With nearly half of the Premier League left this season, Manchester City is at the top of the list with a wave of 11 consecutive wins, and Manchester United, which has always regarded Manchester City as a noisy neighbor, has made a "chicken feather" in the situation that the two elements of legendary return and DNA rise are incompatible.
The 22 league points gap is enough to prove that the two teams are currently at very different levels. Some fans may say that Manchester United has 2 fewer matches, and the real gap is not so big. But if you know about the last 11 league rounds, Manchester City has maintained an average of 3 goals per game and conceded only 0.64 goals, and Manchester United have struggled against the top 4 teams, even on the relegation team. It is believed that with the advancement of the schedule, the gap of 22 points will develop towards further widening, rather than gradually narrowing.
In the face of louder and more persistent noise from "neighbours", Manchester United clearly did not sit idly by. In the competition of the reinforcement market, Sanchez, Fred, C Ronaldo and other players who were "favored" by Manchester City were eventually recruited by Manchester United, and even Sancho from the Manchester City youth training, Manchester United also exerted the momentum of not giving up.
The arrogance in the transfer market makes the Glazer family and Woodward still immersed in the rich heritage. In their eyes, noisy "neighbors" are nothing more than upstarts with bad luck, and without the support of the gold lord Mansour, they will soon become a thing of the past.
Especially in the business operation of the club, even if Manchester United has not lifted the Champions League and Premier League trophies for 9 years, it still cannot hinder the club's commercial success, which also makes Woodward happy in major reinforcements and changes of manager.
With more than £1 billion in transfer expenses and the frequent in-and-out of 6 managers, Woodward keeps repeating that there is no championship, the big stars come together, the big stars have no effect, then change the coach's strange circle. This kind of operation seems to be the same as the operation of traffic stars. It doesn't matter whether there is a work that can be handed, as long as the gossip is eye-catching enough, it can also bring great commercial value with high traffic.
To some extent, it masks the problems at the competitive level of Manchester United. Because whenever the fans are disappointed by the team's results, a large-scale reinforcement and a change of manager will immediately rekindle the hope of the fans.
As a result, during Woodward's tenure as CEO of Manchester United, even though United's record was not recognized by Red Devils fans, Woodward was always recognized by the Glazer family in terms of commercial value. This is evident from the fact that manchester United has rotated almost all important positions in the past nine years, except for Woodward sitting on the Diaoyutai.
Half a month later, Woodward is about to step down as CEO of Manchester United, and the outside world has mixed praise for Woodward. For the club owner, Woodward's outstanding ability to attract money is commendable, but for fans, it is hoped that the Woodward era will end soon.
However, with the release of the annual reports of major European clubs, Red Devils fans may be surprised to find a "bad" phenomenon. That is, Manchester United is not only being pulled bigger and bigger by Manchester City in terms of team performance, but also showing a trend of being surpassed by Manchester City in terms of commercial value.
According to the professional media "The Athletic", Manchester City's total revenue last season reached 644 million euros, 87 million euros higher than Manchester United's 557 million euros, which is almost the same as Maguire's record-breaking transfer from Leicester City to Manchester United in 2019. That is to say, Manchester City can earn one more "Maguire" than Manchester United in a single season.
If it is the total revenue alone, some fans may stand up and question the role of the Mansour consortium in it, but in KPMG's "2022 European Championship Report", 336 million of Manchester City's total revenue came from the broadcast of the game, which also made Manchester City the only team in Europe to achieve revenue growth last season.
This means that under the benign operation in recent years, Manchester City's championship competition is no longer completely dependent on the blood transfusion of the consortium behind it, but gradually enters the long-term operation mode of self-sufficiency. Manchester United, on the other hand, showed a tendency to lose to Manchester City in an all-round way under the reverse operation of the commercial value of the team's construction service.
This season, whether it is the return of Ronaldo or the dismissal of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, it seems that Woodward's tenure is the epitome of his time. With the value of cr7, Woodward once again achieved the club's commercial success, and the dismissal of Solskjaer put United at the crossroads of revival again.