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Ed Woodward resigns | 'Live by the sword, die by the sword'

As Ed Woodward's departure from Manchester United was confirmed by the club, United We Stand edit...



Soccer

Ed Woodward resigns | 'Live by the sword, die by the sword'


As Ed Woodward's departure from Manchester United was confirmed by the club, United We Stand editor Andy Mitten joined us to discuss a frenzied day across football.

As reports emerged that both Andrea Agnelli at Juventus and Florentino Perez at Real Madrid are under severe pressure, Woodward was the first executive to fall.

Ed Woodward resigns

"If anything, they have got experience in frenzied reaction," Mitten said of the Glazers' response to the backlash.

"They rode out the sustained storm in 2005 when they took over Manchester United. In 2010, when there were the Green and Gold protests, they appeared to pay scant regard to that.

"Clearly, it is ruffling feathers - Ed Woodward is going to be departing after seven years as United's leading suit. I mean, he wears a suit, but he doesn't wear the trousers. Joel Glazer wears the trousers, he is the man overseeing things on a day-to-day basis from Florida or Washington.

"Both have become deeply unpopular with Manchester United fans. I remember interviewing Ed Woodward a couple of years ago and I would do exactly the same with the guy who follows him.

"There was fury - 'why are you even speaking to him?' - and I thought, what do you want me to do? Just interview people you like?"

Reaping what he sowed?

Mitten believes that Woodward, an incredibly unpopular figure at Old Trafford, is reaping what was sowed.

"He's lived on the sword, and he's died on the sword. That is how I read it, that it comes out tonight within minutes of other clubs pulling out of what is looking like a failing project.

"It's not coincidental, is it?"

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