woodward is a perfect loafer
Now the talking has to stop and Ed Woodward not to put too fine a point on it, has to put his money where his mouth is.
There simply no point in talking about United spending big if it doesn’t result in players actually being bought!!!!
Good quality , world class players,this is Manchester United after all!!
As expected, he is useless. nothing too surprising.
I have been among Wooden Ed’s biggest critics but on this occasion I do think it’s a case of Wenger being smarter rather than Woodward being naive and pathetic, as he usually is.
Wenger did not want to sell Vermaelen to United and was nervous of the fan reaction if he did. The way round this was to ask for a United player in return. This way United were giving Arsenal a player as well so Wenger wouldn’t lose face with the fans.
Where United failed in my opinion is that they should have let Arsenal have Smalling. He’s nowhere near as good as Vermaelen and spent almost as much time injured.
I agree that United need more defenders, so swapping one doesn’t achieve this, but it would still have been an upgrade on what we have.
I disagree with your assertion that Smalling is “nowhere near as good as Vermaelen”,on the contrary he’s progressed well when given a run in his natural central position.Being shunted out to right back where he’s very awkward looking hasn’t helped him at all.
The only negative with Smalling is his occasional lapses in concentration,but these can be ironed out,especially if he has quality players around him.
I agree.
Andy you forgot about Smalling’s aimless long balls.but still a better defender than Vermaelen
Agreed, He is a good reader of the ball and good in the air in a central position where he has his bearings. He has had some nice runs with the ball at times also. At right back he looks completely lost and is a liability
Don’t understand what the f##k woody is doing. All the teams around us are signing players, while we are only linked to players, but don’t sign any. Blind has even come out and said he wld love to join us. Reus has a min fee clause coming up next summer and Dortmund are loathe to lose him to Bayern. Vermaelen was in his last year. But we seem to constantly fuck up. And the players seem to end up elsewhere. I hope LvG slaps the shit out of woody.
#WoodwardOut
When City demolished us last March, our trudge back to my car was long and torturous. My mate and I didn’t speak much. Our silence both a reaction to the eleven man pile up we’d just witnessed and another low in a wider trajectory of despondancy that for me personally had really took off after the Newcastle defeat in December. Around this time our short journey home would be inflamed by discussions about whether it was bone headed tactics, Moyes’ inexperience, an inevitable blow back from Fergie reigme, or the fucking gimps that were the main cause of our decline. However, after every new humiliation, our ardour became more tempered; after the Liverpool game and a stoic, silence abounded. After City our stoicism had gone and only a bleak numbness prevailed: we we’re feeling so much we were feeling nothing at all. As we climbed into my battered Corsa my mate said his only post match words, “They just had a lot better players than us.”
As a man of pretension in matters of football and life generally
When City demolished us last March, our trudge back to my car was long and torturous. My mate and I didn’t speak much. Our silence both a reaction to the eleven man pile up we’d just witnessed and another low in a wider trajectory of despondancy that for me personally had really took off after the Newcastle defeat in December. Around this time our short journey home would be inflamed by discussions about whether it was bone headed tactics, Moyes’ inexperience, an inevitable blow back from Fergie reigme, or the fucking gimps were the main cause of our decline. However, after every new humiliation, our ardour became more tempered; after the Liverpool game and a stoic, silence abounded. After City our stoicism had gone and only a bleak numbness prevailed: we we’re feeling so much we were feeling nothing at all. As we climbed into my battered Corsa my mate said his only post match words, “They just had a lot better players than us.”
As a man of pretension in matters of football and life I initially baulked at his diagnosis. Surely football was more nuanced, more complex than this. On considering his comments, and casting my mind back to my own childhood games of footie on Eccles recreation park, I realized that this was a truism. Simple but devestating. We lost because City had better players. We needed better players. We needed to spend all this money we’ve supposedly got from selling tat to the thick and the gulible
Woodward is a major concern window-wise but to my mind, so is, so far, van Gaal. The transfer strategy, such as we can discern it from endlessly re-reported rumours in the media, is entirely predicated on the change to 3-4-1-2. So the theory is that Mr Midas can convert Young into a world-beating wingback, so he’s suddenly an important part of the plans, whilst Reus is not.
Yet this same formation failed to produce a single goal for Netherlands in the 4 hours of their quarter and semi finals. To finish in the top 4 this season, van Gaal’s team will need to leave the field of play more often than not with 3 points; boring their way to penalty shoot-outs won’t be an option. Yes he’s seemingly found a way to get the most out of Mata AND Rooney AND van Persie – but what is Plan B if the opposition re-configures itself to negate our own deployment (what was Netherland’s Plan B ?). Other players are also needed for other tactical approaches.
