Manchester United as a club have made a mockery of themselves with how they handled proceedings post the FA cup victory. On 22 May 2016, almost simultaneously, reports appeared in many British newspapers, talking about Louis Van Gaal's poor management style that supposedly took United players on the verge of mutiny, among other things. One gets the sense that these articles were a systematic leak from somebody at United or from Jose's camp, completely disrespecting the outgoing manager.
It felt like it was an attempt to justify or counter the bad press the club received due to the earlier leaking of Mourinho's appointment, even before Van Gaal could attend the post-match press conference. Stating a calculated guess here rather than a fact: Considering how the players responded to Van Gaal’s low moments by winning and putting in a performance every time it felt like he would be sacked, I am sure the players felt a lot of love for the man.
And if not love, there was respect, 100%, from quite a few of them. Van Gaal has now been sacked but Ed Woodward needs to go before he turns United into a laughing stock and destroys the brand image of the club.
Also read: How Louis van Gaal's reign at Manchester United compares to his tenure at other clubs
As we discuss Van Gaal’s departure, Jose prepares to come in, and be rest assured, there will be a big reshuffling of players. I see for certain, a lot of players going out and new ones coming in. Jose, most likely, will then leave in 3-4 years time, leaving United with a need for another rebuilding. United that way, are well on the path of repeating the Liverpool story. Wouldn't surprise me one bit if that happens.
Ed Woodward more important to the club
But what is more worrying for me as a fan of United is the permanent damage Woodward is causing to the club brand, season after season. It all started with the handling of David Moyes’ sacking two years ago. The man had to hear of his sacking from his ‘friends in the media’, rather than the club management.
Woodward could be forgiven for that, considering he was fairly new into the job. This was followed by the David de Gea transfer-deadline day fiasco that led to United receiving a lot of negative press and a whole hoard of accusations from Real Madrid.
But what happened in the aftermath of the FA Cup victory two days ago has left a bad taste in a lot of United fans’ mouths. As things stand, the world has the information that Jose Mourinho will be the new manager and Van Gaal has been sacked, but there was no official statement from the club till about 5 pm British Time, on 23 May 2016. Even the excuse that it was important to delay the announcement while the NYSE opened for the day wasn’t a valid one.
The Glazers are in love with Woodward, the business man, so I see little chance of the Englishman being shown the door. After all, he has secured deal upon deal for Manchester United that has led to the club securing record revenues.
And that is indeed very creditable. However, the manner in which he has handled other club operations do raise a lot of question marks on his ability as executive vice-chairman. This fact also raises the topic of having a ‘Director of Football’ at Manchester United but we’ll tackle that issue elsewhere.
Also read: Louis van Gaal's tactics left Manchester United players on the verge of mutiny
The only thing that remains to be seen now is how much more damage he can cause, before the board members and the owners decide to intervene. And in all this, the completely thankless nature of fans and their complete lack of support for Van Gaal tells me that the fans of Man United need to take a good hard look at themselves and their conduct during the course of this season.
Any kind of goodbye message now on the website or social media by the club can't make up for the damage they've caused to Van Gaal, and this after they meted out a similar treatment to Moyes two years ago. Manchester United is supposed to be a classy club, it has always been that.
That is the reason why people in the 60s loved United as their second club, if not the first. Over the last two days, the club I love with all my heart, has left me ashamed with its behaviour. Whether Van Gaal deserved to go or not is hardly the point of debate now, the ‘process’ followed by the club however certainly needs to be looked at.
