The time bomb of Ed Woodward at Manchester United

It is, and must be, finally a decisive step for Ed Woodward at Old Trafford. Here is the story of the response of two clubs to a bad season 2018-19: Real Madrid has completed its fifth summer season, adding that of Ferland Mendy to those of Hazard, Jovic, Militão and Rodrygo. They will probably add to this total with Pogba or Eriksen, maybe both and perhaps others, if they can sell players to balance the accounts. They especially want to sell the world-clbad Gareth Bale, but Bale does not want to leave. Offers such as Varane and Kroos have flocked, but they do not want to leave. Captain Sergio Ramos was tempted by a lucrative offer to go to China, but los Merengues pbaded him by the arm and two days later he pledged to pursue a career at Bernabeu.

Meanwhile, Manchester United has signed only one session: Daniel James. An offer of 50 million pounds may have been accepted for Wan-Bissaka, which is evaluated by its seller club at 50 million pounds. A transaction does not seem close, even if the current initial offer is not enough. Herrera and Valencia are already gone, Mata can leave freely, De Gea refuses to sign a new contract, Pogba has publicly declared that he wanted to leave and Lukaku had more or less done the same. The club seems unable to hear about the prices to move the players on it no longer wants, such as Alexis, Rojo and Darmian. At the same time, new contracts were awarded to Smalling, Jones and Young, three of the worst defensemen in Manchester United history, while Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford are working to ridicule themselves on social media.

This is Woodward's seventh summer transfer office in charge of recruitment and, as it stands, is about to become the worst of a very bad group. The first disastrous window, where only Fellaini had been bought – at a price higher than that of the redemption clause expired a few days earlier – could have been attributed to inexperience and / or lack of communication with the new director, David Moyes. But we are now at number seven.

In those seven years, Woodward could have appointed a football director to handle the transfers and the contracts, but he did not do it, convinced he could do a better job himself. During those seven years, he could have delegated more powers to the manager to make decisions, but he insisted on maintaining a heavy decision-making structure by committee in which too many cooks constantly spoil the broth and that the chef – Woodward does not understand the game well enough to be able to vote properly and implement the compromise decisions that have been made.

To a certain extent, Woodward came out for seven years by signing big names that excite fans and sell jerseys, such as Pogba, Falcao and Di Maria, and realizing what appeared to be beating strokes. Astute state, like Mata, Lukaku and Sanchez (two of these dedications of January). But with the exception of Mata, all the answers above have, to a greater or lesser extent, been failures. In the meantime, far too many other targets have escaped and far too many Summers have been spent chasing lost causes – the Bales, Fabregas, Ramos and who could forget Pedro's fiasco?

I've always tried to be fair in judging Woodward but I'm running out of excuses for him. Louis Van Gaal's recent interview and José Mourinho's veiled and barbaric comments confirm what we've all been sure from the beginning: Woodward has undermined them, lied to them, and has contributed greatly to the lack of success since Sir Alex's departure Ferguson.

So, that's enough.

Woodward has about 50 days before the start of the season to remedy this catastrophic situation. If he fails to replace Ligt / Koulibaly, Wan-Bissaka, Ferndandes and Ndombele and replaces Pogba, De Gea and Lukaku by players of a similar level they leave, it is time that fans get up counted. Every day, Manchester United fans, forums, blogs, blogs and fan sites need to be protested, petitioned and pressured until Woodward is eliminated from all is not reserved for the commercial side of the club. This is not a clock, this time, Mr. Woodward, it's a ticking time bomb.