Part of Moyes’s mistake was who he didn’t get rid of last summer – shipping the likes of Anderson and Valencia out would have woken the rest up, and sent a message of renewal rather than decay through the squad. Why, in mid-August 2014, are those 2 plus about 8 others I could mention, still here ? Accepting whatever pisstake deal Napoli were proposing for Fellaini, is better than having Fellaini. Moyes’s forelock-tugging other huge mistakes last summer were in allowing Giggs to veto the Alcantara deal, and subscribing to Woodward’s wild goose chase for Fabregas whilst overlooking the going-begging-for-a-song Strootman,
Woodward got humiliated and his indecisive movements a year on seem completely born of the fool Fabregas made of him. Now it’s Dortmund being a complete pain in the behind, preferring to hang on to players that will then end up screwing them with Bayern rather than sell them now to us, but let’s admit it, if Madrid had wanted Hummels and Reus, those deals would have been efficiently concluded weeks ago.
Sort it out quickly Woodward AND van Gaal. Otherwise adidas can look forward to that 30% reduction in rates.
Sorry mate, but you’re picking and choosing your evidence there. You’re saying because the Netherlands failed to score in their final two world cup games that LVG is a defensive manager? You’re discounting all the goals and performances before that?
Spain are better than Argentina, they got obliterated. Chile are better than Costa Rica, they got obliterated too. Australia also got hit for three. It’s unfair to conclude because LVG has been back from the tour for 5 days, (remember that he left for the tour within what, 3 days of STARTING his job at United), and you think that he has had the requisite time to move out the 8 or so players you want?
We need to give him time, time to make his moves off the pitch, time to treat players with the respect they deserve, especially when he is probably telling at least half a dozen of them that they are no longer wanted. Plus Woodward is the one deserving of ire, he is the man charged with putting these moves in place.
Patience is a virtue, we chose Moyes with no due diligence, lets give LVG time to make the right choices, not the quick ones. Lets hope we have a wonderful season with some great football!
Thank you for at last speaking some sense, I agree.
When City demolished us last March, our trudge back to my car was long and torturous. My mate and I didn’t speak much. Our silence both a reaction to the eleven man pile up we’d just witnessed and another low in awider trajectory of despondancy that for me personally had really took off after the Newcastle defeat in December. Around this time our journey home would be inflamed by discussions about whether it was bone headed tactics, Moyes’ inexperience, an inevitable blow back from Fergie reigme, or the fucking gimps were the main cause of our decline. However, after every new humiliation, our ardour became more tempered; after the Liverpool game a stoic, silence abounded. After City our stoicism had gone and only a bleak numbness prevailed: we we’re feeling so much we were feeling nothing at all. As we climbed into my battered Corsa my mate said his only post match words, “They just had a lot better players than us.”
As a man of pretension in matters of football and life I initially baulked at his diagnosis. Surely football was more nuanced, more complex than this. On considering his comments, and casting my mind back to my own childhood games of footie on Eccles recreation park, I realized that this was a truism. Simple but devestating. We lost because City had better players. We needed better players. We needed to spend all this money we’ve supposedly got from selling tat to the thick and the gullible on better players.
And this leads me to Ed Woodward. Ed likes to be liked: by the fans, by the press, potential sponsers, by the players and most importantly by the gimps. He is everything to everybody. To us and the press he speaks of a yearning for world class players. To the gimp he speaks another language: financial prudence, the hard art of getting the best deal for the best price; driving hard bargains, watching the dollars and cents.
All this is fine, if you want to be unsuccessful in the
market. It’s also fine if you share the short term casino capitalism ethos that short term cost cutting is of greater importance than a longer term investment
strategy that sacrifices short term gain for greater financial rewards in the future.
In other words do we pay a high price now for greater gain the future; or do we not pay a high price now and pay a very high price in the future.
Or in cruder terms still: if your serious about us being a big club and this isn’t just hot air for the sponsers’ sake
close the fucking deals!
Sorry folks. Typing on a shit mobile. Must of pressed the post comments button twice by accident.
the choice of player in TV’s case seems strange. between LVG and Woodward, transfer strategy is not right
When does the rant cast start back up?
Am I the only who’s happy that it ended in failure?
When British rail above gets his ass together !!!!! The man is so slow!!!!!!
