Six Years Of Ed - Part 3
Woodward: Lack Of Integrity, Lack Of Credibility...
Van Gaal was undoubtedly the best option available at the time, coming in straight off the back of a very respectable World Cup campaign in charge of Holland, where they reached the semi-finals. But at sixty-two years of age he hardly represented the solid foundation of a long-term managerial strategy. Not only that, but the World Cup delayed his appointment, meaning that in his first season in charge he had a short pre-season to affect his style of play onto the squad. Not to mention that, for the second time in less than a year, the entire backroom team at United was changed, along with the style of play.
Failure to strengthen the squad sufficiently during Moyes’ first window in charge meant that United were already playing catch-up when Van Gaal was appointed. Whereas we should have really been celebrating another league win, or coming close to that, we were now chasing just to get back to the position we should have been in immediately before the appointment of Moyes.
Ed backed Van Gaal with a transfer war chest. The initial outlay of one hundred and fifty million pounds – including breaking a British transfer record to sign Angel Di Maria – prompted him to comment in July 2014:
“We can do things in the transfer window that other clubs can only dream of. Watch this space.”
Remarks like this meant that clearly Plan B was “buy our way out of trouble” – a depressingly predictable approach from a man who probably got picked last for football in PE, but who was quite good at algebra. Space was watched, and it eventually revealed that Di Maria was a coward, Shaw was fat, Rojo had awful tattoos and Falcao was incredibly disappointing. Ed was right though – most clubs probably do dream of having so much money that they can throw it away on six players without any hugely noticeable improvement to the squad.
Van Gaal finished fourth in his first season. It was considered a disappointment, but an improvement on seventh in the previous season indicated that now the ship was at least starting to point in the right direction again. Van Gaal had previously commented that it was going to take three years before his still newly-assembled squad would start to achieve its potential. He knew that the rebuild job at United was huge, and that it had been exacerbated by the walkout of our more senior players, not to mention the longstanding failure to replace key figures in the midfield such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Roy Keane – issues that really should have been sorted in Moyes’ first transfer window.
In his second season – a season preceded by yet more heavy and largely ineffectual spending, and typified by a poor run of form that saw United get dumped out of the Champion’s League and into the Europa – the tabloid press was full of stories about how he dressing room had been lost, pointing to a particularly incendiary incident involving Marcus Rashford as being the catalyst. As Moyes had discovered in his limited tenure, player power at United was a force to be reckoned with without the disciplinarian tactics and fear factor of Alex Ferguson looming large. Van Gaal was rumoured to have offered his resignation, only to have it rejected by Woodward.
The season ended with an FA Cup win, United’s first (and to date biggest) competition win since Ferguson’s retirement, and a huge upswing after what had been a challenging second season. For the first time in three years, we had a platform to build from.
Van Gaal and his backroom staff were sacked two days later, despite Woodward's denials that Van Gaal's job was at risk. Woodward's handling of Van Gaal's sacking not only demonstrated Woodward's lack of integrity, it also cost the club more than if he had been up front with Van Gaal:
"They told me only after it was leaked out and it was the biggest disappointment of my life. United did not discuss this with me. If they had come to me with the Mourinho plan then I could have said 'okay, let's give it everything for the last six months, complete commitment to each other and the team and then Jose Mourinho can take over.'"
"They could have saved the last year of my salary by doing that but after what happened I made them pay every penny."
Woodward's early quote on Van Gaal in July 2014 was also proven to be erroneous in hindsight.
"He's got incredible energy and very importantly he likes attacking football,".
United's football under Van Gaal was some of the dullest since the years of Dave Sexton. The old Scoreboard End went almost half a season without seeing a goal scored at their end of the ground.
In summary, Woodward demonstrated poor judgement in hiring Van Gaal, and was dishonest with Van Gaal which then cost the club more money when terminating his contract.
Jose Mourinho was appointed as his replacement and - for the third time since Ferguson’s retirement three years earlier - the squad had to adapt to another entirely new style of play under their fourth new manager
