"Evil Genius", the title that Van Gaal gave to Woodward that year. Eight years have passed, and woodward, as Manchester United's executive vice-president, has come to say goodbye to Manchester United fans.
In the selection of Football People of the Year, I think Woodward is the best candidate. Because of his influence, he is arguably at the helm of Manchester United, the most popular club on the English Peninsula.
Although the giant ship never sailed on the right course, when it entered the right course again and again, his operation was just right to let Manchester United successfully yaw.
He is a man who is absolutely trusted by the Manchester United hierarchy and a man who is deeply hated by Manchester United fans.
Text/Li Yanfeng
"Two-Faced Life - Three Virtues"
After studying physics in his study career, he entered the society and entered the financial industry, helping Glazer use leveraged finance to win Manchester United, and then began a football life.
Woodward's life is full of uncertainty and challenges. The only constant is his business vision, and as for football-related matters, he is amateur ridiculous.
In Glazer's eyes, he is definitely a nobleman in the United States, and a large-scale operation like the Manchester United acquisition is really uncertain without some ability.
Woodward played the principle of leverage to the extreme, and Glazer was able to successfully acquire Manchester United, and he was the first to do so.
This also made him a confidant of Glazer, who naturally quit his job at JPMorgan Chase and entered the core management of Manchester United.
With him, the American boss Glazer, who does not love football, can watch the rising stocks cheer every day, and at the annual shareholder dividend meeting, he will firmly believe that he has chosen the right person, woodward is a business wizard in his eyes.
But things are often two-sided, and in the eyes of fans, Woodward is terrible. Frequent amateur operations have made the whole world football scene watch Manchester United jokes.
Unprofessional is the most sincere evaluation of him by the outside world.
Like the title mentioned at the beginning, "Evil Genius." He worked hard, but he didn't know anything about football, and his repeated faint moves made Louis van Gaal think he was evil.
But he's a genius, but only in marketing.
This position as CEO is not for him, and 8 years has proven everything.
"He's a businessman through and through"
A businessman is a businessman, please don't force yourself to label yourself a footballer.
He's not David Gill. During his tenure, he has changed five managers for United, from coaches like Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho to DNA coaches like Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
But the team's performance has not been improved, and the root of the problem is that he only has commercial value in his eyes, and he ignores the performance on the court.
Let him play the game of the white wolf with empty gloves, he is the master. It's a little bit harder for him to figure out what football is.
As a businessman, he is competent. Let's take a look at how he helped the Glazer family complete the White Wolf Game of empty gloves.
In 2005, Woodward, a key figure behind the acquisition that shocked world football, first appeared in news media coverage.
He asked Glazer to complete the acquisition of Manchester United for 790 million, but glazer really came up with only 270 million pounds of real money, which is why the outside world compares this acquisition to an empty glove white wolf.
As a result of the success of the acquisition, United was inexplicably saddled with £660 million in debt. In 2006, United had an annual revenue of £168 million, but the club had to pay £113 million in interest.
His operation helped the Glazer family hollow out Manchester United. For this, he was offered the position of Head of Financial Planning at Manchester United.
His more powerful operation took place in 2010 when he helped the Glazer family issue £500 million in bonds, directly helping the Glazer family pay off the debt of a £220 million high-interest hedge fund.
His outstanding performance has made the American boss more respectful of him. Three years later, he was put in the position of CHIEF Executive Vice President.
Exactly how much Glazer trusted Woodward, one detail is a good illustration. Woodward is the only person outside of the Glazer family who owns Manchester United's Class A shares, which is a gift from the Glazer family.
In addition to the acquisition that made Woodward famous, he developed the commercial value of Manchester United to the extreme after becoming executive vice chairman, which is the fundamental reason why he has stood firm for 8 years.
According to the data, in the era of Manchester United, when Woodward was not in power, Manchester United's main source of income was matchday income, taking 2005 as an example, Manchester United's matchday income was 66 million pounds, and commercial income was only 45 million pounds.
But in 2019, according to the financial report, Manchester United's matchday revenue was 111 million pounds, and commercial revenue climbed directly to 275 million pounds, a full increase of 600% in commercial revenue.
The big backdrop to this is the waning of United's dominance on the football pitch. During his time at Manchester United, one of the most successful champions trophies for Manchester United was only a Europa League trophy.
Since 2007, when he was in charge of Manchester United's commercial operations, the entire Manchester United began to be taken astray by him, because the old lord was still there, and the affairs on the pitch were not in Woodward's control, so the team's competitive level remained at a high level.
But everything changed in 2013, and while Woodward was nominally executive vice president, he was the final gatekeeper of the team's overall construction, including player buying and selling, commercial operations, and finally the gatekeeper.
The ambitions of the businessmen are greedy, and when Glazer is thinking every day about how to squeeze the most profits out of Manchester United, the club inevitably has problems.