Not a Woodward fan, but if the only way Arsenal was sending Vermaelen was in a swap, I’m fine with walking away. Can’t lose Smalling while adding Vernaelen because then we still have a hole to fill.
all these headlines are deceiving, he wanted us, we had him if we really wanted, but we refused the swap. So it’s hardly failure
if utd fail to make any major signings woodward has to go, last summer window was laughable … http://t.co/nivfnBg1Mf
not good enough for arsenal not good enough for us. Would they really sell another player to us anyway?
The problem is not Woodward, its this arrogant bastard van Gaal! Have you listened to van Gaal’s interviews in the USA and the UK. He said he does not need to buy anymore players. He said he has quality players and he has figured out the best positions for the players that he already has and that the team has won all of its pre-season games. Someone has to tell this cunt that those games were just friendlies and that the real deal starts on Saturday against Swansea. So much talk about all these big names coming but van Gaal wants to prove that he can win the EPL with the players that he already has. Big Problem!
Utter bollocks. Louis van Gaal is the best thing that could of happened to MUFC. A manager that demands respect (unlike Moyes), is tactically astute and flexible (unlike Moyes) and someone prepared to put his faith in youth ( unlike Moyes). Judge the club including Woodward at the end of the window. If we sign nobody then the doubters can be smug. I hope you all look stupid, we are three players from a title challenge. In the Summer (pre-van Gaal) some pundits were talking about 8 players plus being needed just to get top 4. Support your club you miserable fucks.
I’m not bothered that United didn’t sign Vermaelen but it is worrying that Woodward appears incapable of closing deals. Unless van Gaal has some aces up his sleeve we could end up with another Fellaini situation whereby United pay over the odds for an average player in a last minute panic-buy.
There is no panic. van Gaal has said he is very pleased with this squad. The only player van Gaal is interested in is Kevin Strootman, but that’s a January move. I can also tell you that Shaw and Herrera were not the players that van Gaal wanted to bring in. Those 2 players were Moyes targets and the club just continued to follow up on the deal after Moyes left. Fans will just have to get over it, because Woodward really wants to spend the money and bring in world-class players but van Gaal says we can win with the players that we already have if they play the way he wants them to play, the van Gaal way.
Woodward hasn’t got the experience and the board needs to get someone in to get the transfer done. If things don’t improve we’ll miss out on champions league again
The problem is the Gimps. Woodie is a gimp yes man. The rush back from LA on business was surely related to the latest trousering by the gimps of 200 million dollars. All they care about is top 4 to keep the sponsors happy. That is woodie’s brief. no unnecssary spending, as soon as share price spikes offload more no vote no dividend impotent shares to hoover more money to florida via cayman islands. Until they are forced out, will be ever thus.
Frustrated with MUFC transfer tactics for long… but the last season and this year combine together to form the nadir… The whole scenario of setting the bar high and then not delivering anything is ridiculous. If the club wants to let go some of the players, that shud also be done sooner than later. Dont understand why and what needs to be done to make things faster…
#Pissed
#Irritated
Everyone is pissed! But the problem is not Woodward, its van Gaal! Woodward wants to bring in players because if we do not make it into the champions league, the club losses all its sponsorship and millions of pounds, which will put us in big debt.
Just today, van Gaal, talking to a reporter said that he was also pleased with Michael Keane and Tyler Blackett in central defenders positions. Right now, I do not see any positive movement for central defenders. Hummels was today made captain of Dortmund and other so called targets seemed to be hijacked by Chelsea and Arsenal. The only player I seem to hear about now is Di Maria, but then again its all hearsay. The bottom line is, van Gaal is satisfied with the players that he already has. This is no fault of Woodward, it all falls on van Gaal.
Your postulation that not signing Vermanleen is a failure is rather too academic in my opinoin. Suggesting the club put a spin on why we didn’t sign him is also stretching your argeument too far. I will agree with you LVG might be making the same mistake Moyes made last summer by not making his mind up on players needed. However, we can only speculate on what we read from diffirent sources.. Now without sounding like Rafa Benitez, fact is we did bid for him? Its also a facts he really wanted to come to United. Did Arsenal asked for swap deal? Yes they did. Did we bid more than Barca? Yes we did . Did we walk away when Arsenal was insistense on swap deal? Yes we did. Infact it was our withdrawal that opened the the door for Barca. Definately it can’t be a failure if i decided to walk away from a deal that it’s not favourable to me. Infact that is what i call being smart. I wondered what you would be saying if we had swapped either Jones or Smalling for him.
Quite a few pre-match nerves showing in these postings.
The season hasn’t yet started but already the whingers and the prophets of doom are beginning to gather. Showing concern for the performance of Woodward in the transfer market is fair enough, given what happened last year and how things appear to have gone on this year. However, to have people already slagging off van Gaal is gobsmacking.
