Reporter Han Bing reported that Manchester United's Woodward era lasted nearly 9 years, and the Premier League "big butler" model represented by him, "one person under ten thousand people" monopolized power, monopolizing the core power of club competition, transfer, and business, was finally proved unsustainable. Born in PwC, Woodward gained the trust of the Greszer family for his business achievements, and then intervened in the dressing room, and had direct conflicts with coaches such as Van Gaal, Morinho and Solskjaer in terms of reinforcements and business activities, and for 9 years there has been controversy.
This time Woodward is completely out of the Europa League plan, does it mean that the Premier League's "big butler" era will gradually decline? Considering that Russia's strong women are still in power at the Blue Bridge, and Newcastle has Amanda Stavili at the helm of Amanda Stavioli, who has top connections in the Middle East, this conclusion may be premature.
Personal success or failure, irrelevant to power structures?
Looking at the Premier League, the "big butler" whose power is similar to Woodward's include Chelsea's Marina Granovskaya and Amanda Stavioli, who contributed to the Saudi royal family's successful acquisition of Newcastle United and thus gained a stake in the board of directors and also fully helmed the club's affairs. Both have accessible backgrounds, the former being Abramovich's personal secretary 20 years ago and joining the Chelsea board eight years ago, and the latter opening up the Middle East's high society circle with his close relationship with Prince Andrew, participating in the acquisition of Premier League giants by Abu Dhabi, Dubai and the Saudi royal family, and finally getting the coveted power in Newcastle.
It is worth mentioning that Granovskaya's "rule" at Chelsea is almost the same as Woodward's at Manchester United, but the Russian strong woman is significantly stronger and more successful. It was she who persuaded Abu to reconcile with Mourinho, and the madman returned to the Blue Bridge and regained the Premier League title, and then signed Conte to win the Premier League trophy. But when the two coaches openly challenged her authority, they were all fired at any cost. Later, Surrey and Lampard also felt the ruthlessness of the fighting nation.
Granovskaya's achievements in the field of business are not inferior to those of Woodward. In the transfer market, although chelsea's "female manager" also has Kepa, Morata, Bakayoko and other misses, but has a great success in clearing redundant staff. Eden Hazard, Diego Costa, Oscar, Nemanja Matic and Ramirez have been very successful in their transfer deals, especially Hazard, who are still suffering from Belgian superstars and Chelsea who enjoy hundreds of millions of euros in profits. She also single-handedly built the Blues' youth training system and became an important mediator between the dressing room and Abu.
Obviously, Abu's trust in Granovskaya is difficult to change in the short term, which means that at least in the Blue Bridge", the "big butler" model will continue for some time. The success or failure of the two "big butlers" of the Red Devils and Blues in almost the same period should be more about the difference in ability in the field of football than the problem caused by the power structure of the club.
Amanda or a weather vane for the future
Liverpool's Edwards and Manchester City's Berghirstein are not as powerful as Woodward and Granovskaya, while Tottenham's Levi, although equally powerful, is the second largest shareholder at the club and is the real boss, which is fundamentally different from the first 4 "people".
Although the Woodward model failed at United, Granovskaya's success at Chelsea gave the Saudi royal family confidence in giving Amanda Staveli full authority. Looking at Europe, there are cases of success and failure of such a "big butler" model, Magat's monopoly on power in Wolfsburg and then failure, and Cruyff's failure in Ajax. In Greater Paris, Helafi is more of a puppet of the Qatari royal family, which seems to be monopolized by power, but it is not irreplaceable.
Whether the "big boss" model will continue to create success stories in the Premier League, Newcastle United is an important weather vane. Amanda, who took 4 years of long negotiations to bring the Saudi royal family to power, certainly did not want the Magpie Army to be demoted in a bleak way. Signing Atletico full-back Trippier is just the first step in her ability to show her football operation and management skills, and if Newcastle can succeed in relegation, this summer will be the moment when she will shock the entire Premier League. Amanda has fallen behind in the new card coaching campaign and failed to make a head start, and the success or failure of the winter window reinforcements will be directly related to whether she can continue to gain the absolute trust of the Saudi royal family.
Personally, Amanda and Woodward are closer, both from business and finance circles, so it is more test of whether she has a unique vision of football. Whether the means are sharp or not.