Although it was announced after the "Europa League" incident last April that he would no longer serve as the executive vice-president of Manchester United, it took Ed Woodward nine months to complete the handover. Manchester United officially announced the appointment of the new CEO this week: Richard Arnold (pictured below, right), who previously led the business, has been promoted to the next CEO, and he will take up his new position on February 1. The English media was also quick to learn the biggest difference between Arnold and Woodward: he would no longer spend most of his time in the club's representative office in London, as his predecessors did, but would work at old Trafford headquarters.
"Er dezi" will make money + know more about the ball
United fell into a vicious lap of poor performance and repeated reconstruction immediately after the Ferguson era, but their strong position in the business world was not affected outside the stadium. When Alexander-Arnold first joined the club, United's business revenue that year was only £117 million, and in Arnold's hands, this figure has been expanded to nearly £300 million a year. That's why United always seem to have endless rebuilding money on hand after each change of manager.
Arnold has previously been described by the outside world as an extremely difficult negotiator. For a club of manchester United's size, it may not seem difficult to negotiate with the sponsors, but the negotiators of each of United's sponsors have mixed expressions when it comes to Arnold: he is the kind of negotiator who can squeeze out every penny of your budget. "When you meet and shake hands with Richard, your first task is to check that your unconscious fingers are still fully grown on your hands." A businessman who had dealt with Arnold described his impression of him "without exaggeration."
Before venturing into football, Arnold was originally more interested in Italian rugby. He and Woodward are both Bristol alumni, but the two did not intersect at university until 1993, when they studied accounting at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Arnold then worked for Global Telecom and InterVoice, two telecommunications technology companies, until 2007, when he was recruited by Woodward to Manchester United. However, he was already well-known in the business world, and for two consecutive years he was nominated by the industry as the New Director of the Year.
Arnold was successfully promoted to commercial director of Manchester United in 2012, and last summer Woodward had to announce the crown because of the "European Super League storm", when the English media decided that the Glazer family could not recruit and parachute a CEO candidate from the outside, but would be promoted from within. Arnold is also considered the most logical candidate for the next CEO, because the Glazer family values not only his leadership in the business field, but more importantly, he also has a strong knowledge in the field of football competition.
After becoming CEO, Arnold's first problem was to clean up the team's dilemma at the competitive level. Interim manager Ronnick will be transferred to the advisory in a few months, and together with football director John Motto and technical director Fletcher, he will form a team of executives in the athletic department to report to Arnold. The latter not only has to ensure that the team reverses the decline as soon as possible to return to the top four, but also quickly begins to examine and interview the new manager next season.
Alexander-Arnold is considered to be well-known within the Manchester United club and the media believes that he will handle the relationship with the manager relatively maturely. One of the pieces of evidence is that he always got along well with the team's former manager Mourinho at work, but he was clearly not just a "slime" character who was good at reconciling opinions. Because in the team's empty game last season, reporters at the scene all reported that the "tactical roar" in the Manchester United board box was much louder than the coach's seat, and those roars were coming from Arnold!
"Sandoko" wrong time wrong work
With richard Arnold confirming his appointment, the English media also began to carefully conclude Woodward's 8 years at the Theatre of Dreams. Most of the media eventually retracted their previous negative comments about Woodward personally, but still thought he was a manager who took over a wrong job at the wrong time, which also allowed United to live a "wrong era".
In the words of the famous journalist Holt: Woodward is not an idiot or sinister snake-like figure, but it is an indisputable fact that his tenure at Manchester United still ended in failure! The team has never really entered the championship team since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement, they have not won the championship, but they have only one FA Cup, one Europa League and one League Cup. You know, Manchester United, who was at its peak before, had sympathy for the team that won such a "small triple crown".
How depraved were United in the Woodward era? Take a look at how many Homegrown England teams have maintained a record of nearly half a century without a win before United's home games end, opening a new chapter against the Red Devils. Newcastle United, Cardiff, West Bromwich Albion, Sheffield United, Burnley, Swansea... The overwhelming psychological advantage of United against these teams in the Ferguson era has disappeared, and Old Trafford is no longer a steel fortress that suffocates visiting fans.
