MANCHESTER UNITED fans might be happy to wave goodbye to Ed Woodward.
But the people who count at Old Trafford will not be celebrating his departure.
For club owners the Glazers, what really matters is the bottom line.
Cold, hard cash. And Woodward has delivered for them, all the way back to his part as a banker with JP Morgan, who engineered their leveraged buy-out in 2005.
That valued the club at £800million. Now it is worth TRIPLE that, a mighty £2.4BILLION.
Forget the scorn that was directed at the Red Devils for their “noodle partner”, social media obsession and fascination with the Far East.
As far as the Glazers were concerned, Essex boy Woodward, 50, absolutely delivered.
Yes, the club has piled up debt, although that now stands at £419m, down £50m in a year.
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And the regular dividend payments — with the latest one to shareholders totalling £11m due today — have helped keep the Glazers sweet.
Appointed to head the club’s commercial and media unit in 2007, Woodward scoured the globe for sponsors, more than doubling commercial revenue by 2012, when he was executive vice-chairman.
When chief exec David Gill stepped down — at the same time as Sir Alex Ferguson retired — the following year, it was Woodward who became the top dog.
Commercially, if not on the pitch, the last eight seasons have been a triumph. Sponsorship, retail, merchandising and licensing earned United £130m in 2013.
By 2020, the last commercial year pre-pandemic, that figure was £279m.
Last year it was still £232m despite a season behind closed doors.
And remember that £800m valuation in 2005? Well, United have a market capitalisation — the number of shares multiplied by their price — of just under £2.4bn. Job done.
Well worth the £21m in salary Woodward has bagged since taking over from Gill in 2013? That’s for others to decide.
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