05 Dec 2013 10:56:04
Direct quotes from Ed Woodward

If you fight hard and just fail, people will still watch you on television, still turn up and buy shirts.
There's still a lot of affinity with the club and interest. The reality is that you can't always win.
Take Liverpool. They still sell an incredible number of shirts and have the second biggest shirt deal in the Premier League.
They have one of the biggest technical partner deals - and they haven't won the league since 1990. And you can put the last bit underlined and in capitals.
If we have a bad year we have the financial strength to change the team. We have so much deeper financial strength that instead of selling three players and buying three, we can do five.

Make of it what you want to. Take a bow Woody

Deeps.

1.) 05 Dec 2013
We will see if these statements are true come September. It's clear as the day is bright that we needed two worldies in the summer. We bought none. So far you have to say the transition from SAF to 'no SAF' has been poor and I think there was enough time to prepare for this. If we went for Moyes then we should have not tinkered with the coaching staff for a at least one season. I understand managers want their own staff, but it was too big of a change IMO. I also think Moyes should have went with SAF's targets this time round, he had the rest of his career to add his own players. Moyes should have trusted the scouting staff and his predecessor SAF and went with their targets. I think the whole point of going for Moyes was so that the change was as little as possible, it ended up being a massive change and we are left with a manager who is really under pressure and seems to not have the full backing of his players. Certainly on the field anyway.

2.) 05 Dec 2013
Syd I have to disagree on the whole going with SAF's targets. This is no longer his team so why should a new manager want to bring in players he hasn't personally been looking at and wanted? makes no sense. He may end up feeling pressured to play players he doesn't like because he was the one that sanctioned the deals. Who is to say SAF's targets would have solved our problems? let's face it he also had some stinkers in the transfer market. We could have ended up with more Nani's, Andersons or Youngs on the wage bill who we struggle to move on in the future and Moyes would have been blamed for it. He needs to make his own decisions and live or die by them, not someone elses, even if it was SAF.

This is a season of Moyes settling in, assessing, setting up his targets and who he wants rid of. I, personally, think he had to bring his own staff with him aswell, why leave them for one more season and then get rid? Best to let the new coaches settle in his first season rather than having 2 unsettled seasons. Any sane fan won't have been expecting a title challenge this season, top four and a champions league place is the essential necessity and I totally expect that come May.

3.) 05 Dec 2013
Syd

Whats alarming is him talking about shirt sales and the moolah to boot no matter how we perform. The Eds actually edited a few choice words I had used for him. Why is he citing Liverpool as an example? Is it supposed to make us feel ok about it? He should rather be concerned if we go their way. I am scared if people like Woody are at the decision making end of things when it comes to this club.

Deeps.

4.) 05 Dec 2013
Deeps, a lot of people are saying if MU fall out of the top four that we are going to go bust. I think this statement is to calm the nerves of fans who do not now the financial situation.

Brendan, many of the top clubs' managers do not get a say in who the club buy, so why couldn't the club make a stand and tel Moyes we will be going with SAF's choices. Players they have studied for months, perhaps even years.

5.) 05 Dec 2013
Woodward is an extremely naïve man.

As someone who has travelled extensively in SE Asia, and other parts of the world, I GUARANTEE that our popularity in these parts will wane.

In 2009, I saw mainly United shirts with the odd City, Chelsea or Arsenal shirt.

In 2013, those other shirts were FAR more noticeable in their presence.

Those fans tune in to see a successful team that ENTERTAINS. If we don't have 'superstars' on the field (Rooney, RVP), those fans will look to teams that do - they have no attachments to us, make no mistake.

Good luck striking awe into these malleable fans with a team full of Cleverlys, Welbecks and Youngs.

If the success begins to wane, so will the shirt sales. If Woodward thinks Asia will see a boom in United shirt sales with 'Welbeck' on the back as opposed to the Ronaldos, Rooneys and RVPs, he's a joke.

6.) 05 Dec 2013
If you sit back and look at the current situation, we have lost two major people in Gill and SAF with regards to any high profile strategy at the club. The dynamics of the EPL have changed in that it is about how much your owners are willing to spend on success. Chelsea spent big to win the EPL years back then reigned it in and we won the title back. They are now spending again and are back up there. City are spend spend spend and are up there. You can argue that others up there haven't spent but let's be honest, come April, City and Chelsea look more likely to be competing for the title. Arsenal have a tough list ahead and then at the end of the season. Liverpool are a one man show at the moment but that isn't a title winning formula. We have had a massive period of success over the last two decades. Change will throw this out of the window. I do think we will still be in the top four come May but it won't just fall into place as in previous seasons under SAF. There are only two windows available to Moyes to mould his team over a season. The first as we know was a complete farce and mistakes were made. I can't see any major change in the Jan window but I will reserve judgement to see if lessons were learned until the end of the upcoming summer window. Give the new guys a chance, after all it has only been 6 months since Moyes took over and only 4 since the team started under him.

