Louis van Gaal is finally gone. After two years of boring, monotonous, sideways-backwards and sleep inducing football, he has finally been invited to do one to his villa in Portugal where he can send his family to sleep with tales of his tactical brilliance whilst managing to win one trophy during his time at Old Trafford.
Has fanpower finally managed to dethrone the king? It is highly unlikely that this was the main reason, although it will have come into the thought process. In fairness, if the fans had managed to get their way then van Gaal would have been gone before Christmas.
United have made exactly the same mistake with van Gaal as they did with Moyes which was leaving him in charge until it was mathematically impossible to qualify for the Champion’s League. In both instances a replacement should have been given the opportunity much earlier.
It is hard to understand why both managers were given as long as they were when both tenures ended in relative failure and that outcome was an obvious one from very early in both campaigns.
The only reasonable conclusion, (which is actually very unreasonable), is that Ed Woodward didn’t want to have to fire managers so soon after hiring them. This, apparently, would do nothing for his credibility with the Glazers, (who have a track record in firing coaches second to none in the USA), and would make it appear as though he maybe wasn’t the right man for the football side of the job. The fact that he most certainly ISN’T the right man for the football side of the job does not seem to have occurred to either him or the Glazer family.
Ed, as has been mentioned before, is notorious for dithering and needs to be replaced with someone who can make decisions on problems, preferably in the same year as the problem arises.
The fans don’t appear to have been consulted in the apointment of the next manager either although the majority seem to be of the opinion that, as long as it isn’t van Gaal, they don’t really care.
So fanpower hasn’t exactly removed either van Gaal or Moyes, it hasn’t resulted in the appointment of a Director of Football and it hasn’t resulted in either of the aforementioned managers changing their style of play. In fact fanpower, to somebody like Ed Woodward, appears to be taken as more of a challenge than something he should listen to. This is another of his failings. Obstinacy is fine when it is for a good cause, when it works against the club and it’s fans, then it is not so fine.
Had Woodward listened to the fans then United may well be enjoying the prospect of Champion’s League football next season, rather than the Europa League. The Old Trafford bank account would be swelling at a much faster rate and maybe some star name players would be more inclined to join Manchester United with the promise of top European football. As it is, Woodward was too worried about the perception of him by the Glazers and this has ended up costing the club millions, (yet again)!
What he hasn’t quite worked out yet is that millionaires such as the Glazers tend to remain that way due to careful control of the financial side of things. Ed can spend the rest of his life telling them how much he brings in through sponsorship but people like the Glazers will pay far more attention to money that they perceive to be wasted on manager pay-outs and failed transfers and this is what will ultimately decide Woodward’s fate.
So Jose Mourinho will arrive in town. Not quite the white hat and white horse type, more black for both entities, but he will bring excitement back to Old Trafford. Is he there because the fans want him? Not necessarily, he is there because the fans didn’t want van Gaal and eventually, neither did Ed Woodward.
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 