(Football news) It’s been nearly nine years since Ed Woodward took over the role of executive vice-chairman at Manchester United, but if you ask the question “What has he achieved during his tenure?” it would leave a lot of fans scratching their heads. His list of achievements is undoubtedly shorter than the number of things he has done wrong at Manchester United and one thing that will always stick out amongst his list of failures is the club not being able to win a single Premier League title during that time. It’s not a case of just missing out either as the club have not even mounted a credible title challenge despite £1 billion spent on transfers.

It all started with Woodward’s very first transfer window when he only managed to sign Marouane Fellaini from Everton even though the club was linked to Cesc Fabregas, Gareth Bale, Thiago Alcantara and Toni Kroos. The transfer window summed up his reputation of making poor recruitments throughout his time at the club. Moreover, while clubs such as Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea made better managerial appointments such as Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel, Manchester United, a club synonymous with long term strategy and stability before Woodward’s reign went through a number of managers, namely David Moyes, Ryan Giggs, Louis Van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and now Ralf Rangnick. 

The biggest struggle the club is facing at the moment is that despite the fact that £1 billion has been spent on transfers, Manchester United have nothing to show for it as they have lacked a clear long term strategy and are miles behind their rivals in the Premier League. The club is filled with overpaid, substandard players who are difficult to sell because of their wages and are not good enough to help the club get back to its glory days. To make matters worse, Woodward played an integral role in the club’s involvement in the Super League debacle and the 50 year old went from being an incompetent vice chairman to a downright villian in the eyes of many fans. 

Woodward also once made the infamous statement “playing performance doesn't really have a meaningful impact on what we can do on the commercial side of the business” which fittingly sums up his tenure at Manchester United. It would be fair to say that Manchester United have done well commercially despite their failure on the pitch with Woodward responsible for generating sufficient funds which has led to the number of failed transfers the club were able to make, despite no investment from the owners. Many fans struggle with the idea that Manchester United under Woodward’s reign is a ‘brand’ first and a ‘sporting entity’ second, despite what the man himself might say and if Richard Arnold doesn’t change that strategy, the club will continue to underperform on the pitch.

Also read: Manchester United appoint Richard Arnold as new Chief Executive