An oddly timed tribute to Manchester United CEO Richard Arnold appeared in The Telegraph today.
Arnold took over the reins of Britain’s biggest club last year from the unpopular Ed Woodward, who resigned after the European Super League fiasco.
Having been secretly recorded at an impromptu meeting with fans at a pub near his home a few months ago, Arnold has largely escaped the animosity his predecessor drew.
One of the things in favor of Glazer that Arnold said in that pub chat was that money was never an issue and the club would buy any player the manager wanted.
As sincere as that statement seemed at the time, it has not been borne out by subsequent events, as United have consistently been outplayed on many targets and/or failed to amass enough cash for others.
This mismatch between Arnold’s promise and reality has never been more apparent than in the current transfer window, in which there is no money available for transfers.
United fans’ anger at the club’s owners is rising to another crescendo as they see their rivals get stronger while an already thin Red Devils squad has lost three players – Cristiano Ronaldo, Donny van de Beek and now, Christian Eriksen, and only Wout Weghorst. he has been brought on loan.
So, on the day the window closes and news of Eriksen’s extended absence is announced, it seems serendipitous to find praise for the astute CEO gracing the pages of a trusted newspaper like The Tele.
A cynical fan could be forgiven for suspecting that he might have called in a favor, or oiled his hands, to put out such pro-Arnold rhetoric on the day they are most likely to see him ridiculed and held to account by hostile supporters.
The article talks about how Arnold has introduced a “no d-heads” policy at Old Trafford, getting rid of players who think they are bigger than the club. Translation: You can thank Richard Arnold for getting rid of Paul Pogba and Cristiano Ronaldo. What a hero!
Then we have an “insider” who says that unlike Woodward, Arnold never gets involved in football decisions but simply attends meetings because he “wanted to make sure he understood why they were being made.” what a boy
The article says that it was Arnold who went to the Glazers “to ask the club’s owners to significantly loosen the bag strings” to sign Casemiro. “Richard exercised just the right level of responsibility,” writes the normally impartial James Ducker.
We then got an explanation of how “He was instrumental in convincing the Glazers to allow United to spend around £75m more than they had budgeted for last summer; but he is also a man of principle.
“Extra money was thrown away on the understanding that there would be little or nothing to spend this month.”
And because this so-called “alpha male” is so principled, he couldn’t go back on his word to the Glazers, so he defused tensions on both sides by calmly pointing the finger at Ten Hag, who was “privately seeking more funding to sign Dutch striker Cody Gakpo”, that a deal is a deal.
“He’s pretty good at managing those tensions,” another source said.
He is then given credit in the article for “shifting power” from the club’s offices in Mayfair to Manchester.
It has also facilitated “the empowerment of key department heads, particularly those running the game,” says Ducker.
“Murtough, Ten Hag and their teams now have autonomy to dictate football matters, free from the influence of a small gang of corporate financiers, and the results have been clear for all to see, on and off the pitch.”
Ah, so United’s success on the pitch so far is down to Richard Arnold, not Erik ten Hag. Or so the article seems to tell us.
We are then told that he was never Woodward’s partner, that he is not a friend of his, and that he is not the “nasty” character that he appears to be.
“Numerous United staff have commented … on how he always listens, has a genuine open door policy and ‘will take off his mickey or put up his hands when he messes up.'”
After several lines about what a nice guy he is, Ducker explains how “Arnold, who refused to be interviewed for this article…”
… Modest too then…
“- has reopened channels of communication with Sir Alex Ferguson and former club chief executive David Gill and enjoys a strong relationship with both.”
But as if all that wasn’t enough, the news comes that our intrepid CEO was “influential” in the Glazers’ decision not to accept their most recent dividend payout, resulting in a $20 “club reinvestment.” million pounds sterling.
The article is reminiscent of one published by The Sun reporter Neil Custis about Woodward coming under pressure during the January 2020 transfer window.
Perhaps Ducker is genuinely impressed with Arnold and wants to write something positive precisely because he’s now in the line of fire. But fans are likely to be unimpressed by what sounds like political rhetoric, and if Woodward’s experience is anything to go by, this type of article will annoy them more, not less.
At the time of writing, United are reportedly making a last-minute push to sign Marcel Sabitzer from Bayern Munich and if that succeeds, the pressure will be off Arnold in any case. But the fact that this article was published this morning in the first place is certainly an indication that someone, somewhere thought some positive PR for the CEO was an urgent need.
