It is somewhat apt that the man Real Madrid are negotiating with for the signing of David de Gea, the man helping send revenues at Manchester United into the stratosphere, is a graduate in physics. That man is Gareth Edward Woodward (born in Chelmsford in 1973), the executive vice-chairman at Old Trafford and a tough nut to crack. “He is the Cristiano Ronaldo of the commercial area in football,” David Haigh (head of consultancy at Brand Finance) told the Manchester Evening News recently.
Despite studying the laws of physics, Woodward styled his career in the world of finance. He worked as a consultant at JP Morgan, where he advised the Glazer brothers, Joel and Avram, in their purchase of Manchester United. They took him with them to the club in 2005 when he was only 32 and in 2013, after David Gill left United, the Glazer’s handed the baton over to Woodward and that helped to further strengthen his reputation as a man who works magic in the art of negotiating. Under his control, he has helped to oversee two of the most lucrative deals in the history of sport. He sold shirt sponsorship to Cheverolet for €71.5 million per season and managed to get Adidas to pay €1,050 million over ten seasons. He even managed to restore the economic setback suffered when United missed out on the Champions League in the 2013-14 season (television revenue and ticket revenue dropped 39 per cent as a result). His work has allowed the club to resist attempts for some world brands to change the name of Old Trafford. In exchange for all of this, Woodward is the best paid executive in the Premier League, earning €3.5 million per year.
Transfers everywhere.
Now in charge of approving and negotiating transfers at the club, Woodward has convinced Glazer (accused of being stingy by some United fans) to put his hands in his pockets. In the summer of 2013 United were criticised for only bringing Marouane Fellaini to the club but last year United spent €217 million on six new players: Di María (from Real Madrid for €75 million), Falcao, Shaw, Ander Herrera, Blind and Rojo. Now United will go down a similar road this summer. The English club have already signed Memphis Depay from PSV for €39 million and on top of looking at Sergio Ramos they also have Bastian Schweinsteiger and Thomas Müller on their radar. Woodward believes United need to be a dominant club in the transfer market. For that reasons and because of no financial burdens, United are refusing to let De Gea go, despite his contract ending in 2016, unless they get Ramos…