The guy took an average Dutch side (with three top players) to within a penalty shootout of a World Cup Final after demolishing the World Champions, Spain, at the group stage of the tournament. Not good enough say the whingers, he’s too negative and boring.
After only a three day break, van Gaal takes United on a highly successful pre-season tour against several of Europe’s best. He meets his players for the first time, he introduces a new system, he gives everyone plenty of game time, and United win the tournament comfortably. Yes, but it was just a pre-season tour, say the critics. Talk about a no-win situation.
To top it all, there is a post criticising his arrogance. If people think van Gaal is too arrogant, then they must really despise Fergie. And goodness knows what they would have made of two-time European Cup-winning manager, Brian Clough. Perhaps they would prefer Dithering Davy Mouse.
True to his word, van Gaal is giving everyone a chance to prove themselves in the new scheme, which has to be good for morale and competition. For instance, just because most of us think that Ashley Young is surplus to requirements, doesn’t mean that van Gaal shouldn’t give him a chance, in pre-season at least. Forget the Moyes season, van Gaal is Fergie’s successor and he will build a team based on team-spirit, discipline, attention to detail, modern tactics, topped with flair. There will be quality, but the collective will be greater than the individual. He is not a manager who rushes out to buy a team, he prefers to build one from a tight-knit squad. There may be one or two comings and goings before the window closes, but the current squad will get its chance in the immediate future and if it doesn’t work well enough, there will be changes. If so, there will be tweaks rather than a wholesale clearout. Van Gaal is a man who knows what he is doing.
This post is spot on we have the right man in charge now, let’s all at least allow him an opportunity it was afforded to Moyes by most so afford it to LVG!!!!
van Gaal does know what he is doing, but we all know what the weakness within the team, it has not been fixed for years! If you think van Gaal is some miracle maker then keep praying.for miracles. Yes van Gaal is doing some good things with the current players and yes they did have a great pre-season. And if he can keep it together, we should be able to get 18 points from our first 6 games, judging by the opponents in the first 6 games, would keep us on top until we meet Chelsea in game 7 and then we can judge from there.
But now from what I am reading, I do see at least 2 more signings coming before the deadline, so there is hope at the end of the tunnell.
For various reasons United / Woodward should have realised they needed to pay over the odds for deals last summer.
It was even more obvious that a poor season would create further issues for this window – Top 4 should have been ensured – With Hard Cash.
All of Europe smelt blood in the water and nobody was going to hand over players for a fair a price – let alone on the cheap.
We offered peanuts for Cesc – adding a poxy million to the table each week. If we bid for him, we needed him, and if we needed him, we should have paid the amount required, and GOT HIM.
A year later, this summer:
We / He / They are still messing about – and why? – The same old story – MONEY.
Woodward is a salesman – not a buyer, and they speak completely different languages.
Our shitty little £16.Mil bids drag on for weeks, however, within an hour of Sky Sports News first mentioning a rivals latest £30.Mil+ target – they’re halfway through their sodding medical.
No more excuses, I don’t care if Van Gaal ‘might scrape through’ with what we’ve got, or if he’s ‘waiting for the right players’ – this club should be able to field most positions twice-over (and to a high standard) even if just to be safe.
As it stands we haven’t even got the positions properly covered once-over. Get David Gill back.
Isn’t strange that since Sir alex & David Gill left all Man utd signings haven’t been linked to any other clubs & Man utd have not faced any competition fromany other club in signing them BUT Man united have still paid OVER THE ODDS to get them?
No other club expressed interest in signing Fellaini, Nani,Hererra & Shaw(chelsea withdrew very early cz his wage demands 7 transfer fee were exorbitant)!!! This is so ironical.
Something is dead-wrong with how man utd is being run by the glazers through edwoodward . From proclaiming unlimited transfer funds to delaying to cut deals secretly without the media knowing.Its a shame that we are club we support being eaten cancerous ike manner by the people in charge.
man united is slipping from the elite class of Madrid,barcelona & bayern and right know its only financially that we can match them. In terms of attracting top talent & world class players we are even behind Chelsea & man city.
The champions league is not an excuse bcz man city signed David silva & yaya toure when they were not playing in europe.They had no great history but they still managed to convince these players that they were brought to create history & establish a new order in EPL. Of course lucrative financial packages played a big part as well.
Right now man united even with its great history & better financial packages to offer top players,NONE is willing to come & play for us. From Kroos to Fabregas the story was the same. We court these players for a whole se
#WoodwardOut #MUFC