Man Utd chief Ed Woodward privately laughs off Gary Neville criticism of his job (Image: Getty)
Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward is said to privately laugh off Gary Neville’s criticism of his job. Woodward succeeded David Gill in 2013, tasked with heralding the club into a new era post-Sir Alex Ferguson.
But the former accountant, handed the top job by the Glazer family (whose leveraged buyout of the club in 2005 was largely helped by Woodward) has ultimately failed in his bid to keep United thriving on the pitch.
For all of the club’s commercial success off the field, an outlay of £840million on transfers under Woodward’s watch has returned just an FA Cup, Europa League and League Cup in six-and-a-half years.
Woodward has been heavily criticised for his chief role in recruitment by many club icons, none more so than Neville.
The former United captain has long bemoaned the Red Devils’ front-office set-up and, last May, boldly urged Woodward to be shifted from his position to a strictly commercial-based role at the club, after it emerged that the 48-year-old had been vetting former players such as Darren Fletcher and Rio Ferdinand to assume a long-awaited sporting director role at the club.
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The bubbling vitriol towards Woodward and the Glazers mounted in United supporters singing obscenities about them last weekend during a 4-0 home win over Norwich.
But, according to The Athletic, Woodward privately laughs off calls from Neville for him to be relieved of his current duties.
The Essex-born businessman is said to believe that “when the team is doing well, the manager gets the praise; when the team is doing badly, the board gets the blame”.
Neville has continued to berate United’s structure this season but his strongest sermon about the club remains that one eight months ago.
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"I’ll be honest with you. I think what they should do to start with is shift the people that are in charge of the club back to the business side of club and back down to London," Neville told Sky Sports.
"I think they should put a new football department in that are best in class, not have played at the club before, or have played 200 games before, or have been at the club 15 years, or have been a fan, the best in class football operators.
"They’ve got three here [at Man City] by the way, not none, three. And basically underneath that put the right recruitment people, the right technical people, then the manager and the coach will find it a lot easier.
“Then you get the right spirit in the dressing room. The right group of people in the dressing room.
Ed Woodward talks to David Gill and Sir Alex Ferguson in the stands (Image: Getty)