Manchester United’s caution on the pitch reflects the club’s corporate culture | Jonathan Liew


The team’s sense of tactical trepidation is a product of the decisions made by the Glazers and Ed Woodward

According to reports, the high‑powered meeting between Boris Johnson and Ed Woodward at 10 Downing Street earlier this month was actually a chance encounter that occurred when the two men stumbled across each other in a corridor. Instinctively, this feels about right. After all, these are two men for whom stumbling has been their defining professional technique: over decisions and into positions of immense and unanswerable influence.

Who knows what was discussed? Perhaps the prime minister and the Manchester United executive vice-chairman bonded over their apparent shared indifference towards football, and the strain of having to feign otherwise. One thing we are told was certainly not on the agenda was the European Super League, which was in its late stages of gestation. Downing Street insists the prime minister was completely oblivious to the whole thing, which – given it basically took him two months to grasp the existence of a deadly pandemic – feels weirdly plausible.

Related: Maguire takes out frustration on Fred in Manchester United’s draw at Leeds

The United product is cautious, risk-averse, football played with a sense of trepidation

Continue reading...