There may be a new sheriff in town but, unfortunately for him, the posse he sends out to round up the wanted men is full of the same inexperience and clueless leadership as it was under the previous sheriff.

John Murtough, who is described as ‘Director of Football’, was promoted to this role based on previous experience of having coached the academies at Fulham, Everton and United which was followed by trying his hand at sports science!

Another strange promotion was that of Richard Arnold, a clone of Ed Woodward, who was put in overall charge when the hated Woodward finally fell on his sword.

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With the recent protests and pressure from fans around the world, the Glazer family were reported last week to be willing to sell a minority stake in the club. Amid this heated situation and the resulting developments, Joshua Raymond, Director at financial brokerage XTB, has provided some expert commentary on some key points regarding the situation:

What are the main reasons for the protests?

The protest itself is clearly designed to heap pressure on the Glazer family to sell the club and these protestors have been encouraged by rumours of a potential stake sale to US based hedge fund Apollo. It’s prudent to remember the last time we saw large scale protests that garnered mass media attention, the club was forced to pull out of the controversial European Super League. So, there is now form for this sort of tactic by fans, which will not help the stability around the club as long as bid rumours persist.

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Time. A flexible little word as in ‘what time is it?’ or ‘do we have time for that?’ or ‘the time has come, (the walrus said). Time, it is said, waits for no man. In today’s politically and gender correct sorry excuse for a world, we must also assume that time waits for no woman or change the expression to ‘time waits for no-one’.

Whatever, time certainly won’t wait for Eric ten Hag at Manchester United. If he were an ex-player who had been a very reliable substitute and had scored the winning goal in a Champion’s League final then, despite the fact that he was a terrible manager winning absolutely nothing, he could expect to be given at least three years.

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Ed Woodward and Richard Arnold met at Bristol university. They had a few things in common. They were both from Chelmsford in Essex. They were both destined to enter the banking business and neither of them had the first idea about football. With such credentials it was only natural that they would also both be employed by Manchester United.

After a time Woodward was promoted, well beyond his knowledge, when David Gill decided to leave Manchester United along with Sir Alex Ferguson. Instead of designating the important football roles like handling transfers in and out, negotiating contracts with players and hiring/firing managers, Woodward decided he was the best man for the job and would take care of these things himself.

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Well, not quite yet because, although Ed Woodward is stepping down from his role as CEO on February 1st, he is not due to leave the club until June.

This is obviously to ensure that his replacement, Richard Arnold, is well schooled in how to waste millions in the transfer market, employ a long list of managers with limited to zero success and totally fail to win either of the two major trophies coveted by the big clubs nowadays.

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Manchester United have a new manager. A time-served professional has been parachuted in to replace the failed apprentice who will now seek alternative employment. It could be a long seek unless he is prepared to drop down a division or two because, as has been shown time and again over the last three years, he just wasn’t up to the job at the highest level!

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Now that Ole’s underwhelming three years as United manager have, thankfully, finally been brought to a close the search is on for an interim manager.

It’s to be hoped this search is concluded very quickly as the alternative is quite frightening. On Tuesday night the team to play Villareal will be selected, as will the tactics & the substitutes, by the very ‘coaching’ staff who have done very little, if anything, to keep their former boss in a job.

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Roy Keane thinks that, if he’s not careful, Ole Gunnar Solskjær will be thrown under the bus by the players. Why does he say that? If he’s right then there are only really two reasons for this to happen.

The first is that the players don’t like Solskjær and want him gone. This is unlikely as the Norwegian comes across as a very likeable person which, in fact, is one of his problems.

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That is the question! And it is difficult to come up with an answer. Now, had the question been, ‘why did some love Solskjær as a player’? then that’s an easy one. He played for Manchester United and, although the majority of his time there was spent on the bench, he did manage to cement his place in the Old Trafford history books.

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He’s back. Picking up where he left off all those years ago before he succumbed to the lure of Real Madrid. By moving to the Spanish capital Cristiano Ronaldo really achieved two things. He played for the club of his dreams and he won the Champion’s League four times.

So why did he then leave and go to Juventus? Certainly not money, probably not ambition to win more trophies because that is still more likely at Madrid. Did he fall out with Florentino Pérez, the Madrid president? That is likely but also unlikely to be the sole reason to leave.

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