In addition to helping mid- and lower-floor teams dispel the Red Devils phobia that has plagued them for years, Woodward's Manchester United have also suffered a series of big-score defeats against strong teams. Whether it's a 6-1 defeat to Tottenham last season or a humiliating 0-5 win against rivals Liverpool this season, it seems like it will take a while for United to rebuild their confidence in the power-to-power conversation. So seeing that the media has still frequently turned the scene to the outgoing Woodward in recent games, some Manchester United fans have angrily begged him if he can quietly leave and stop blocking the fans in this way: "No one here really misses Woodward, and the era when he was executive vice president, so please don't focus on him anymore, it's all really enough!" ”
Louis van Gaal's comments about Woodward after class were not friendly: "At Bayern, the top of the club's operations is an insider who is proficient in football affairs, while at Manchester United, Woodward's understanding of football can score zero points. The fact that this kind of person who has previously struggled in the investment financial circle can become the CEO shows that the club has been completely driven by commercial interests, which is actually not a good thing for the team! The English media did not fully agree with Van Gaal's "zero points" theory, but at the time of Woodward's departure, the relevant black history was constantly listed: he generously offered a number of marginal players a long and generous contract, even Phil Jones could get a 4-and-a-half-year extension; he had categorically rejected Leicester City's £70 million asking price for Maguire, but a year later he honestly sold for 80 million; he signed Schweinsteiger, but in fact someone warned him. Unless they are past their peak, Bayern will not let the elite players leave the team.
Speaking of Woodward's poor judgment on coaching and reinforcements, journalists who usually cover the football business will also use his performance in terms of revenue generation to defend him, after all, Manchester United has grown into one of the most powerful football giants in the economy. However, with the embarrassing end of last year's "European Super League incident", similar defense arguments have begun to disappear. Woodward, as the main convener of the European Super League in England, was criticized by the local media for "not understanding the true meaning of football clubs to the local city, community and people", which directly led to the subsequent riots in Old Trafford on the match day of the "Double Red Club". As the person responsible, although he immediately announced that he would hang up the crown and leave, the buffer period of this departure was as long as 9 months, which was ridiculed by the outside world as the longest farewell in history.
However, what makes the English media itself feel contradictory is that such a character who is portrayed by the outside world as a mercenary banker actually has another side that is incompatible with its stereotype. For example, Rooney once revealed that he often received chat text messages from Woodward, who affectionately called him "Wazza" in the text messages, and there was no pretentious frame between the words, but most of the players were not comfortable with this, but felt that it was strange to have such a homely connection with the executive vice president.
During the epidemic, Woodward premeditated the European Premier League in a severely economically battered environment, and on the other hand, Manchester United never neglected its staff during the epidemic period due to the losses caused by league suspensions and empty games. In the early days of the epidemic, even Tottenham and Liverpool once announced that they would temporarily unemploy some employees and go to the government for relief, but Manchester United always paid their own employees as usual, and did not use the epidemic as an excuse to carry out large-scale department layoffs and layoffs. Woodward also urged the club's relevant departments to cooperate with local epidemic prevention and medical departments, but these measures that benefited the community and employees were not attributed to Woodward in the end.
All in all, when it comes to Woodward's 8 years in manchester United, the first thing that comes to mind is the decline in the team's performance, successive trial and error-like reinforcements and marquee changes. His commercial success was taken for granted to some extent and as evidence that the club was driven by commercial interests. Despite a long separation of 9 months, Woodward was unable to reverse his position in the history of the team. Even if some media will mention his contribution, it will not affect the final conclusion: his departure is the end of an era for Manchester United, and it has also drawn a stage to a series of bad decisions of the club.
This article is written by Liu Chuan
This article was originally published in the Sports Plus app
Images are from the web