7.) 05 Dec 2013
I completely agree with everything Brendan said

8.) 05 Dec 2013
Sydney this is United, we aren't like other clubs and I really hope we never have a situation where anyone other than the manager of Manchester United decides which players to buy.

9.) 05 Dec 2013
It doesn't seem to harm barcelona & Real Madrid with signings that aren't sanctioned by the manager.If we again sign mediocrity in January & the summer then we all know the glazers don't want to spend & I'm afraid we're doomed.Once Fergie announced his retirement we should of broke the bank for klopp & taken the club in a total different direction.If you don't move with times you get left behind, just ask the mickeys.Moyes is out of his depth& we have far too much deadwood. Blackpool Red

10.) 05 Dec 2013
Brendan, why didn't we expect a title challenge? We won the league by 11 points last year, so although others have strengthened, we should still be there or there abouts. So I don't buy into that.
Also, if all clubs with new managers and staff are not expected to challenge, then how do you explain, City, Chelsea, Everton? They've all had managerial and staff changes and all have adapted very well.
So come on, let's stop making silly excuses, Moyes is not the man for the job. Why did Kagawa get hauled off? And who did he bring on AGAIN?

11.) 05 Dec 2013
Jred

I feel bad for Moyes. Admittedly he has made mistakes(e.g keeping Welbeck on and subbing Kags), he really can't do much if one of our players misses an open goal header. Still think its more Fergie's doing, ignore it and now someone else has to pay for it. My qualm is, if Baines, Herrera and Fabregas were Moyes' targets, what on god's earth were we playing at by bidding embarrasing amounts for them? WE decided to bid less than what Barca bought Fabregas for. What were we doing bidding 28 million for Baines and Fellaini combined? If you say that, Woodward fecked it up and couldn't land Moyes' targets, I am completely with you. I have always had a bad feeling our stinker of a transfer window will come back to haunt us.

I am behind Moyes, no doubt about it, he needs it more than anything else. But God save him if Woody means business. Get that clown(Woody) out.

Deeps.

12.) 05 Dec 2013
Deeps
I made a similar point further down the page.
Our back 4 has been getting older for a while and our midfield has been pretty poor as well.
Take rvp and Carrick out the team who where our best 2 players last year and it doesn't look a great team on paper.
At the moment moyes can only get by with the players he has.
I think he want fabergas Baines and Herrera in the summer I actually think just fabergas would of made a huge difference.
I think untill moyes gets the players he wants and let's be honest the players the team needs, it's a bit early to judge him

13.) 05 Dec 2013
Nomidfield, yes we won the league but you can't seriously say we played well last year or the season before for that matter. The first 11 has been on the decline for quite a few years now. The reason we won by 11 points, was the fact that our challengers were poor, and we also had the greatest manager of all time at the club, motivating the players and getting them performing above their standard. Did you seriously expect another manager to come in and get that same level out of this set of players? If so, you are hugely underestimating SAF and what he achieved.

All clubs aren't United, they didn't have a manager at the club for over a quarter of a century. Those clubs weren't literally built, by the manager who left, from mid table teams to 13 PL titles and 2 CL titles. The change happening at our club is greater, I think, to any change at a club in history. People don't seem to understand that, or do but ignore it and expect everything to roll on as normal.

Whoever came in would have found it hugely difficult. I believe all would have brought their own guys with them as Moyes has done. Some would have spent more money in the summer and some, like Moyes, would have waited and assessed the playing staff correctly and changed it to how he wants it. I'm pretty sure the owners/directors aren't expecting a league title this year and have allowed Moyes the time to assess his players this season and then build as he sees fit.

I, as many on here will know, am a huge fan of Kagawa and no I don't think he should have come off. Yes, Moyes will make mistakes but who the hell doesn't??? Have Mourinho and Pellegrini made no mistakes so far? They, though, joined clubs where players are purchased for the manager and in Mourinhos case he knows the club inside out. We aren't that kind of club and to have changed to being that club this summer would have gone against everything that SAF stood for, I'm pretty sure he gave Moyes advice and his blessing to choose who he wants at the club, rather than just buy players who had been scouted previously, can't imagine SAF would have ever accepted that.

14.) 05 Dec 2013
As I understand it, if we had been decisive and spent the required money we could have signed Alcantara, Baines or Contraeu, De Rossi and Herrera. i'm sure Luis Gustavo could have been persuaded to come as well rather than join Wolfsburg.

How different the squad would look with those 5 in the squad instead of Fellaini, Cleverley, Evra and Anderson