Manchester United officially announced that Richard Arnold has been promoted to the next CEO of the team, and he will take up his new position from 1 February. Woodward's departure is the end of an era for United and a phased end to a series of bad decisions for the club.
Although it was announced after the Europa League incident last April that he would no longer be the club's chief executive, it took Manchester United CEO Woodward nine months to complete the handover. With the new CEO Richard Arnold taking office on February 1, the English media has also begun to carefully conclude Woodward's eight years at dream theatre. Much of the media eventually retracted previous negative comments about Woodward personally, but still thought he was a CEO who took over a wrong job at the wrong time, which also allowed United to live in the "wrong era".
In the words of the famous England journalist Holt: Woodward is not an idiot or sinister snake-like figure, but his tenure at Manchester United still ended in failure, which is an indisputable fact! The team has never really entered the title team since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement, they have not failed to win a title, but they have only one FA Cup, one Europa League and one League Cup. Previously, Manchester United had sympathized with the team that won these three "small triples", and for Woodward, this was the only mark he left on Manchester United.
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 won their first post-1972 victory at Old Trafford; Cardiff City won their first time since 1954 at The Dream Theatre; West Brom and Sheffield United both achieved their dream of winning at Home at Manchester United after the 1970s; Burnley scored all three points here again nearly 60 years later; Swansea even won their first all-time victory over Manchester United under Woodward; and teams like Crystal Palace achieved two consecutive wins at the Dream Theatre. 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 last season's 1-6 defeat to Tottenham or the humiliating 5-0 win against sworn rivals Liverpool this season, it seems like it will take a while for United to rebuild their confidence in a strong dialogue. Therefore, seeing that the media has still frequently turned the scene to the outgoing Woodward in recent games, some Manchester United fans have angrily begged whether he can quietly leave and stop blocking the fans in this way: "No one here will really miss Woodward, and his era as CEO, so please don't focus on him anymore, it's all really enough!" ”
The perception of Woodward by Manchester United fans is in stark contrast to his image in the circle, and he is considered to have a media PR aura, and he can't hide his high-profile atmosphere. A often mentioned claim is that Mourinho never befriends low-key and pragmatic high-level figures, and the comments after Van Gaal's dismissal are even less friendly: "At Bayern, the top of the club's operation is an insider who is proficient in football affairs, while at Manchester United, Woodward's ability to understand football can score zero points, and this kind of person who has previously been in the investment financial circle can become CEO, indicating 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 Louis 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 generous long contract, even Phil Jones could get a 4-and-a-half-year extension; he had categorically rejected Leicester's £70 million asking price for Maguire, but a year later he honestly traded with the other side for 80 million; he tried to sign Schweinsteiger, but in fact he was always warned. Unless they are past their peak, Bayern will not let the elite players leave the team.
Speaking of Woodward's poor judgment in the selection of managers and reinforcements, those journalists who usually report on the football business will also use the performance of the MANCHESTER United CEO in terms of revenue generation, after all, Manchester United has further grown into one of the biggest clubs in football in the economy. However, with the embarrassing end of last year's "European Super League incident", similar defense arguments have begun to disappear. Woodward, the main convener of the European Super League in England, was criticized by the local media for "not understanding the true meaning of the football club to the local city, the community and the 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, 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, and it is no wonder that fans will become more and more tired of seeing the CEO who has announced his resignation in the Dream Theater.
However, what makes the English media feel contradictory is that such a Manchester United CEO, who has been 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 receives chat text messages from Woodward, who affectionately calls him "Wazza" in the text messages, and there is no pretentious frame between the words, but most of the players are not comfortable with this, but feel that it is strange to have such a homely relationship with their CEO.
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 Spurs and Liverpool once announced that they would temporarily unemploy some employees and go to the government for relief, but Manchester United has always paid their employees as usual, and has not used 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.
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Manchester United officially announced the club's appointment to a new CHIEF executive this week: Richard Arnold, who previously led business, was promoted to the team's next CEO, and he will take up his new role from 1 February. The English media was quick to learn the biggest difference between Arnold and his predecessor Woodward: he would no longer spend most of his time in the club's representative office in London, as his predecessor did, but at the headquarters at Old Trafford.
United fell into a vicious cycle of poor results and repeated reconstructions immediately after the Ferguson era. However, outside the stadium, their strong position in the business circle has not been affected in the slightest, and their business empire has been further consolidated. 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 had 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 Alexander-Arnold described his impressions of United's new CEO "without exaggeration".
Before venturing into football, Arnold was originally more interested in Italian rugby. He and Woodward are both Bristol alumni, but they did not intersect with each other until 1993, when they studied accounting at PwC. Arnold then worked for Two e-Communications Technology Companies, Global Telecom and InterVoice, until 2007, when woodward was poached by 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 hang up the crown because of the "European Super League", when the English media decided that the Glazer family could not recruit and parachute a CEO 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 the team's CEO, the first problem facing Arnold was to clean up the team's dilemma at the competitive level. Interim manager Ronnick will be transferred to the position of consultant in a few months, and he will form a senior team of the athletic department with football director John Merte and technical director Fletcher 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 open game last season, reporters at the scene reflected 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!
Wen | Liu Chuan
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