Ed Woodward is being replaced by the lite version.
Don’t expect too much change at Manchester United as Sky Sports report Richard Arnold will step forward as CEO, with Woodward set to leave his current role on December 31.
Woodward is expected to stay on in a consultancy role in for the foreseeable future. He may still be of use to the Glazers whenever the club needs a new noodle sponsor.
Like Woodward, Arnold won’t bring anything to the table when it comes to football matters, so hopefully he will leave that to other people within the club.
Arnold was buzzing about United signing Odion Ighalo because of how the news out-trended Donald Trump and Brexit, as per iNews, and now he will become the first person to hold the CEO title at Old Trafford since David Gill stepped down in 2013.
Of course, Arnold has been working at United for almost 15 years and has been responsible for the commercial operations at the club, including media relationships, merchandising, sponsorship, marketing and sales.
It will be interesting to see how Arnold copes with his new role because in the past, I don’t think he has given the best account of himself in the media.
Here are two embarrassing quotes from our friend Arnold that he would like everyone to forget…
May 29th, 2012 (via Guardian): “This year, we finished our season in first place and City finished winning on goal difference.”
June 6th, 2012 (via Independent): “We are reliant on 25 players and they are all massive stars. We have 25 George Clooneys.”
The only way this can work is if Arnold opens the door for Rangnick to have a greater impact from his consultancy role.
We’ll be following Arnold closely.