Perhaps, Glazer's decision to let Woodward honestly focus on business was the right choice. The chaos in the later stages of Manchester United is indispensable to the work of laymen like Woodward.
"His Manchester United legacy is two words - failure"
"He didn't know anything about football", that's what Van Gaal said about him. Isn't it a joke that you're asking someone who knows nothing about football to leave behind for a successor?
All he left was the word "failure."
At the 2018 Manchester United Investor Conference, Woodward uttered the astonishing phrase "the results on the pitch have no real impact on our business sector".
It is perfectly normal for United to be led by such a leader who does not care about the results of the stadium, and it is perfectly normal for United to be led into the ditch.
During his tenure, The Manchester United managerial position has been a sight to behold. Moyes, Van Gaal, Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ronnick. There are 5 coaches on the list, and there is no clear manager selection mechanism, which makes Manchester United mess up the overall planning of the team.
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has described Manchester United, managed by Woodward, as "an adult disneyland".
In terms of player introduction, he is not only naïve, but also very incompetent. It was during his reign that Manchester United became the lamb to be slaughtered by others, and everyone knows that there is a rich and stupid boy in the British Peninsula, his name is Manchester United. In the past eight years, Manchester United has become a proper wrongdoer.
First, Woodward hesitated when it came to locking in the target players. In the 2013 season, United stared at Cristiano Ronaldo, Bale, Modric, Thiago and Fabregas, but only stared, and the team never did anything.
Maybe Woodward didn't know about the players at the time, even if one of them could join Manchester United.
Even if the process enters the player transfer negotiation stage, Manchester United is also full of foreign faces, and here we have to mention his good friend Jazi, manchester United's negotiation work is responsible for him.
His most famous operation was to first have a lawyer meet with the opposing club, and without the participation of anyone who knew the ball, Manchester United could only break his teeth and swallow it.
Operations such as buying Fellaini at a high price before the transfer deadline, being cheated by Herrera's fake agent, and panicking to buy Sanchez have become a daily compulsory course for Manchester United.
In terms of selling people, Manchester United is very generous.
Inter Milan has a deep experience, buying people from Manchester United is a real fragrance, this real fragrance theory is reflected in the player's high ability, low price, comprehensive cost performance is super high.
Manchester United sellers never think about making money, or even thinking about returning the cost, just considering making room for newcomers.
Honest man Manchester United, rich man Manchester United, two fool Manchester United, these elegant titles are all given by Woodward.
What can he leave Behind for United?
Leave a sigh well.
"After chaos and chaos, Glazer threw the pot at him."
Chaos is the epitome of United's last 8 years. The head coach changes, and the players have a big temper and a small skill. Manchester United, the golden sign of football, was almost played to death by Woodward and his master Glazer.
Since Glazer became United boss, sucking blood has been his main task. Woodward's main task was to serve his master.
Manchester United's chaos in the past 8 years, can't Glazer see it?
Of course, you can see that the number of times the anti-Glazer activities of the Manchester United fans have been held are innumerable, the green jerseys and scarves on and off the court at Old Trafford, if Glazer can't see it, it can only mean that he is blind.
He just didn't want to let go of the magician who could make money for him.
Woodward's eventual departure from the club is not actually what Glazer wants to see, but in the European Premier League incident at the beginning of this year, someone must come out to carry the pot.
Although this fool knows that Woodward was instructed by the boss, he can't let Glazer officially announce the lesson himself, right?
Driving Woodward away, Glazer was also crying inside, and his sadness must have been very high. Who can't get along with money, the American boss is still so fond of money.
"Leaving gracefully is what decent people should do"
Announcing his departure at the end of the year in April, fans were waiting for the moment to come.
After Ole Gunnar Solskjaer left, there was a voice that said that Manchester United are currently leaderless and Woodward will continue his work until the long-term manager is in place, and then he will consider leaving.
Who put this wind, everyone should guess for themselves.
However, his retention was a great obstacle, and leaving became the only option.
That promise to leave, automatically giving way when it expires, looks more like what a gentleman should do.
Woodward was succeeded by Arnold, known as Erdezi.
When Woodward became United's executive vice-president, Arnold became the nominal CEO of the team, but he did not have real power, and the team buyers eventually needed Woodward to nod, he was more like a decoration.
He has rarely been mentioned before. But with Woodward gone, the time was coming for Arnold to make a big splash.
From the current point of view, manchester United's management operation has become more professional. Manchester United has now begun to operate professionally.
United have appointed Football Director Mutav, whose main responsibility is to recruit players, and the technical director is Fletcher, who will mainly provide technical assistance to the United first team. The new coach Lonnick has an absolute say in the first team, and the three of them form a three-legged momentum.
They will check and develop together, and Arnold's job is to coordinate and deal with some of the frictions and conflicts after the three worlds, plus some trivial things.
Without a word, it may be possible for the lost Manchester United to return to the right course as soon as possible.
Woodward is gone and United need to set sail again.